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Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

Chapter 4

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter presents the synopsis of the feasibility

study. Salient points are reemphasized together with the

recommendations.

Summary

The presence of advance technology paves way to

different online and computerized systems. Development of

web-based systems opens many doors for many computer

professionals and online enthusiast. There are many factors

why people adapt Internet as their mainstream for business

and communication. Sharing information is not new in the

Internet. Today, many organizations use the Internet not

only for any online processing but also as a tool for

marketing strategy. Webpage introduces overview of the

institution’s profiles attracting and convincing online

users like students.

The project study tagged as LNU-CCMS was intended to

help and provide students and faculty of CSIT department in

the access of course materials.

Specifically, it attempted to answer the following

questions:
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Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

1. What are the existing course materials accessed by

the faculty and students of CSIT department from Lyceum-

Northwestern University?

2. What are the difficulties experienced in the access

of course materials by:

a. students

b. faculty

3. What system features shall comprise the CCMS?

4. What security measures are applicable in terms of

data integrity and data security?

Agile System Development Life Cycle was used to analyze

and design the proposed project study. The analysis of

existing course materials and procedures was very essential

in the identification of difficulties experienced by

students and faculty. Interview was utilized to gather

pertinent information in the conduct of study. Students and

faculty from the CSIT department were chosen to be the

respondents who are recognized as the most qualified to

answer the questions and provide the information needed

coupled with document analysis. In addition, the researcher

made use of books, Internet and library resources as

secondary sources of data.

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Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

Findings

Based on the research problems, the following are the

findings of the project study:

1. Based on the data gathered from the interview, the

following existing course materials are accessible by the

faculty and students of CSIT department.

a. Course curriculum. The course program curriculum is

very accessible according to the Registrar’s Office.

Requesting students should have to pay for another

copy.

b. Course syllabi. Course syllabi are very important

both to faculty and students according to one of the

faculty interviewed. Instances in accessibility is

compromised due to late submission, revisions, late

approval or intentionally not provided by faculty.

c. Course outline. This course material is accessible

and is provided by the faculty a week after the

classes start.

d. Lecture notes. These are the most important course

materials students need. Due to unavailable

workbooks for the CSIT department, photocopy or

printed copy are always done to provide students

copy of the topics. It is accessible but a faculty

member sacrifices his time and effort to give

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Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

quality education to students with the quality of

service.

e. Computer books. Computer books are one of the many

books used by the students in their conduct of study

and research. There are many computer books in the

library but are mostly outdated. There are only few

computer books dated from 1998 to 2008. The Internet

room is the best alternative tool for up-to-date

information but the ratios of students to the number

of computers are not sufficient enough to

accommodate all students.

f. Bulletin boards. This has been considered an

effective means of informing students on up-to-date

information and other departmental concerns but is a

tedious job.

g. Workbooks. At the moment, there are some workbooks

used but are considered unofficial by the Research

and Development Management Office.

2. The analysis on the difficulties experienced by the

faculty and students in the access of course materials are

as follows:

a. Students. Based on the data gathered from the

interviews, the following are lists of difficulties

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Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

experienced by the students in the access of course

materials:

First, request of course curriculum is not simple if a

student requests another copy of the course curriculum.

Aside from paying a minimum fee, difficulty exists when the

Registrar’s Office runs out of copy.

Second, students have difficulty in adjusting their

allowance or budget just to have copies of these course

materials because photo-copied course materials are costly.

Third, students experienced difficulty in finding

relevant books in computers and other useful resources to

use in the LNU library because it lacks the number of

updated and important computer books. Also, students find it

difficult to use several resources rather than using one and

complete source.

Fourth, students found it difficult to grasp from

topics or discussions and follow instructions due to lack of

workbooks and LCD projector for presentation, thus, students

are forced to copy contents written on the board. As a

result, students have difficulties to cope up faster from

the topics and follow instructions effectively.

Lastly, students experienced difficulties in

downloading and copying lecture notes and other course

materials repetitively using the internet services. In

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Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

addition, it is practical yet uneasy way to copy course

materials using flash drives or memory cards, compact disk

(CD), or diskette.

b. Faculty. Based on the data gathered from the

interviews, the following are list of difficulties

experienced by the faculty members in the access of course

materials:

First, faculty members frequently re-encode course

syllabi and course outline if softcopy and/or hardcopies are

already deleted, corrupted or lost due to unsecured storage

or repository of these course materials.

Second, it is a very difficult and tiresome task for a

faculty to photocopy course materials used in the laboratory

and classroom discussion or copy it one by one to students’

flash drives or memory stick due to lack of workbooks and

LCD projectors.

