Online Grades Inquiry of OLPCC San Manuel
Chapter 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING
Introduction
Through the years, Information technology constantly
gave something for the lives of human beings. Technology
gave us comfort every day, every hour and every minute of
our lives. Many technologies, tools, products and systems
are made through the use of IT.
A grading system plays a key role in the management
system of any school. But, such systems do not often relate
expectations, outcomes, and performance. As each student
desires to achieve a good score for each assignment, exam,
project and/or report, the whole process adds heavy workload
for
teachers
in
order
to
make
their
evaluation
fair,
comprehensive, and accurate. From the faculty perspective,
these are necessary to avoid disagreement from students and
parents.
An
Online
Grade
Monitoring
System
is
highly
desirable addition to the education tool-kit, particularly
when I can provide less effort and a more effective and
timely outcome.
Most educators like the systems if they work smoothly
and help students learn, according to teachers and teacherunion representatives. An Online Grades Monitoring System
can foster a strong home-school connection and allow busy
parents to be involved"and let them step in early if a
child is struggling. Online Grades Monitoring System can
help students as well as their parents. Parents can now view
their
childrens
grade
every
now
and
then,
so
as
the
students for them to help their self before its too late.
Studies show that making the students, parents and community
feel part of the school increases the effectiveness of the
school and helps all parties involved. (Zygmunt-Fillwalk,
2006) Indeed, there are school/community relations of some
form occurring all the time, whether school staff are aware
of
them
or
not.
Students
talk
with
their
friends
and
families about what happened at school. Parents talk to
other parents about their childrens school. Teachers talk
with each other about the students and parents. A gap of
mistrust is created, spread and widened because the parties
talked about are not the parties being talked to.
The present record evaluation of the school OLPCC SM
is that, the teacher or adviser of every class will compute
and write down the grades of the students and give it to the
office of Registrar. The Registrar will then wait for the
students to pick-up their grades. Sadly, not all students
can pick-up their grades on time. Sometimes the Registrar is
close or their grading cards have been misplaced. Sometimes
students who got their grades on time, dont want to show it
to
their
parents,
which
leads
to
parents
and
teachers
misunderstandings. In this way I come up to develop the
Online
Grades
Monitoring
System
in
which
students
and
parents can view their grades on time, faster, wherever or
whenever they want to.
Objectives of the Study
The study aims to develop a system for the research
proposal entitled Online Grades Monitoring System which
seeks to have the following purposes.
1. To create a module that will record the students name,
grade and section.
2. To create a module that will record students over-all grade
throughout the semester.
3. To develop a system that will shorten the process of inquiry
of grades.
4. To develop a system that is user friendly.
5. To test the functionality, effectiveness, acceptability and
usefulness of the system.
6. To revise the system based on the testing alone.
Conceptual Framework
In order to organize the way on how and why a project takes
place
and
to
understand
its
activities,
prior
research
was
conducted. I developed a conceptual framework that allows me to
map and assess the research findings.
The
Research
Paradigm
shown
in
Figure
represents
the
concept behind and development of a Grading system for the OLPCC
Cauayan, San Manuel Campus. It is usually the procedure upon
the development of the system.
Research Paradigm
PROCESS
INPUT
User
Students
Teachers
Admin
Hardware
Computer
Server
Internet
Software
XAMPP server
Scriptcase
MySQL
connector
Browser
OUTPUT
Online
Problem Identification
Providing a modern yet
easy way of distributing
grades for the students
without much time and
energy is used by the
students getting their
grades.
Data Gathering
Browse different sites
and journals for guides
in preparing the study.
Organized and analyzed
the gathered data.
Revised the papers
printing based on
suggestions.
Design and Procedure
Design Program Flow
DFD, USE CASE, OODM.
for
the
or
System Development
System coding
System Design
Testing and Evaluation
Testing
and
the program.
Debugging
is System
OK?
System Implementation
Deployment
FEEDBACK
Figure 1: Paradigm of the Study
Grades
Monitoring
for College
Department
of OLPC-C
San Manuel
Campus
Significance of the Study
The success of this study has great importance to:
1. To the Faculty. This will save the faculty effort
and will lessen the time of collecting grades and recording
them in grade sheets.
2. To the Students. This will help lessen the late
issuance of grades that can affect the students in many ways
including approval of scholarships, delay of graduation and
others.
Students
retrieval
of
records
can
easily
be
accessed.
3. To the School, the study will provide an improved
method of processing the hundreds of grade reports they
print and distribute to their students each quarter.
4.
conduct
Future
studies
Researchers.
will
realize
Future
that
researchers
the
who
traditional
will
grade
reporting process can be enhanced from manual processing to
an online paperless system.
