1.1 Introduction
Due to student’s interest in classrooms, and the study environment of university or institution, recording absence at a department or faculty having a large number of students in a classroom is a difficult task and time-consuming. Moreover, the process takes much time, and many efforts are spent by the staff of the department to complete the attendance rates for each student. So in many institutions and academic organizations, attendance is a very important criterion which is used for various purposes. These purposes include record keeping, assessment of students, and promotion of optimal and consistent attendance in class. As long as in many developing countries, a minimum percentage of class attendance is required in most institutions and this policy has not been adhered to, because of the various challenges the present method of taking attendance presents. The process of recording attendances for students was in the form of hardcopy papers and the system was manually done. Besides wasting time and taking efforts for preparing sheets and documents, other disadvantages may be visible to the traditional one due to loss or damage to the sheets-sheet could be stolen. The developed system considers as an alternative to the traditional one, it is easy, fast and reliable than the traditional one, especially after the development of information technology and its usage by educational institutions. Therefore, the design of an android student attendance system has a significant reality meaning. The system is an android application developed for daily student attendance in departments within the university. It facilitates access to the attendance of a particular student in a particular class. This system will also help in generating reports and evaluating the attendance eligibility of a student. The system is not only improving the work efficiency, students’ study and development, but also can save human and material resources.
1.2 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this research is to develop an android based attendance software for registering students’ details; their subjects, teachers, and related field. The daily attendance of students is taken automatically by selecting student name and program. The attendance report will be generated automatically without time consuming which is reliable and without mistakes.
1.3 Aim and Objective of the Study
The aim of the study is to design and implement an android class attendance management system. In achieving this aim, the following objectives were set out as follows;
- Eliminate duplicate data entry and errors in time and attendance entries.
- Eliminate paperwork and save time.
- Automatic calculation of attendance.
- To increase student academy performance.
1.4 Statement of Problem
In most educational institutions the attendance is taken manually. It is not only time consuming, but it is also unsecure and unreliable and it can be lost. Some institutions use manual paper attendance sheets for attendance while this will be difficult for teachers to keep track of the large number of students because by using paper sheets, a student can help the other students or his/her friend to answer their names even when the student may be absent or come late in class, so it is not reliable.
1.5 Scope of the Study
The scope of the project is limited to several processes: handling of student attendance, managing student attendance, record student attendance for academy assessments. It will generate the reports such as student record for attending school activities. The Android student attendance management system is designed in such a way that makes it possible to access through any android platform.
1.6 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
1.7 Definition of Terms
Attendance: the action or state of going regularly to or being present at a place or event.
Android: Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google, open source software and designed primarily for touch screen mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets.
Software: Softwareis a program that enables a computer to perform a specific task, as opposed to the physical components of the system.
Institutions: an organization founded for a religious, educational, professional, or social purpose.
Automatic: (of a device or process) working by itself with little or no direct human control.