Third, the lack of computer books from the library and

workbooks exclusive for the CSIT students makes it difficult

for faculty members to discuss topics and encourage students

to use the library.

Fourth, the lack of available IT tools for class

discussion and presentation such as an LCD projector,

faculty members will have difficulties in teaching the

students. This is a fact that LNU lacks these IT tools.

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Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

Lastly, it is very difficult to request audio-visual

tools for class presentation because the LCD projectors

available in LNU are all kept and used by the College of

Nursing and have to pass several processes for the approval

and use.

3. Considering the system features comprising the

CCMS, the following are used:

Browser-based application enables the system to run on

a browser-based environment eliminating the need for client

software. This means that the system is capable of running

its own stand-alone programs, but could interact with remote

computers via a network.

The system is designed in a Microsoft compatible

environment. The system supports Web-based platform language

using Active Server Page (ASP) and MS Access as the

database.

CCMS supports hypertext mark-up language (html) and

scripting features using the cascading style sheet (css) to

ensure a consistent look.

A wiki feature, a collaborative CCMS feature in which

the content can be edited by users with access on the

system.

A content collaboration which adopts content reuse that

allows system administrator and faculty members to create

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Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

and edit in MS Word environment. This feature is extremely

helpful for sharing the content contribution except lecture

notes between faculty members.

Users can view contents on a “what you see is what you

get” or WYSIWYG format. Students and faculty members can

view, download or print the contents in the same format.

Document management is another feature that provides a

central repository for faculty and system administrator to

manage documents and digital files.

CCMS adopts an archiving feature that will establish

long term storage or backup of selected course materials

allowing CCMS to save files for future use.

User authentication and modifying access and controls

allows the system administrator to manage and control users’

access level and limitations to CCMS.

4. With regards to security measures, to maintain data

integrity and data security, the proposed system will adopt

the following:

First is the log in form for students. The student ID

number serves as the username and personal password for

additional security. Through this, students can only view

and download course materials.

Second, to protect files uploaded by the faculty,

faulty ID number will be used as the username and personal

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Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

password. Subsequently, faculty can upload, view, download

and delete files under certain limitations like course

syllabi, course outline, lecture notes and subject

requirements for students.

Third is the log in form for the system administrator.

He will be in-charged of system management and is tasked to

maintain, design, and update CSIT webpage contents.

Furthermore, system administrator can maintain and control

the system without any restriction.

For additional data security, all files contained from

the database will be “read-only”. It can be viewed and/or

downloaded. These limitations applied to course materials in

which users cannot delete or replace it.

The server accepts and processes database requests from

clients, checks authorization, therefore, ensures data

integrity constraints are not violated.

Conclusions

Based on the findings herewith identified, the

following are the conclusions of the project study:

1. Course curriculum, course syllabi, course outline,

lecture notes, and computer books in the library are the

existing course materials available and are limitedly

accessed by the students and faculty. There is no online

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Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

system that will integrate all these course materials for

faster and efficient accessibility.

2. The faculty and students experienced difficulties in

the access of course materials.

3. The use of CCMS features enables users to

effectively use the system on a user-friendly environment

providing faculty members and students with the ease of use

and access of course materials.

4. The LNU-CCMS adopts log in module for students,

faculty and system administrator as security measures. This

is to ensure that these accounts have only the specific

permissions they need to execute authorized functions. All

files contained in the database will be “read-only”. LNU-

CCMS will be installed on the same server for maximum

security and management.

Recommendations

Based on the findings and conclusions presented

earlier, the researcher recommends the following:

1. LNU-CCMS had to be first implemented at the Computer

Science and Information Technology department for pilot

testing. The purpose of doing such is to validate the

system’s overall performance for further enhancement before

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Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

it will be integrated to Lyceum-Northwestern University’s

webpage.

2. Since the server is located at the IT Technical

Support office, LNU-CCMS had to be implemented where LNU’s

website is maintained.

3. LNU’s server is maintained through Microsoft

compatible software. Since LNU-CCMS was designed on

Microsoft compatibility, MS Access has to be installed as

database.

4. System dry run has to be undertaken in order for the

faculty to be familiar with the process and important

guidelines.

5. The system administrator should come up with

guidelines in the use and implementation of LNU-CCMS.

6. Searching of files should not be limited to document

files only. Instead, it will also consider other file

formats like PDF, spreadsheets and presentations which are

considered important to students in searching other files

with related contents.

7. Further study is recommended and is open to

suggestions to enhance the system to cater to the needs of

the faculty, students and the institution as a whole.

8. Database will be tied up to the database of LNU’s

computerized system, known as “SchoolBliz” to accurately

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Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

integrate the students’ access of course materials based on

the subjects enrolled.

9. Other colleges and departments should be included in

using the CCMS.