Scope and Delimitation of the Study
The Online Grade Monitoring System offers more than
just
class
card
function,
encoding
of
the
students
personal data and issuance of summary grading sheets which
include the grades of the students. The system will lessen
the work especially of those within the registrars office
because the grades will be stored directly into a database.
Users
from
the
department
would
be
able
to
access
information they will need anytime. This grading system is
exclusively designed for the faculty members, registrars
personnel and trusted staff of the School. It is off limits
to
the
privilege
students,
to
find
meaning
out
students
their
grades
are
not
before
given
their
the
actual
report card is released.
The proposed system will not compute for the grades of
the students and is only for viewing grades for students.
Only
authorized
students.
personnel
can
edit
and
enter
grades
of
Statement of the Problem
The
study
aims
to
develop
an
Online-Based
Grades
Monitoring System for the School.
Specifically, the study seeks to answer the following:
1. What are the problems encountered by the students and
teachers in the current Grading Systems?
2. What design of an Online Grades Monitoring System may
be proposed?
3. How secured are the storage of files?
Definition of Terms
The following terms were defined operationally for a
better understanding of this study.
Average. It is derived by adding all the grades in
every grading component, then dividing it by the total of
number of grading component.
Grade. It is the achievement of each student in every
subject.
Grading Sheet/ Class Record. It is composed of all the
components needed to make a final grade; a tally of the
students performance based on a certain component.
Internet.
connects
An
computer
electronic
networks
communications
and
network
organizational
that
computer
facilities around the world.
Online. A connected to, served by, or available through
a system and especially a computer or telecommunications
system.
Record. Set down in writing or other permanent form.
Database. Collection of information that is organized
so that it can be managed and updated.
Computer. A machine used to manipulate data according
to a list of instruction.
MySQL. It is also called My Sequel the worlds second
most widely used open-source relational database management
system.
It
is
named
after
co-founder
Michael
Widenius
daughter, My. The SQL phrase stands for Structured Query
Language.
Php. It is a server-side scripting language designed
for
web
development
but
also
used
as
general-purpose
programming language.
Registrar.
person
in
charge
of
recording
and
maintaining student information and grades.
User-Friendly. A program easy to use even though an
individual is not knowledgeable about the system.
Chapter II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITTERATURES AND STUDIES
This
studies
chapter
that
states
were
the
conducted
different
for
the
literature
research
to
and
gain
familiarity that are relevant and similar to the present
study.
Local Literature
Nowadays, computers and other technology are very useful in
the fields of education especially in our daily activities. The
importance
of
computers
cannot
be
denied
in
the
fields
of
education because as we all know, computers are very significant
in terms of learning and working. With those technologies, we can
save time for other activities. Computers connected with internet
also
serve
as
useful
tools
for
communication.
Through
this
process various types of descriptive information and measures of
students performance are converted into grades that summarize
students accomplishment. Online Grading System is designed to
provide
incentive
reward
for
achievement
and
assist
in
identifying problems of the student. Grading System is the most
commonly used in computing and analyzing the performance, talent
and
skills
of
student?
Grading
system
is
an
exercise
in
professional judgment on the part of the teachers.
It involves the collection and evaluation of evidence on
students achievement or performance over specified period of
time. Teachers work load can be lessen. Online Grading System of
Cauayan Sounth Central School (CSCS) is design to provide the
system where in the parents of the students of Cauayan South
Central
School
can
access
the
grades
of
their
childen.
Originally, the school was opened in the year of 1953 through the
initiation and encouragement of the late Teodoro Cario, who was
at that time the Division Academic Supervisor from Pangasinan who
resided here in Cauayan. The Teaching Staff welcomed and embraced
the
growing
enrolment.
Through
their
sincere
and
dedicated
service to the community, they begged for more school buildings
to house the school children hungry for formal education.
From this point of view, the school will serve as a potent
instrument because of the vast extent of outreach and of the size
of
the
populace.
To
optimize
this
contribution
to
social,
intellectual and cultural development, it has to maintain the
accelerate its progress to be able to cope fully with changing
world. It is believed that with the time tested, loyalty and
cooperation of the school officials and teachers, the CSCS will
surely be the best show window of the City Division. Thus, the
above reasons drove the researcher to conduct a study regarding
the Online Grading System, which aims to improve their present
system.
Foreign Studies
Building and nurturing more effective school/community
relations
is
an
important
part
of
raising
schools
effectiveness at achieving its main goal raising student
achievement. Studies show that making the students, parents
and
community
feel
part
of
the
school
increases
the
effectiveness of the school and helps all parties involved.
