Santa_Isabel_Computerized_Enrollment_System

INTRODUCTION Today, technologies have become widespread that even simple tasks are resorted to be done with the aid of these powerful scientific inventions. Through the innovativeness and technical knowledge possessed by men, computers are making revolutionary changes in the way people live, play and work. The contribution of computers in the business fields has been undeniably strong and effective. To perform a complex and tedious work in a very effective manner could be attributed to a computer because of its usefulness like storing, retrieving, and clever of processing information. The microcomputer and development of various software are not just for scientific and engineering use as well as for business purposes made a significant impact on the computer industry. The demand for them grew rapidly when people realized that to make better decision or solve problem, it could be found at the tip of one’s fingers at the quickest time possible. Without us noticing it, our world has been innovated by technology in all possible ways this millennium. People have been replaced by robots, tasks have been made easier by different software, and newly developed technologies have been updated even before it has been introduced to most of the world, and much more, faster than our imagination could catch. These innovations aim to better utilize the existing resources and maximize their uses to be able to bring out new or better products or results. Computerization is synonymous to the word automation which is the act of implementing the control with equipment with advanced technology, which usually involves using electronic hardware. It also implies the replacement of human workers with machines. (FARL, 2012) Different institutions have been seeking different form of innovations to their current system for better service to their customers since customer’s satisfaction should always be placed as first priority in whatever business. This strategy is also to maintain their competence in the market, considering the growing number of businesses, establishments and institutions seeking for trust and patronage from customers. Academic institution is of the many organizations which greatly adopts and embraced technological innovation. Many schools have come up with their unique websites in order to create a projection of being competent as an institution, considering that competency nowadays is based on technology. The projection that this innovation brings is simply a greater chance of having more applicants for enrollment year-in and year-out. As an academic entity which has been and is continuously pursuing excellence, Santa Isabel College has been giving services to its community with the best that they could offer. It seeks every room for improvement in order to upgrade the current processes in the school. One of the major processes which directly involve the students and the administration is the enrollment process. Santa Isabel College is operating and is divided into two departments namely, the Basic Education (Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Level) and Higher Education (Tertiary Level).In relation to the study, HED is currently using manual system from the updating of the student’s checklist, selection of subjects to accomplishing the enrollment/registration form and counter-checking the subjects in the checklist to those in the enrollment/registration form. The use of manual system has been causing inconvenience both to the administration and to the students and is repeatedly occurring throughout the complete academic year cycle (1st semester, 2nd semester and summer). With the developed computerized enrollment system, the current system could significantly improve all the areas of enrollment processes and procedures. In this manner, the dispensation of academic excellence will leave no room for error, thus, making consistent and accurate data input, database and data transmission without fear of data loss, less confusion and time consumption. 1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Santa Isabel College has been acclaimed to be the oldest running school for women. Despite the presence of competition among tertiary schools, the school still maintains its image of producing well-rounded and competent professionals exemplifying Christian values while upholding the school’s Vision-Mission. Using “LA HERMANIDAD DE LA SANTA MISERICORDIA” as model, and its functions which orphaned and educated more than 7, 000 girls since 1594 has been the base of the dream-came-reality- “COLEGIO DE SANTA ISABEL” was founded on October 24, 1632 by a charitable brotherhood. Its first president was Don Juan Fernandez de Leon and its primary objective was to educate Spanish orphans but later, also accepted Filipino girls. King Philip IV ordered in a Royal decree on 1733 that Colegio de Santa Isabel (named in memory of Queen Isabel of Bourbon, his first wife) be called Real Colegio de Santa Isabel. Under the Royal Decree of Queen Isabel II, the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, otherwise known as “Hijas de la Caridad” were send to the Philippines to assist the educational programs of Spain. They took over Real Colegio de Santa Isabel on September 18, 1864. The College was then in Intramuros until it was totally destroyed by fire during the liberation of Manila. After losing the Colegio, the Sisters sought refuge at St. Rita’s College which was fortunately spared from the ravages of war. The sisters were not contented with the temporariness of the situation, so these courageous women led by Sr. Juana Zabalza, Superior of the College at that time, and the indefatigable principal Sr. Candida Ocampo, who later became the first Filipina Superior of the College, were able to acquire the former St. Rita at 210 Taft Avenue, Manila. In 1982, Santa Isabel College celebrated its 350th Foundation Anniversary. After three and a half centuries, Santa Isabel College has expanded its educational programs. At present, the school is offering the following programs: Morning Class Programs: o Music Program ▪ Master of Arts Major in Music Education; Master of Music (MM); ▪ Majors in Composition, Voice, Piano, Music Education with concentration in Musicology & Piano Pedagogy; ▪ Bachelor of Music Major in Piano, Voice, Guitar, Violin, Viola, Cello, Clarinet, Flute, Saxophone, Marimba, Kulintang, Percussion, Composition, Conducting and Philippine Music; o AB Education Program ▪ Bachelor of Arts (AB) Major in English ▪ Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSEd) Major in Computer Education, English, Religious Education/Catechetics; ▪ Teacher Certificate Program (TCP) for Professionals o Business Administration Program ▪ Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) Major in: Marketing Management, Financial Management and Human Resource Development Management o Computer Studies Program ▪ Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT) o Accountancy Program ▪ Bachelor of Science in Accountancy (BSA) o