Introduction
Technological advancements have been sweeping across different facets of the economy like bush fire. The education sector has not been left behind in the adoption and application of technology to streamline their processes. Several universities across the globe have taken a paradigm shift from the traditional manual records management to the digital records management (Alavi & Leidner, 1999). In this paper, we are going to propose a comprehensive University database used for data storage, extraction, and processing.
It is assumed that the University is currently using a manual paper-based records management system
It is assumed that the University already has sufficient infrastructure where the database will be installed.
It is assumed that the University staff are computer literate and have the required skills to operate the database.
A student can be enrolled for only one course
Proposed Tables
Below is a list of tables that will be contained in the database.
Course_code
Course_title
Department_code
Course_credits
Student_id
Department_code
Department_code
Department_Name
Prerequisite
Course_code
Course_requires
Enrollment
Student_id
Department_code
Grade_code
Instructor_id
Instructor_firstname
Instructor_lastname
Department_code
Entity Relationship Model (ERM)
Source: Author (2017)
One to many
There is a one-to-many relationship between the instructors and courses.
One-to-one
One-to-one relationship exist between a student and a course. One student can take one course any given time.
Business Intelligence Reports
Business intelligence refers to the application of technology for data analysis and presentation with a view of helping the managers and executives make critical decisions. Business intelligence comprises a number of applications, techniques, and tools that allow organizations to collect data from both the internal as well as the external sources, present it for analysis, execute queries against the data, and create reports that can be used by the executive managers for decision making (Rouse, 2014). Below are some of the business intelligence reports that could be used with this database
Registered Students Report
This report will display the number of registered students along with the courses for which they are registered for. Before a student completes registration for a course, their status in the system remains as “pending, ” and their records are held in the pending list. Once the registration process is complete, the student is moved to the registered student's list and the status changed to “registered.” This report can be extracted to help the management have an overview of the students who have registered and plan accordingly in terms of accommodation and other facilities. Since the university will have a capacity of students that they can handle at any given time, the report will help the University monitor the enrollment so that they don’t exceed their capacity.
The university will need a report about the courses that are being offered. Each course has a prescribed number of students who can be enrolled at any particular time, and that is where this report will come in handy. The report will present in a dashboard the number of students registered per course and indicate the remaining slots to be filled. This will enable the management to make decisions on whether to continue enrolling students for a particular course or whether to free any new registrations on the particular course. This report will also be used to make decisions regarding class venues and timetabling. Courses with a large number of enrollments most definitely will be allocated larger venues that course with a fewer number of students. Moreover, the course management report will also be critical for instructor allocation. Classes that are excessively large can have more than one instructor handling the course.
Historical tracking Report
During course period, the management needs a way to keep tabs on the performance of the students. The historical tracking report is used for this purpose. This report can be used to project how a student has been performing since their first semester in the University. The performance history of the students can be used make decisions on whether to allocate mentor for the student or not. Students who have shown a decline in their performance will be enrolled in a mentorship program with a view of boosting their performance. Moreover, this report can also be used to track the trends in course enrollment over a period of time.
Payment Report
The students are required to make payment for the courses they are pursuing before they can be allowed to join classes formally. The payment report is used to track students who have not paid the tuition fees for the courses they are have enrolled for. The report is used by the finance department to make critical budgeting decisions.
#1 STARS Campus Solutions
This software is a cloud-based university management solution that enables the institutions to manage their operational data. Using the product, the whole student lifecycle is easily managed without major hustles, beginning from the management of leads up to placements (Guinn, 2016). The system has integrated features such as lead management and reporting and tracks a student through the initial contact to enrollment. Some of the additional features of the system include text messaging, mass emails, email tracker and shared calendars. Other features include attendance tracking, document management, and student identification card tracking.
It is compatible with several devices and can be seamlessly integrated with other web-based solutions such as Google calendars, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), outlook calendars and Customer relationship management (CRM).
The lite version is charged at $199 monthly while pricing for the premier version varies and requires payment for the active students only.
#2 PowerVista RollCall
This is a campus management system that fulfills the needs of non-k-12 institutions. Majorly, it targets the adult learning institutions and can be applied in the 360 degrees management of a student life cycle (Guinn, 2016). The solution can be provisioned in two models namely: through the web or on-premise. The web portals are accessible to students, professors, advisors, administration staff and other stakeholders within the campus. Some of the information that is captured by this solution include tuition payments, attendance, student performance, emergency contacts student’s photo IDs, and other crucial student details.
Additional features of the solution include admissions, curriculum management, calendar management, degree tracking and financial management. The users are given access to the different system modules depending on their roles. Moreover, the solution is easy to integrate with other third party applications such as QuickBooks and Moodle. The system is available in two major editions namely the Standard edition and the Enterprise Edition which are charged at a flat price without extra charges. The standard edition, for instance, is charged at a flat price of $4,000.
# 3 SchoolBrains Software
SchoolBrains provides an array of modules for the management of both student and personnel records. It is a web-based system focusing majorly on K-12 schools and delivers vital information about students, instructors, classrooms and schools through a single dashboard.
Some of the major features of this system include admissions management, grade book, education plans, and curriculum mapping (Guinn, 2016). Additional features include an alert system that aids in the improvement of emergency response time and correspondence with staff, students and parents via email, voice, and text messaging. The nursing and health modules of the application stores health information of students and personnel.
Recommendation
I would recommend the implementation of STARS Campus Solution. This is because the system has a wide array of features compared to the other solutions. Moreover, the system is compatible with several devices and can easily integrate with other third party applications. The pricing is also flexible, and the University would only be required to pay for active students only.
References
Alavi, M., & Leidner, D. E. (1999). Knowledge management systems: issues, challenges, and benefits. Communications of the AIS, 1(2es), 1.
Guinn, J. (2016). Compare School Management Systems. Software Advice. Retrieved from http://www.softwareadvice.com/school-management/#buyers-guide
Rouse, M. (2014). Busines Intelligence (BI).Tech Target. Retrieved from < http://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/definition/business-intelligence >