(Zygmunt-Fillwalk, 2006) Indeed, there are school/community
relations
of
some
form
occurring
all
the
time,
whether
school staff are aware of them or not. Students talk with
their friends and families about what happened at school.
Parents talk to other parents about their childrens school.
Teachers
talk
with
each
other
about
the
students
and
parents. A gap of mistrust is created, spread and widened
because the parties talked about are not the parties being
talked to. Transparency in the education process keeps all
parties accountable and aware of where the other parties
stand. School buildings however, tend to be separated from
the rest of the community. (Black and Wiliam, 1998) Students
enter the building every day but in their lessons, there is
often a disconnection between what their perception of their
achievement
is
and
their
teachers
perception
of
their
achievement. Students turn in lessons and may or may not get
results and/or feedback from their teachers. The teacher
keeps
up
with
the
students
progress
but
does
not
necessarily share that information with the students and
certainly not with the parents until grades come out. There
just is not enough time during the term to share individual
grades
with
individual
students
and
individual
parents.
Thus, at grade time, there is normally a great deal of
surprise. Students who do not get specific feedback from
their teacher are surprised at their low grades. Parents,
who get all their information about the student from the
student, are equally surprised at the low grades. Teachers,
who have experienced the lack of effort and/or understanding
in the student and are not surprised at the students grade,
are surprised that the student and parents are surprised.
This is not a positive form of surprise. This surprise is
more
in
the
form
of
misunderstanding
and
hurt
feelings
resulting from the lack of consistent communication among
the school and the student and the parents. These hard
feelings perpetuate a sense of mistrust among all parties.
Unfortunately,
negative,
most
whether
it
school/community
be
the
negative
interaction
surprise
is
mentioned
above, a parent contact that results from a childs negative
behavior or some other misunderstanding stemming from a lack
of
consistent
communication.
While
many
teachers
do
not
believe that grades should be the allconsuming factor that
they are, the fact remains that students, parents and all
other stakeholders seem to care more about grades than about
anything
else.
Relatively
simple
Internet-based
programs
exist today that allow teachers to share not only their
grade-books
suggested
but
also
supplemental
their
reading,
attendance,
assignments,
instructional
videos
and
other text that can be used to both promote student learning
and also connect the school with the home. Grades are the
hook that gets students and parents to participate in this
communication. Students want and deserve to know how well or
how poorly they are doing in school. Their parents want to
know
also.
Giving
them
this
window
into
the
school
workings not only helps students achieve more but also draws
them and their parents into the school environment. Schools
use
variety
of
online
grading
programs
and
the
more
comprehensive SIS, or school information system. Apples
PowerSchool is an example of the latter. PowerSchool is
expensive but can serve as a schools server and can handle
school-wide attendance and other data. Several schools in
the U. S. are currently using PowerSchool. Engrade is an
example of a less-complicated and free tool for calculating
grades,
supplying
real-time
grades
and
giving
access
to
other forms of information about a students class.
A study done in 2002 (Hampton, L.F., Anderson, C., & Sigman,
D.
2002)
documented
PowerSchool.
Teachers
the
use
used
of
the
online
PowerSchool
in
SIS,
three
consecutive grading periods. In the first and third grading
periods, seventy-seven out of one-hundred and thirty-seven
grade six students were given extra access to the Internet
at school and were required to monitor their grades online.
Parents were shown how to use the system at a parent night
and were encouraged to monitor their childrens results.
Students were encouraged but not required to monitor their
progress via PowerSchool in the second quarter. Student GPAs
were found to be significantly higher after the first and
third quarters than they were after the second quarter.
Reactions from both parents and children tended to be quite
positive.
(Hampton,
Anderson,
&
Sigman,
2002)
Further
testament to SIS success comes from an article entitled
Student Information Systems >> How Do You Spell Parental
Involvement?
superintendent
S-I-S
of
written
Westside
by
Ken
Community
Bird.
School,
Bird
a
is
school
district in the Midwest of the United States. Bird cites
evidence from the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory,
([Link]/index.
html)
and
the
US
Department
of
Education (available at [Link]) among others to link
the value of parent involvement to the power of SIS. He
speaks glowingly of students and parents becoming Language
Testing in Asia Volume one, Issue two July 2011 95 | Page
PowerSchool Junkies and of their close relationship to
his schools as exemplified by their desire to check grades
daily. Not all feedback on the SIS is entirely positive
however. In an article in the New York Times entitled, I
Know What You Did Last Math Class, Jan Hoffman acknowledges
that many schools and districts think highly of the SIS. She
reports
that
principals
say
the
SIS
has
helped
connect
parents and students who were difficult to reach in the
past. However, she notes the downside also. She writes about
the
added
excessive
stress
and
monitoring
strain
of
on
student
the
family
grades.