Hotel and Restaurant Management Program ▪ Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Restaurant Management (BSHRM); Evening Class Programs ▪ Bachelor of Science in Hotel Restaurant Management(BSHRM); ▪ Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT); ▪ Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Major in: Marketing, Financial Management & Human Resources Management. With the offering of the courses, Santa Isabel College opened its portals to male students, which was not actually new because the Music Program has always been accepting male students after World War II. 1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Since Santa Isabel College is currently performing enrollment tasks using manual system. Its continuous manual operation has proven to be unsatisfactory, inefficient and inaccurate. Hence, the developers identified the problems encountered and experienced by the school divided as general and specific problems. GENERAL PROBLEM: How will the developers create and design a Computerized Enrollment System for Higher Education Department that will enhance the current enrollment system to facilitate registration easily, provide more accurate data entry of subjects and schedule, ease the workload of the Registrar and ultimately, have faster and convenient enrollment procedures that will lessen the time consumed' SPECIFIC PROBLEMS: The following are the specific problems drawn by the developers: ➢ How will the developers create a system that will address the difficulty in encoding subjects and schedule in the enrollment/registration form' ➢ How will the developers design a system that would ease both the administration and the students from posting and inquiry of subject schedules at the bulletin boards' ➢ How will the developers improve the current system of school in the process of storing and retrieving data or records of students' ➢ How will the developers provide the school a system that would avoid inconvenience and delay due to the long line of applicants in different offices' ➢ How will the developers create a system that will generate academic reports fast and easy' 1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The study aims to provide a more reliable system to relieve the students and the people working in the offices as well from the inconvenience brought about by the current system. Thus, the study is significant to the following: To the Head Registrar The system will ease the Head of the Registrar and staff from the inconvenience brought about by the current manual system. The file of papers during enrollment days serving as records or database used as reference for specific concerns during the semester will now be made available in just a click in the computer. The recovery of the students' files and records can now be easily done and will be more accurate or reliable. To the Students The current manual and long process of enrollment from writing the subject information and schedule, to the standing-in-line stage will be minimized. Since the system provides reliable and valid information, it will be a lot easier as well to determine the academic standing of the student. The developed system can be of help in determining how a student is performing in his/her subjects and will be very useful during the latter part of the term. It is also a great help in the interest of the student applicant knowing the there is no need to consult different staff of the administration, or hop from one office to another. To the Secretary The secretary will no longer be burdened of the procedures entailed in the posting of subject information and schedule for easy reference of students during enrollment period, as well as the distribution of enrollment/registration forms. The system will be the one to provide students with the form and the posting of subjects through an interface for encoding purposes. The entries encoded will be made available to all those who could access the system namely, the students and the selected members of the administration. To the Program Chairperson Since the system will provide a computerized copy of the student’s checklist, there is no need for the Program Chairperson to counter-check it with the accomplished enrollment/registration form to ensure that the subjects and schedule are accurate before endorsing it to the Registrar. The process of counter-checking is a very tough and critical function because it may be confusing to verify the inputs with the pre-requisite subjects, results or remarks and the grades of the previous subjects. The information in the checklist may not be very reliable as well since it is the studentwho possesses them. The information may be edited anytime for any purpose the student may desire. To Santa Isabel College The study aims to come up with a system that would lighten the workload of members of the administration as well as from the trouble or difficulty that the manual system gives. The presence of a running and reliable system is a very good asset of any institution for it adds credibility, productivity and integrity on the services delivered to its clientele. Further, the dynamics of the developed computerized enrollment system could also be a tool in promoting the facilities of the institution to attract future enrollees. To the Developers The study will be a grand way of displaying the technical and analytical skills of the developers in the creation of a system. This can also be a chance for the developers to display and execute their capabilities as programmers, logical thinkers, and effective communicators. Moreover, the whole process entails how camaraderie among the developers was enhanced. To the Computer Studies Program The study can be considered as another product of the Computer Studies Program as it can be claimed as a product of its members – the students who at the same time are the developers of the study, and the faculty members who generously shared their knowledge. The study can be used an output of the program which can be used for any academic concern. Truly, the system implementation would be one great project of the program that the Computer Studies Program that could be proud of. To Future Researchers This study can serve as a very reliable source and as a basis for future researchers who will propose and later on develop the same field of study.The trend of replacing the current manual enrollment system of different schools, especially universities and colleges is widely spreading since technology innovates in an unimaginable rate. This development invites future students to continuously seek innovations on manual processes to computerized system. 