AUTOMATED DEPARTMENTAL COURSE ALLOCATION AND TIME TABLE FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE IN ADEKUNLE AJASIN UNIVERSITY, AKUNGBA-AKOKO

CHAPTER ONE

 INTRODUCTION

• Introduction

Over the years allocation of course,  their credit units  and departmental timetable have been growing from one stage to another and similarly, the procedures and routine embarked   on  every semester coupled  with the departmental growth compounded the problem of manual  allocation of courses  their units and thereby delays the registration procedures because some students  paying extra  fees as payment that is demanded in addition to the usual charge for registering  their  courses  late, as late payment but computerization or  automation of courses, their credit  units allocation and departmental time table provide the most effective reliable  and quickest services required  by the  students. Basically, before   the invention of computers, computation were  done manually, but in the case of the departmental course, their credit  units and departmental timetable, computer  has caused accelerated progress especially the automation of departmental  courses  their credit units and departmental time table. Computer technology has been accepted as an indispensable innovation in most fields of human endeavour in which departmental courses is not an exception.

Hence, the efficiency of an organization or establishment would be achieved if they embark on computer-based  system. However, using an automated system in place of the manual system, a change that is going on in Adekunle Ajasin University departmental course registration procedure. It will make the practical insinuation of high technology. This will enframe the time needed  for processing of departmental courses  and attend to other subsequent information needed by the management system. The importance of this research is so prominent with the current of processing the departmental courses and suggest a complete efficient and reliable  approach that will be of immense benefit  to most higher institutions in general especially to Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko.

Actually, this would go a long way to improve  their  services by exposing and creating awareness of  computer applications.

1.1  Statement Of The Problem

Since  established  in  1999, Adekunle Ajasin University comprises of six schools among which is the school of  science  (which house  the Computer Science Department),  the  other schools have problems, One of which was late allocation of courses and credit units  to enable the students finish their registration process  and  have  foresight of what the semester  would  look like. It was studied and discovered  that automation of departmental courses  and the manual system  of allocation of courses, their credit  units  usually waste a lot of time and paper even pen can be reduced  on the process of arranging it and also improve upon removing such problems. Below are some of the problems  in this system.

1. It delays students’ registration process.
2. It results to high cost of data processing each semester.
3. It wastes much paper and make filling of form cumbersome.
4. It delays other departmental duties that are also important.
5. It results to inefficiency of course allocation.

Because of these setbacks, computer science department has continued to leave activities untended to by the head of department because of volume of work left for him to do alone.

1.3  Significance Of The Study  

Definitely, the complete implementation of this   work will be introduced as a trend in the present method of allocating  courses their credit units and departmental time  table, the change would  in-doubt make   the management  and students happier, such changes  envisage will  include the following:

1. The high cost incurred by the management in buying of papers, pens, pencils, makers, measuring  ruler  etc  the clerical duties  involves in course  allocation and department  time table will be reduced drastically  because the hard  disk, floppies,  tapes  would be used  instead of the above mentioned.
2. The time involved in allocating and re-allocating which normally results to delay will be reduced.

• Students would then utilize their time efficiently during the registration of course.

1. Automated System would also serve as a reference  file for the students and staff since the course, credit units, time table and lecturers in charge of all.
2. The research work is also  significant  because  it is based on the award of Master Degree in Information Technology  to  the researcher however, its significant can only be envisaged  better when it is  implemented, evaluated, and  maintained  to be running in the computer, such as in  computer  Science Department, from where other departments can

1.4  Scope And  Limitation Of The Study

This  study is  aimed at finding out  how  the use of automated system can help  in course allocation in the computer science department of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko.

The study covered only the department of computer science due to some  limitations of the researcher to extend the research to other  departments within the school of science, let alone  other schools  in the Institution, the constraints are as follows:

• Finance: Fund for running around for the data required was in short supply and consequently hindered further research.
• Time Constraints: Due to the required completion time of this research work, it was not possible to extend the research to other departments.
• Complexity: Meanwhile extending the research to all department within the institution would lead to complexity and complication resulting to unreliability of research.
  • Background of The Course study

Adekunle Ajasin University was  established by Chief Adebayo Adefarati in 1999 which  has a  retrospect effect from 2^nd September, 2001. Its location is the former premises of Oroke High School, Akungba-Akoko,  along Akungba – Ikare Road, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State. The degree programme commences in the year 2001 while the Masters and P.hd programme commenced in the year 2005.

It’s administration made it possible for it to comprise of six schools, they are as  follows:

1. School of Science
2. School of Agriculture
3. School of Law
4. School of Social and Management Science
5. School of Humanities
6. School of Environmental Studies

The schools are made up of Departments, which offers various Degrees, Masters and diplomas programmes respectively. The department of computer Science, a sub department of school of science offers various courses leading to Bachelor of Science  programme to its  students. Hence, the department of computer science is chosen so that any successful achievement records on this work (research) can easily be transferred to  their departments within the institutions, the  staff of the department comprise of the following.

1. Dean of school (DOS)
2. Head of Department (HOD)

• Lecturers

1. Secretary
2. Chief Technologist
3. Assistant technologist

• Laboratory Attendants
• Office Assistance (Messengers)

1.6  Definition Of Terms

In this chapter being the first chapter of this project work certain terms relating to this research work which may  look very irrelevant  to some people  from other discipline  are defined  underneath.

1. Automation: The conversion of manual system to machine (Computer) based system
2. Computer: It is a machine mainly an electronic device which accepts the data as an input, process the data and generate the result as an output.
3. Credit Unit: This is the number of hour, practical or tutorial or allocated weeks for each course in each semester.
4. Head of Department: The “Head” as the name implies the controller or director even the person at the hem of affair in the
5. Dean of school: This is the person that co-ordinate all the departments in the faculty.
6. Technologist: This is the technological craft man that can dissemble  and re-assemble any  technical device  or machine.
7. Course: every  programme in each department  based  on arrangement in which course  are evaluated  in terms of credit  A course consists of a certain number of hours  for lecturers, students contact devoted to study in a circumscribed area of the program. This include lecturers, tutorial; seminar/workshop period.  Some related course  which  is closely  to it  may be  considered too wide to be, are  usually broken down into two or more  courses, each  one having it’s own designated  number of credit hours.

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