With
caused
by
increased
competition for admission to colleges, parents feel they
need to monitor and control their childrens school progress
because they can check the SIS so easily and frequently.
Parents can even opt for cell-phone email alerts. Of course
some teens with a naturally growing desire to control their
own
lives
teens
resent
lives.
their
Because
parents
of
the
desires
online
to
aspect
control
of
the
grading,
parents can see students grades even before the students
can. Although online grading programs are supported as being
a mode for sharing information easily, teachers can find
them a burden. Parents come to expect up-to-date maintenance
of grades and, of course, attendance, and if a teacher falls
behind,
parents
may
get
anxious
and
push
for
current
updates. In the same vein, grading programs are not fix-alls
for grade keeping. Teachers make mistakes. There are times
when a large amount of data needs to be input in a short
amount of time. The potential for mistakes grows at such
times. Online grading programs magnify teacher mistakes. The
potential
for
harmful
situation
exists
if
teacher
accidentally records a low grade for a student. An irate
parent may punish a student for a low test mark that is a
teacher mistake and the fault of the teachers too-long day
at work and not the fault of the student. While the mistake
would almost surely be clarified the following school day,
the unjust punishment would have been carried out and the
teacher, student and parent would find themselves in an
awkward
situation.
Whether
students
agree
with
their
parents ease of access to students grades or not, it is
certain
that
the
SIS
systems
and
other
online
grading
systems open up schools to parents and the community. Not
only grades, but also homework schedules, lessons, etc. are
readily
available,
programs,
to
via
those
the
SIS
granted
Internet
permission.
availability
circumvents
some
inherent
traditional
methods
in
and
of
the
of
grading
This
logistics
reaching
online
problems
out
to
the
community. Grades written in a traditional paper grade-book
stay
isolated
in
the
classroom.
Even
grades
done
on
spreadsheet-type grade programs are not readily accessible
to parents and students. Busy teachers may have to access a
printer and make multiple copies of student grades. The
problem
of
privacy
then
comes
into
play
as
individual
student grades are required to be kept private. Having the
gradebook
posted
online,
available
only
by
individual
password, eliminates those logistics problems. Communication
other than grade reporting can be made more effective with
online grade-reporting systems also. Because parents work
schedules
often
mirror
school
schedules,
parents
cannot
normally visit the school when teachers are available. Busy
teachers resist working extra, evening hours to accommodate
busy parents. Teachers have little time during the school
day to telephone parents, who are often just as reluctant to
receive telephone calls, most of them negative, while they
are at work. When teacher/parent contact is made, it is
usually negative and it is often too late to affect real
change.
When
grades
and
attendance
data
are
available
online, the parents can know about problems as soon as they
happen and neither the parent nor the teacher need leave
their
desk.
Of
course,
parent/teacher
contact
need
not
always be negative. A parent, seeing a positive grade posted
for a quiz, project or exam will know about the grade as
soon as it is posted. Parents with children with attendance
problems will be able to track their children from work, via
the
attendance
feature.
Online
grading
programs
have
feature allowing two-way communication between teacher and
student. Students can send questions about grades, homework,
upcoming tests, etc. via the grading program. Teachers can
send reminders to forgetful students. Study-guides, texts
and even videos can be attached to the grading program.
Students can use these features to learn more and parents
can use them to see more clearly what their children are
learning.
Such
openness
and
transparency
would
certainly
seem
to
improve school/community relations and thus improve student
achievement. However, one must question exactly how much
openness is too much openness. How accessible should student
data be? How much is privacy an issue? Students are only
allowed
access
password,
are
to
their
only
own
allowed
grades.
access
Parents,
to
their
via
their
childrens
grades, not the grades of other children. The SIS systems
and
other
online
individual
grading
passwords,
systems,
are
through
designed
to
their
prevent
use
of
privacy
infringement. However, there have been occasions of glitches
in grading programs wherein unauthorized persons have gained
access to student data. Keeping track of school events can
be difficult for parents also. It is difficult for the
school itself. Caring schools want parents and students to
be aware of and plan to participate in school events. When
events such as football games, open-house, school plays,
international
schools
want
day,
to
get
sports
day,
etc.
the
message
new
after-school
offered,
the
school
tutoring
sessions,
workshop
is
out
wants
are
to
scheduled,
parents.
club
all
or
When
parent
students
and
parents to know. Schools often communicate such information
via
letters
sent
home
with
students
to
parents.