1.3 CURRENT STATE OF TECHNOLOGY Since almost every function of human has a counterpart which is computer-related, computerization is the main focus of today’s modernization. Whatever task that could be done using computer means lessening the presence or existence of human error as computers has the probability of producing accurate output. As to how computers respond to this particular need of assisting or replacing humans to perform tasks, this trend is expected to continue in the future. The following interrelated technological and non-technological concepts, principles and/or fundamentals undeniably work positively in any organizational set-up with the intent of improving manual processes. It is an undeniable truth that in order to be competitive, institutions must adapt to the changing world invaded by technology. Computerization is a control system that manages processes in industrial workplace. It reduced human errors and processing time, thus it can boost productivity and resulted into high quality of product produce. In Information System study, computerization is concerned about interrelating different but interdependent transactions. This can result in a system with well-integrated processes that can perform much faster and more accurate than a manual system. (ILAG, 2010) Information Systems (IS) is an integrated set of components for collecting, storing, and processing data and for delivering information, knowledge, and digital products. Business firms and other organizations rely on information systems to carry out and manage their operations, interact with their customers and suppliers, and compete in the marketplace.(BRIT, 2011) Computer Information System(s) (CIS) is the collection of technical and human resources that provide the storage, computing, distribution, and communication for the information required by all or some part of an enterprise. It is also a common name for an organization within an enterprise that is responsible for its data processing and information system or systems. (WHAT, 2011) Enrollment System is the process of entering and verifying data of student to register on a particular school. Different interrelated processes build up enrollment procedures called Enrollment System (ES). ES are used particularly in recording and retrieving student’s information. Tracking student’s information is also one feature of ES, in which the school can trace the standing of a student. Verifying payments was also added to update or browse student’s billings. (ILAG, 2010) Inquiry can be referred to as the act of seeking for information by asking questions, or a process of interrogation. It can also be a search for truth, information, or knowledge, examination into facts or principles, research, or investigation. An inquiry is any process that has the aim of augmenting knowledge, resolving doubt, or solving a problem. A theory of inquiry is an account of the various types of inquiry and a treatment of the ways that each type of inquiry achieves its aim. (THIN, 2012) Application is the act of applying as a means, the employment of means to accomplish an end or specific use. Likewise, it is a request, a document containing a request, as, his application was placed on file. (THIN, 2012) Fourth-Generation Technique (4GT) includes the application of tools and techniques for expeditious development of software solutions. Besides expeditious development, fourth-generation techniques help to control effort, resources, and cost of development. Commonly used fourth-generation techniques in development models are mentioned here.They are: Report Generation; Database Query Languages; Data Manipulation; Screen Definition and Interaction; Code Generation; Connectivity, such as ODBC, JDBC, and Interfacing; Web-engineering Tools; Graphics, Spreadsheet Generation Capability; and CASE Tools. (JONE, 2010) 1.4 DOCUMENTATION OF THE CURRENT SYSTEM Enrollment Process Computers are almost indispensable to most industries especially if it deals with voluminous records. Hence, in most academic institutions, the use of computers is an immense help in managing records and files. With the volume of files such as those from student’s records, finances, inventories, and others needed for its operation, the use of computer has made tasks simpler, faster and more efficient. The enrollment process adopted by the Higher Education Department of Santa Isabel College is manual from its initial phase by completing the Enrollment/Registration Form up to the evaluation of subjects by the Program Chairperson. The enrollment starts from the Secretariat’s office, where all students are required to get the copies of the enrollment/registration formgiven in three (3) copies to be filled up by the applicant student. It indicates the student’s full name, I.D. number, course and year, address, the information regarding the desired subjects (time, day, subject code and description, unit and room number) with signatures noted by the Chairperson and Registrar’s Head for approval. The first copy, which is for the Registrar, requires students to fill up the Student Information Card which asks for the student’s full name, gender, date of enrollment, school year, classification from either full time regular and part time or under load, date and place of birth, nationality, religion, parish or diocese, civil status, name of parent or guardian, city and provincial addresses and telephone numbers, name of school where student took his/her primary, intermediate, high school and last school attended prior to Santa Isabel College, if applicable, and the years of attendance, and lastly the student’s signature. This serves as the record of the Registrar’s Office for that semester which means that all the information should be done manually every time a student applies for enrollment or at least twice a year or thrice for those who would like to take summer classes. The next step is to require the students to inquire into the bulletin boards which contain the subject schedule as reference of the students. Once the form was accomplished, it will be presented to the Program Chairperson for checking. The approval depends on the subjects written in the form – if they have not taken the subject yet, if they are included in the checklist and there are no pre-requisite subjects and lastly, if there is no conflict on the schedule of the subjects. This part of the enrollment also gives the Chairperson to assess the standing of each student, either as regular or irregular. Once signed, the form can now be brought to the Registrar’sOffice for final checking and encoding into the system for the production of the Certificate of Matriculation where the complete schedule, and the total amount and break-down of the expenses are listed. In case of graduating students, another evaluation should be done in the Registrar’s Office. This is being done before the enrollment/registration form is signed for approval and the subjects are encoded. In the case of new students, transferees and foreign students, he/she must first secure a copy of the Application for Entrance Examination form at the Registrar’s Office. This requires the applicant to classify his/her request from freshmen, transferee or second degree and write his/her full name, age, place and date of birth, citizenship, gender, civil status, religion, permanent or mailing and Metro Manila address, telephone number, e-mail address, and the name and address of