University Examination Information System

Abstract

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), has a total student population of about 15,000 students spread across four faculties and eight constituent campuses spread across the country. Administration of all the university programs is centralized at the main campus, situated in Juja town. Currently the university undertakes its examination procedures using Microsoft Excel. Due to lack of an efficient and effective system for processmg and managmg examinations, the entire process has been rather time consuming and error prone, particularly due to the many activities that require frequent human interventions. Inappropriate use of current technology has also been identified as a significant setback in ensuring timely and effective examination processing and results delivery. The main objective of the project is to develop an Examination Information System which will ensure that the entire process of students' and lecturers' recruitment, registration of courses and units by students as well as capturing and consolidation of students' marks is made much more efficient. The Unified Software Development Process (USDP) has been used as the mam development methodology, due to its object oriented nature, besides being use case driven, iterative and incremental. The database part of the system has been implemented using MySQL as the back-end due to its openness. Both PHP and JavaScript have been used as the main programming tools due to their suitability for interactive web applications. Various system tests have been carried out to ensure that all the user requirements are met. This mainly entails the systems' ability to identify authorized users, as well as target information recipients and relay appropriate information to them. With the implementation of the new system, timeliness, accuracy and communication will be enhanced. This will ensure that examination processing at JKUAT is carried out using procedures that are in line with the expectations of its stakeholders.