These
letters do not always find their way to parents for many
reasons. Some students are forgetful. Some students do not
want to attend the foretold event or do not want their
parents to attend the event. Parents lose the letter after
the student gives it to them. In addition, large amounts of
paper and ink are used in this highly inefficient mode of
communication.
Information
posted
online
is
available
whenever an Internet connection is available. (JOSEPH T.
CAMERON, July 2011, The Role of Online Grading Programs in
School/Community Relations)
Local Studies
Guidance
for
([Link])
Government
The
National
Web
Computer
Site
Center
Issued
(NCC)
recently issued memorandum curricular 2002-01, Guidance on
Creation of the agencys official website and compliance to
the E-commerce law and stage one of the UN-ASPA stage of EGovernment. The circular further states that the computer
agency will coordinate and provide technical assistance to
national government agencies (NGAs), Local Government Units
(LGU) and state universities and collage (SUCs) to ensure
that
they
have
website
that
will
provide
basic
public
information. The basic information includes the following;
organizational aims structure and responsibilities of each
unit.
Mangulit (2001) Book Store Inc. According to Mangulit,
Website
now
number
by
the
millions.
There
are
personal
Website, corporate website, small business Website, and so
on. And the number of website just keeps on growing each
day.
Website
provides
two
real
value-adding
services.
Website allows companies to either make more money or save
money. Business can make more money by selling their product
and services through the website. The website also to save
money allow business.
According to Ducusin, Many Business School, Individual,
and
Government
agencies
at
all
levels
have
rushed
to
establish a presence on the internet. The attraction is the
ability to quick and inexpensively provides information to a
large number of people. The website can provide the public
with
information
about
government
agencies
also
provide
about agencies mission, service offered, office hour, and
email add for correspondence. Eventually users of the WWW
will be able to submit request to an agency for document or
other inquires directly though the webpage. Also provide
information about the government agencies and the service
that they offer. Many of the interactions between citizens
and government that require visit to government office could
be handling through home page in the internet. Request for
permits drivers license record, documents and forms could
all be handled through the internet.
Chapter III
MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The research design refers to the overall strategy
that you choose to integrate the different components of the
study in a coherent and logical way, thereby, ensuring you
will
effectively
address
the research problem;
it
constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement,
and analysis of data.
The developer used in Software Development was the
Waterfall
Model.
Waterfall
model
was
used
in
the
development of the Online Grades Monitoring System of the
College
Department
for
Our
Lady
of
Pillar
College
San
Manuel, Campus. The waterfall model is a sequential (noniterative)
design
process,
used
in
software
development
processes, in which progress is seen as flowing steadily
downwards
Requirement
(like
a waterfall)
Phase,
System
through
Design,
the
System
Coding, System Testing, System Implementation.
phases
of
Development,
Requirement Phase
System Design
System Development
System Testing
System Implementation
Figure 2: Waterfall Model
Requirements phase. Requirement phase involves
gathering a considerable amount of information. It is very
important
to
expectations
understand
the
so
the
that
customers
end
requirements
product
meets
and
his
specifications.
System Design. This phase focused on the data
requirements, the software construction and the interface of
the
system.
The
developers
followed
the
requirements
specified by the company and made use of the different tools
such as database schema, entity-relationship diagram (ERD),
and
data
flow
diagram
in
developing
the
design
of
the
system.
System
Development.
This
phase
involved
converting design specification into executable programs.
System
organizations
to
Testing.
complete
This
various
phase
tests
to
required
ensure
the
accuracy of the programmed code, the inclusion of expected
functionality and interoperability of application. Erroneous
codes were rewritten and tested again until desired output
is [Link] this phase, the developer conducted system
testing method such as user acceptance test or acceptability
test
to
ensure
all
the
features
of
the
system
are
functioning as expected as well as the reliability of the
system.
System
Implementation.
The
implementation
phase involved installing the approved application into the
company.
Primary
tasks
would
include
announcing
the
implementation schedule, training end-users who used the
system
and
developers
installing
conducted
the
product.
training
with
At
the
this
end
phase,
users.
the
After
which, researchers deployed and installed the system in the
company.
Data Flow Diagram of the Proposed System
4.0
ADD SL to
Instructor
Admin
Save
System
2.0
Add Instructor
Save
System
5.0
Update Record
Save
System
Student
Student account
1.0
Register
1.0
D1
Instructor account
Record
D2
Instructor
4.0
Update Grades
Online
Student
Instructor
Record
Use Case Diagram of the Proposed System
Record
Grades
View
Student
Grades
Login
Admin
Distribute/Upload
Grades
Teacher
SecureGra
des