last school attended. The form also indicates the following requirements for application: o For Freshmen: ▪ Photocopy of Report Card, Birth and Baptismal Certificates ▪ Recommendation letter from Principal/Guidance Counselor placed in a sealed envelope duly countersigned across the flap ▪ Three (3) copies of 2x2 I.D. picture. o For Transferees: ▪ Honorable Dismissal of Transfer Credentials ▪ Transcript of Records for evaluation purposes ▪ Photocopy of Birth and Baptismal Certificates ▪ Recommendation Letter from Dean/Guidance ▪ Three (3) copies of 2x2 I.D. picture o For Foreign Students: ▪ Alien Certificate Registration (ACR) ▪ Study Permit ▪ Original Personal History Statement with Picture ▪ Authenticated Transcript of Records, Notarized Affidavit of Support ▪ Authenticated Bank Certificate of Parents ▪ Notarized Copy of Passport of the Applicant ▪ Certificate of Good Moral Character ▪ Photocopy of Report Card, Birth and Baptismal Certificates ▪ Recommendation Letter from Principal/Guidance Counselor placed in a sealed envelope duly countersigned across the flap ▪ Three (3) copies of 2x2 I.D. picture o Evening Class Program: ▪ Application Letter ▪ Autobiography (handwritten) ▪ Certificate of Employment (with 1 month pay slip) ▪ Parents Income Tax Return or Certificate of non-payment ITR ▪ Photocopy of Report Card, Birth and Baptismal Certificates ▪ Recommendation Letter from Principal/Guidance Counselor placed in a sealed envelope duly countersigned across the flap ▪ Three (3) copies of 2x2 I.D. picture. The requirements, together with the accomplished Application for Entrance Examination Form, should be brought back to the Registrar’s Office for checking before endorsing it to the Accounting Office for payment of the Entrance Examination Fee. After which, the applicant may now proceed to the Guidance Office for the scheduling of the entrance examination. The bottom part of the Application for Entrance Examination form serves as the Entrance Examination Permit. This contains the examinee number, date of filing of application, full name of the applicant, and the place, date and time of the examination. If the applicant passes the examination, the Guidance Office will then give him/her a copy of the Admission Slip. After securing this form, the applicant can now proceed to the Secretariat’s Office and proceed to the enrollment process and complete the tasks the same as with the re-enrollees. Manual transactions in large companies or businesses mean piles of papers inside the offices. The practice of creating piles of paper becomes a worst practice when the level of disorganization in your desk and office start to cause you to forget important deadlines or assignments, misplace information that you need, or cause you to waste time searching through your piles for an important piece of paper you need to complete a task. (TIME, 2011) The issue of unorganized office may branch to more problems. Malfunction or any flaws in the function of the administration of any business may cause inconvenience to customers. Santa Isabel College is not exempted from this problem during the enrollment days, for it faces these kinds of concerns or issues, probably more, year in and year out, thrice a year (1st and 2nd semester and summer) to be exact. There are several flaws in the current system which has a great possibility or room for improvement. Even though students have been undergoing the same enrollment process every single semester, problems still occur either on their part or that of the administration. The tendency to lose patience while standing in line or if the person they need to talk to is not available is very high which could result to disagreement or confusion. This is not the ideal enrollment system that should be implemented in any office or in any kind of institution whose life and blood is the patronage and trust of its clients. 1.5 SURVEY LITERATURES This part of the paper consists of various related foreign and local literatures and studies about the developed system. It includes articles (both published and unpublished materials), books as well as internet sources. Every piece of the research needs to be aligned with each other to attain an overall relevance and purpose. The review of literature thus, becomes a link between the research developed and the studies previously conducted. The developers gathered related researches and studies, serving as guide to the study. All these information were used in the development of the developed system. Foreign Literatures An Inside Look at Enrollment Growth at Indian Rocks Christian School Dr. Don Mayes, Superintendent of Indian Rocks Christian School in Largo, FL, met with me about a year ago to discuss the enrollment situation at his school. For the past five years, the enrollment had declined from 930 students in 2006-07 to a low of 693 in 2010-11. Obviously, he and his leadership team wanted to find a way to turn this around. As a result of this discussion, I suggested that he take several critical steps to grow the school. First, he needed to take the risk to create a new position at IRCS, the Director of Enrollment and Marketing—a position that had not existed at the school. Their enrollment process had been decentralized and no one person had focused on enrollment and marketing during this period of decline. Don took the risk and presented the need to his school board. As a result, dollars were allocated and, after an extensive search, Pamela Pardi was hired to lead this effort. Second, we worked together to develop a focused enrollment and marketing plan for the school. This included setting aggressive enrollment goals to grow the school. His goals included an increase in retention by 2%, stabilizing enrollment especially with a large graduating class leaving IRCS, and a significant increase in new students. In an effort to reach these goals, the plan focused on persistent and timely personal contacts and follow-up with inquiries and applicants. My role was to provide ongoing coaching and direction for the implementation of this plan. Finally, IRCS moved forward in developing a new website, www.IRCS.org, designed by Cherry+Company and hosted through RenWeb’s SchoolSite content management system. Dollars were allocated to improving the primary marketing and communication’s tool that the school has in today’s market. Now, we are focused on implementing search optimization strategies through the ongoing guidance and expertise of North Star Marketing. The following were the results: • 3% Growth and Enrollment Goal Exceeded – For the first time in five years, IRCS has experienced enrollment growth. This is a remarkable turnaround, especially since IRCS had experienced dramatic decreases in recent years; • 3% Retention Increase – IRCS exceeded their retention goal of 85% by 1% to reach a five-year record at 86%; and • 50% Growth in New Students – IRCS came within 11 students of reaching our extremely aggressive goal of 163 new students by reaching 152. The total number of new students enrolling at IRCS the past several