1.1 Introduction
A project research search system is simply software developed for retrieving of research material without going through the stress of moving from one shelf to another in the research library. These activities take place in the library with the help of a library administrator. The goal of this research work is to provide a solution to the problem of a research library, by designing a computerized system which is user-friendly and GUI-oriented that will be compatible with the existing manual systems. The software to be developed will solve the problem of sorting and retrieving of research materials. Usually, a project can be filled by at most one student, though in some cases a project is suitable for more than one student to work on simultaneously. To give students something of a choice, there should be as wide a range of available projects as possible, and in any case the total number of project places should not be less than the total number of students. Typically a lecturer will also offer a range of projects, but does not necessarily expect that all will be taken up.
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 to the Study
In many tertiary institutions in the country, students seek a project in a given field of specialty as part of the upper level of their degree programme. Usually, a project can be filled by at most one student, though in some cases a project is suitable for more than one student to work on simultaneously. To give students something of a choice, there should be as wide a range of available projects as possible, and in any case the total number of project places should not be less than the total number of students. Typically a lecturer will also offer a range of projects, but does not necessarily expect that all will be taken up.
Each student has preferences over the available projects that he/she finds acceptable, whilst a lecturer will normally have preferences over the students that he/she is willing to supervise. There may also be upper bounds on the number of students that can be assigned to a particular project, and the number of students that a given lecturer is willing to supervise. In this paper we consider the ways of allocating student project in our various institutions.
The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while adhering to classic project constraints usually scope, quality, time and budget. The secondary and more ambitious challenge is to optimize the allocation and integration of inputs necessary to meet pre-defined objectives. A project is a carefully defined set of activities that use resources (money, people, materials, energy, space, provisions, communication, motivation, etc.) to achieve its goals and objectives.
1.3 Statement of the Problem
Investigation reveals the challenges of the existing Automated Project Monitoring and Duplication System which is stated as follows:
- Research/Projects are sorted and stored manually on its appropriate shelf
- Retrieving of research/projects material takes a lot of time depending of the number of topics involves.
- Loss or damage of any of the research material may leads to loss of a resources information
- Too cumbersome and time consuming to maintain
- Backing up projects becomes a problem since more space will be employed.
In addition, the traditional way of allocating project to students in our higher institution need to be reconsidered since project/research writing is sensitive aspect of student education in the higher institution. Before now, lecturers ask students to go out and get project topics for themselves for approval. This system made project writing look less like a class assignment which does not require an extra effort to complete rather an issue of copying.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of this study is to develop an Automated Project Monitoring and Duplication System for the University of Port Harcourt to effectively manage students’ research projects. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out to design and implement an application system that will:
- Create a database management system (DBMS) which store research material and provides security for the stored data.
- Provide quick and efficient means retrieving student research/projects material through a search system.
- Monitor and identify duplicated project materials through a search system.
- Improve the management of a research library which can be uses as a model in building digital research library.
In addition, with the advancement in file saving and file retrieval system, institution cannot afford to be ignorant of the basic tool, which is the driving force behind technological oriented administration. Much can be achieve if an institution have a well organized management system.
Students project can easily be allocated to each or group of students without the problem of delayed project allocation from the supervisor or conflict of topic between two individual or group of student in the same department. Students update can be easily be accessed if the database system is enhanced.
1.5 Significance of the Study
Projects provide a flexible framework for engaging students in exploring curricular topics and developing important 21st century skills, such as communication, teamwork, and technology skills. In addition, students are motivated by the fun and creative format and the opportunity to make new friends around the world. For teachers, a school portal enables quick and easy management of student accounts and review of project work. Both staff and student will benefit from this feature in that one can easily search for a project by the project name, student name or year. The office in charge of keeping and handling student projects will now have better support for storage of graduates’ projects and easy retrieval on request.
The proposed system could serve as an educational environment for many internet users and researchers. It will encourage researchers to take up further research on a subject matter (like a project) and thereby add to the body of knowledge. This repository also covers authors of the projects and because it clearly attributes the student name (author) to its content.
1.6 Scope of Study
The study focuses on the Design and Implementation of an Automated Project Monitoring and Duplication System using University of Port Harcourt as a case study. A single material (like a project) will contain only the project topic, student name, abstract and the year of project submission. A user will only be able to search the project catalog for a project either by the project topic, student name, keyword and year of submission.
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
Search Engine: Search engine is a software system that is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web.
