1.1 Introduction
Online clearance system is an application software that allows the users to check their clearance status as whether they are in any way indebted to the school, fill and submit their clearance form, and obtain their clearance letter from registered emails. Clearance is a status granted individuals, typically members of the military, university graduates and employees of governments and their contractors, allowing them access to classified information, i.e. state secrets. The term “clearance” is also sometimes used in private organizations that have a formal process to vet employees for access to sensitive information. A clearance by itself is normally not sufficient to gain access; the organization must determine that the cleared individual has a “need to know” the information. No one is supposed to be granted access to classified information solely because of rank or position, but once a clearance is obtained, access to certain information or gain of freedom will be granted.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Caritas University, Amorji nike Enugu is a private University approved by the federal Government of Nigeria on Dec 16 2004. It was officially opened on Jan 21, 2005 by the Federal minister for education, Prof. Fabian Osuji. It is the second catholic university founded by Rev. Fr. Prof E.M.P Edeh. The school is managed by the congregation of Sisters of Jesus the Saviour, a religious congregation of nuns founded by him. The school operates the faculty system and presently has four faculties; Engineering, Environmental, Management and social sciences and natural science
As many universities have choosing to pursue the dynamic educational options available online. The advantages of e-learning are many. As people of all ages and backgrounds become increasingly reliant on the internet for information, online learning becomes more convenient and efficient here the need for an online clearance system. The skills needed to access and comprehend information online are becoming commonplace, and the flexibility of wireless computing means that any coffee shop, airport or bedroom can become a classroom. Online courses, registrations, clearance have few, if any scheduling restrictions, well-integrated learning resources and competitive degree options, with an online clearance system.
In Universities like Redeemer’s university Ede, there is need for automated method of keeping data, more so a greater need for an online Android-Based clearance system. This would go a long way in alleviating the various problems and stress involved in the manual method of clearance. Moreover, the issue of delayed youth service as a result of inability to complete the tedious manual process of clearance would be curtailed.
1.3 Statement of Problems
The processes of clearing students after their graduation requires that the students be cleared in various departments and information units among which are:
- Library fines and overdue or lost library materials from the University
- Departmental Dues
- Infirmary and bookstore charges
- Residence hall damage charges
- Return of athletic equipment
- Student Union Fee
- Bursary and all other charges
- A good android or windows phone for easy access
For a graduating student to carry out his or her clearance from all these departments, it normally takes a lot of time and a lot of processes and delays in clearing the student for youth service as well as collection of statement of result. Hence it became imperative for an online android-based clearance system to eliminate the shortcomings of the manual system in place.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to design and implement an Android-Based Online Clearance System for Graduating Students. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were set up as follows to design and develop an application system that will:
- Effectively and efficiently process students’ clearance using an android phone.
- Provide a reliable and transparent system devoid of personal inclinations and interest
- Provide borderless access at any time and ensure prompt clearance during student registration process
- Alleviate the problems and stress of traveling and queuing up of students during clearance.
1.5 Significance of Study
The project work will help in a good number of ways to ease the queuing system in the university as the android-based online clearance system will help students to achieve whatever they want to achieve without coming to the various offices for clearance. Clear advantages of Internet information processing over those of traditional manual system are higher yields. There are many other advantages of online clearance system and some of them are listed below.
- It saves a lot of time and stress to the students and the administrators.
- It is very convenient to use it right from the bedroom, office or anywhere in the world.
- Information processing are very fast and delays can be avoided.
- It is inexpensive to students and school management.
- Help the school in reducing costs such as labor and stationary.
- This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.6 Scope of the Study
This research work is limited to clearance system for graduating students from Caritas University. The android application developed will be carried out using MySQL, PHP, HTML, and CSS to manage both the database and at the same time make the application online.
1.7 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.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
1.8 Definition of Terms
Android SDK: The Android SDK (software development kit) is a set of development tools used to develop applications for Android platform. The Android SDK includes the following: Required libraries, Debugger, An emulator, relevant documentation for the Android application program interfaces (APIs), Sample source code, Tutorials for the Android OS
Computer Network: Computer Network is a system that connects two ormore computers together using a communication link.
Debugger: A debugger is a computer program used by programmers to test and debug a target program. Debuggers may use instruction-set simulators, rather than running a program directly on the processor to achieve a higher level of control over its execution.
Java: Java is a programming language that produces software for multiple platforms.
Android: Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google. It is used by several smartphones and tablets. Examples include the Sony Xperia, the Samsung Galaxy, and the Google Nexus One.
Clearance: Official certification of blamelessness, trustworthiness, or suitability for graduation and issue of certificates in degree course.