years has averaged around 100. Therefore, IRCS enrolled 50% more new students this year, which helped to off-set the large graduating class. (NEWB, 2013) The issue of declining numbers of applicants or enrollees at Christian Rock Christian School is parallel to the issue in Santa Isabel College of low enrollment population. The new director of the school came up with various steps in order to resolve the problem. A marketing plan has been mentioned in one of the steps and same as how the Higher Education Department of SIC, a plan to continuously find different forms of innovation in order to attract and invite enrollees has been in their agenda. The computerization of the enrollment system is another big step in seeking the best the school can offer to its people, resolving different issues of the administrators and more importantly the students. Case Study – Enrollment System Solution KCC is a general Further Education College historically focusing on adult students. We have a large number of part time courses and relatively few full times. KCC have had an online prospectus on our website linked into our student information system for some years now and we were one of the first colleges to achieve this (initially using Dolphin and now UNIT-e). We call this system KIPS – KCC Internet Prospectus System. All the course details are drawn directly from the student information system and displayed on our website. This minimizes work as the data only needs to be entered once and ensures that the course details advertised to students match the courses when they come to enroll. While in funding terms the college is medium sized, the number of student enrolments is equivalent to many much larger colleges so the administrative overhead in processing enrolments is relatively high compared to income and this makes any way in which this process can be streamlined particularly attractive. Our first online enrolment system went live a couple of years ago and consisted of a web based form for students to enter their details and select courses from KIPS. The form was emailed internally and then students were called back to take their credit card details over the phone. This worked around the technical complexities of taking payments online, but more importantly, allowed a manual check on whether places were available and a conversation to confirm which fee should be paid. Most of our courses have three fees, the standard fee, a concessionary fee for students receiving benefits and a “full cost” overseas fee. This was a “pseudo” online enrolment system in that the transaction was not actually completed online. However our research indicated that while a number of colleges appear to allow online enrolment, nearly all of them actually work in this way. Online Payment While this system was a benefit to students, it still involved administrative work, especially if students were not available to call back, so we needed to implement a full system which included online payment. However, over a year later, no more than a couple of colleges were doing genuine online enrolment. At least one had tried but withdrawn their system due to problems linking to curriculum and charging the correct fees. This was clearly going to be a challenge. There were three big issues to overcome: – – the technical one of taking payment online and linking this into KIPS and the details the student enters keeping an accurate count of places available, given that this is not just an online system, but students are simultaneously enrolling in person and by post assessing which fee the student should pay Capita have an online enrolments system which we assessed last year, but agreed it was not suitable for our requirements: – KIPS was a mature system and giving us much more detailed control over which courses appeared on the website and how they were presented than the Capita system offered. We needed to do online fees assessment. We have a high proportion of students paying concessionary fees and it would have severely limited the benefits of the system if it could only cater for those students paying the full fee. We wanted to maximize the number of students who could enroll online, to free up resources at enrolment time. The Capita system requires students to go through a registration process on the website before they can enroll, including setting up a password which they then have to remember. We felt that this presented too much of a barrier. In our system, students are asked to provide their student number for matching with their existing record if they have one, but are not forced. So we opted to develop our own, building on our existing KIPS. Requirements analysis and specification were done internally and we outsourced the development. We also wanted to use the system for data validation, as UNIT-e only incorporates minimal validation in its data entry forms as standard. The new system has much more “intelligence” and is able to do fees assessment online and charge the appropriate fee – concession, full or overseas. It also intelligently asks questions according to previous answers – e.gg it only asks the ESF questions if the student has chosen an FE direct course. We thought carefully about how full courses should be handled. We could simply show courses as full on the website, so that they do not attract enrolments. Benefits Building our own form has enabled us to incorporate validation rules which apply as the form is being completed, which ensures invalid data is not entered in the first place and so reduces the work removing errors before funding returns can be done. In addition to the obvious benefits to students of offering a remote online enrolment service, we are starting to use the system in additional ways: – To collect overseas fees where the students are in different time zones and it is hard to contact them To offer “self-service” enrolment from computers within the College for students who might not have web access and who would normally have to queue up. This will be especially valuable at peak enrolment times. For interview courses, where the student cannot do a direct enrolment, they can still pay online after they have been offered a place. Overall, given how far ahead we seem to be and that we have not experienced the problems some other colleges appear to have had, we are well pleased. Please give our system a try – www.kcc.ac.uk – choose a course which allows direct enrolment, you can go through the entire enrolment process and just back out at the payment stage. (REA, 2006) Even though the developed system for Santa Isabel College cannot be accessed online, the fact that an automated system is present and up and running definitely is something for students to look forward to. The inconvenience of the students, especially the working or part-time students in KCC has been put into the consideration RELEVANCE Enrollment Management Case Study The current state of affairs at SBAC is fragmented. Internal relationships will have to be developed and honed in order to achieve an increase in new student matriculation yields and in student retention rates. Furthermore, it is important that a new campus strategic plan include SBAC faculty. SBAC cannot survive without buy-in from its faculty. There are two theories which are extremely applicable to SBAC’s enrollment crisis. These theories (Resources Dependency Theory and Systems Theory) are useful in understanding and analyzing external/internal factors that affect SBAC’s enrollment outlook. According to Hossler and Hoezee (2001), “No theoretical construct provides a better understanding of the emergence of the field of enrollment management, or provides a better focal point for enrollment managers, than Resource Dependency Theory” (p. 4). Resources Dependency Theory looks at how the external environment affects internal resources. Hossler and Hoezee (2001) state that “Resource Dependency Theory helps enrollment managers to continually ask the following question. What are the scarce resources for my campus associated with student enrollments'” (p. 5). As the Director of Admissions, it is crucial that I have the ability to provide input and influence across a multitude of campus decisions. Enrollment managers need to ask themselves the following questions: 1. What are the areas of scarcity on my campus' 2. Are student enrollments associated with any of these' 3. Can my organizational unit help to provide these scarce resources' Over the past three years admission standards have been lowered to try and enroll more students. Unfortunately, this technique did not work. This is probably due to a lack of data and SEM strategies. There are several questions which need to be addressed regarding the lowering of SBAC admission standards. What factors besides lower admission standards contribute to a student’s progression through the admissions funnel' SBAC needs to implement a holistic SEM plan. The mission of the institution needs to be at the core of its enrollment management goals. Money will have to be spent in order to overcome deficiencies like campus beautification and to increase Admissions marketing. The 3 year plan will start off with a lot of data analysis. Without proper data from multiple shareholders, a SEM initiative will fail. It is critical that we work on relationships with both our internal communities and our external resources. SEM can increase our enrollment numbers and improve our retention rates. (STOL, 2006) RELEVANCE Foreign Studies Long Beach City College Enrollment System [pic] Figure 1.5.1 Page Layout of Long Beach City College Enrollment System Southern California Community Long Beach City College has gone live with anew Cognos-based enrollment management system that was designed by Irvine, CA-based professional services firm e2e Analytix. Prior to installing the new system, LBCC, which has two main campuses and multiple satellites that support nine schools and 34 departments, handled its enrollment via manual spreadsheets. With no reporting, continuity, or standard practices, and with lengthy error corrections, the school’s enrollment management budgeting and planning took up to three months to compile, consolidate, and implement. LBCC tapped e2e Analytix, which specializes in higher education, to design a web-based enrollment management system using Cognos Enterprise Planning software from Cognos Inc. (Ottawa, Ontario). Using Cognos for enrollment management was a unique application for Cognos, according to Dan Galuppo, e2e’s director of professional services, but the result delivers real-time data collection, consolidation, workflow, and calculations to help LBCC enrollment staff make faster and more informed decisions. (SCRI, 2010) Long Beach City College is the same as the developed system with respect to processing the data before the implementation of the developed enrollment system. Santa Isabel College has been using papers such as spreadsheets, database, student information and more, making the filing of the information unreliable. The issue of having time wasted in the completion of the tasks of the administration have been repeatedly occurring which limits the production of the whole institution. Using Microsoft Access as storage, the developed system allows the school staff concerned with the enrollment process to ensure the credibility and security of their important documents by using a computerized system in the inputting, storage and recovery of these files. This feature is similar to the advancement done with the Long Beach City College Enrollment System. With the consideration on the current and expected numbers of records needed to be kept, the developed system can easily accommodate a vast amount of data. Edith Cowan University Enrollment System [pic] Figure 1.5.2 Page Layout of Edith Cowan University Edith Cowan University (ECU) is currently enrolling more than 5, 000 new students, which has been made easier with itsOracle-based online enrolment system. This has allowed ECU to substantially re-design its business processes. The system is known as the Edith Cowan University Web Enrolment System (ECUWES), and replaces traditional hard copy enrolment. According to the coordinator of Admission Support, Kerian Greenaway, the system offers immediacy and convenience of course enrolmentvia the Internet. The technology in use was set up byOracle in 1998, when ECU moved towardscreating an innovative web-based enrolment and administrative system using Oracle database products. New enrolments using ECUWES are managed differently to re-enrolment on ECUWES. New enrolments are processed while the student is with an enrolment assistant, because there is a need to collect HECS and enrolment papers, as well as to familiarize students with the system. In terms of re-enrolment, the student has full control of enrolling in a six-week period, which allows for any small glitches in the system, such as not being able to get online. ECU also previously faced difficulties with managing student enrollment administration, as staffs were distributed across several locations, so there wasa desire for improved access and management of student information.Similarly, re-enrolment required students to travel to the University and queuefor service from administration staff. Faculties also requested that students enroll by porting enrolment sheets on computer bulletin boards.With ECUWES, students from remote areas and international students enjoy easy enrolment with improved time effectiveness.There have been no major problems, apart from a few power failures, but ECU has back-up plans, such as enrolment assistants taking up all the paperwork and processing the information once back online.(SCRI, 2010) Even though the Higher Education Department of Santa Isabel College is not expecting around 5,000 enrollees at present, the possibility of being able to accommodate this particular number or more should never be looked over, especially in consideration of the growing population of the country and the continuous innovation of the school in seeking more students year after year. The developed system is the initial and most reliable equipment of the administration of the school once this scenario happens.The processing of all the functions under the enrollment process will not be as tough as it is before the implementation of the developed system since everything will be automated. Hours spent in finishing the whole process will be minimized to minutes. The confusion on each step in the whole manual system will also be eliminated since the developed system is for the convenience of the users, regardless of his/her knowledge in automation. London School of Publishing Enrollment System [pic] Figure 1.5.3Page Layout of London School of Publishing Enrollment System The study can be great help to persons concerned during the enrollment period- the registrar, and instructor of the students as they retrieve necessary information when needed and lessen the burden manually browsing over enrollment slip for record purposes. A system was constructed entitled “Network-based Computerized inventory System” for the supply office of the LCP main campus. With the advancement of technology, devices and machines were improve, developed and inverted to cope up with the need of new world. These are different designed for reliable, efficient and very useful to the user. (SORI, 2012) Since the main purpose of conducting different studies and automating different manual functions is to ease the users from the different and various inconveniences, the developed system displays the big difference from the manual to the automated enrollment process. Each activity is simplified to improve the functions of the concerned people and to maximize their skills in being able to be more productive in terms of accomplishing various tasks. This particular innovation may still have room for improvement but the presence of this system is surely what the demands of the fast-moving world need. Local Literatures Central Luzon State University Computerized Enrollment System Based on the newly implemented Computerized Enrolment Process Offered by the New CLSN Administration of Bataoy and Chua (2008) the study is aimed to know whether the implementation of the new computerized enrollment process is beneficial to students and employees. Data were collected from 100 respondents particularly 75 students and 25 employees through stratified sampling with equal location. Survey questionnaire were used to collect data from the respondents. The researchers used the descriptive analysis in interpreting and analyzing the data. Results showed that most of the respondents were in favor of its implementation. The researchers found that it is more convenient, and economical. Payments will be done in the college registrar but staff and employees did not agree. The researchers found that the respondents wanted it to be implemented in the said university. Thus, the researchers concluded that it must be implemented to the different colleges here in CLSU because it can benefit both the students and employees in its enrolment process. This study deals with the newly implemented Computerized Enrolment Process which offered by CLSU Administration before its implementation, doubt shave prevented from becoming a realization. (SCRI, 2010) As part of the research and development of the system, the developed system will also undergo system survey as part of testing before the implementation. The survey is necessary to get the feedback of the members of the administration and the students in order to check the validity as well as the reliability of the developed system. Feedbacks are very important since it will serve as the instrument to confirm the consistency and dependability of the developed system and the probability for its full implementation. Private Basic Education School of Tanza, Cavite The computerized enrolment system for selected private basic schools in Tanza, Cavite was developed in response to the problems encountered in the existing enrolment system. The instrument used for collecting data was sets of questionnaire. The sample consisted of 50 respondents from five (5) selected private basic education schools in Tanza. After the data was gathered, the SPSS program was utilized to analyze the data. The descriptive statistics which include the frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, one-way ANOVA, LSD follow-up test and Scheffe test were used. Based on the assessment of the respondents, the system was highly applicable to concerned offices - the Registrar and Accounting Offices. Therefore, the developed computerized enrolment system is proven functional and can be of great help during enrolment. The applicability of the developed computerized enrolment system was assessed using the four (4) modules of enrolment system namely: The Inquiry and Reservation System; Admission System; Payment System; and Report-Generation System. In view of these, the school administrators considered adapting the developed computerized enrolment system for their planning, forecasting and decision-making. It can be used as an improvement/replacement of the existing semi-automated enrolment system to speed-up the processing of students enrolment. A set of questionnaire was used for collecting data and these were passed through different methods to be analyzed. This was done to improve existing manual system. Over two decades, effective enrolment management is going to be critical to the future of tuition/enrolment-dependent College and universities, especially in state where the number of high school graduate is expected to decline by 30-40%.(SCRI, 2010) The prospect users of the developed enrollment system vary in the functions as well as the access of the different modules or forms. To distinguish the functions of the users, there are different modules which specify and limit the functions, especially of the lower-level users. This function strengthens the security and integrity of the information stored in the system. University of the East Online Enrolment System Generally, pre-enlistment is done randomly so the reason you did not get your desired subjects may be due to statistical probability and more importantly, because there were not enough slots to satisfy demand for RGEP, PE, and other servicecourses. The reason students cannot enlist in their desired classes is usually due tolimited slots. Only the departments/colleges offering these subjects can do somethingabout the problem of limited slots. The UE Enrollment Process is enumerated below: 1. Open internet explorer browser. 2. Type website address www.ue.edu/iEnroll/login.html 3. Log-in your student number, access code and birth date. 4. Select subjects to be enrolled using curriculum template. 5. Click Add to add new subject/s and Remove to remove selected subject/s. 6. After selecting desired subjects, click Cash or Installment to select type of payment. 7. Click Save button to save the selected subjects. 8. Immediately after completing enrollment process, print a temporaryregistration card from your computer. 9. After printing, go to the bank with the temporary registration card as basisof partial or full payment. 10. After payment go to the designated window/s of the UE Cashier for issuance of registration card and official receipt the following day or before start of classes. (UEED, 2012) Similar to the UE Online Enrollment, the developed system aims to address the inconveniences brought about by the manual system. Though the system can only be accessed inside Santa Isabel College, the function is the same with the first. Both enrollment systems were developed to ease the users from the problems brought by the manual enrollment system. All the functions of the current manual system of the Higher Education Department were automated and the functions were improved for the easy adaptability and usage of the prospect users. The ease of students from the inconvenient selecting of subjects in behalf of the tasks in hand of the students is the main similarity of the two developed systems. The time consumed will be minimized since everything will be automated. Local Studies Pangasinan State University Computerized Enrollment System [pic] Figure 1.5.4 Page Layout of Pangasinan State University Computerized Enrollment System Although most schools here in the Philippines have their computers, its functions are not fully maximized. Many still rely on the manual system of storing and retrieving files, thus in turn, make work laborious, time consuming, less efficient and requiring more man power. The Pangasinan State University- Lingayen Campus currently uses the manual system of enrolment. For years, this system has been employed and has indeed been a tedious process on the part of the students as well as the staff in charge of enrolment. This entails the long process of filling up forms in three copies (student copy, accounts copy and registrar’s copy), class scheduling, assessment of fees, and issuance of student records. The continued adoption of this usual manual enrolment system has caused numerous errors, unnecessary delays, and has ultimately made the entire enrolment system a slow process to contend considering the influx of students each year. The design, development and implementation of Enrolment Automate: Pangasinan State University Computerized Enrolment System is introduced to address this long-standing slow process of enrolment. (OOPA, 2012) In order to maximize the function of every staff and to avoid the consumption of time of the students without sacrificing the reliability of each task, the system used in the enrollment function should be automated. The delays caused by the manual process will be prevented by the developed enrollment system. The automation of the current system have proven several times by institution employing the same to be saving lot of time and effort on the working people. In the case at hand, the errors of confusion, inconsistencies, inaccuracy, delays and other manual problems will be eliminated. Far Eastern University Enrollment System [pic] Figure 1.5.5 Page Layout of Far Eastern University Enrollment System With its 25,000 students, Far Eastern University (FEU) ranks among the biggest universities in the country in terms of population. And with a large population comes multiple problems in enrollment, student records and related data. “We have always wanted to improve our enrollment system. We want to make it convenient for our students to enroll,” says Fe Canilao, Chief Finance Officer of FEU. “However, because of our number, there would always becoding problems, wrong registration cards and other issues that would result in confused and delayed enrollment.” Wanting a lasting solution to the problem, FEU asked consultants for recommendations. The result was a decision to automate FEU’s enrollment system. “We wanted a system that would have the least negative effect on our migration from the previous system,” Canilao explains, “so we decided to let SQL*Wizard do the job for us.” SQL*Wizard came highly recommended because of its expertise in Oracle systems that were already widely used by FEU. FEU decided to automate the enrollment system in two phases: (1), the development of a system for enrollment and student records for Phase I, and (2) the integration of the student’s financial records for Phase II. Canilao says, “I must admit the implementation of Phase I last semester was a nightmare. SQL*Wizard and our people were not able to anticipate some problems, and for a while, we did not know what to do.” Canilao worked closely with SQL*Wizard to pilot E*Wizard, an integrated system for student enrollment that contains modules with extensive inquiry and reporting capabilities. She also tapped FEU’s Computer Services Department to iron out kinks. She reviewed organizational structures, assigned people to support groups and asked faculty advisers and staff to train. She also met with the representatives of individual institutes and with the support of the academic managers and SQL*Wizard’s technical group, plotted the move to launch an integrated system during the second semester. The preparation involved cleaning the database, standardizing labels for subject and preparing the subject requirements. While doing all these, Canilao paid extra attention to the business portion of the project. “Many of the student balances are contested by the students themselves,” she explains. “We decided to add a facility that allowed them to enroll despite contested accounts. But at the same time we managed to detect fake receipts and permits through E*Wizard.” Today, FEU has completed Phase II of the project and enjoys the benefits of using E*Wizard. Student records are readily available and can be viewed online. Students do not have to wait until after graduation to get their records. And most of all, enrollment is now a breeze. “Through all the tiring and trying times in the implementation, SQL*Wizard was with us,” Canilao recalls. “I’m happy to say that they were not only after our money. They saw to it that what they gave us will work - and they did not leave us until their system worked.” Today, Canilao looks forward to the first semester enrollment next school year - when she expects an even easier enrollment in all institutes in FEU. (RARA, 2010) As answer to the current concerns and in anticipation on the future possible problems, the administration of the Far Eastern University came with an automated enrollment system which would fasten all their activities especially with regards with the processing of the enrollment of the students and the safekeeping of their records, specifically those of the past students which may be used for various purposes which is same with the case of Santa Isabel College which has been keeping records of their students manually. This method may give the school different sorts of difficulty considering the phase brought by the automation of different human tasks. An upgrade to one of the many functions of the school will surely be a great ease on the production of the institution which has been answered by the developed system. Samar State University Automated Enrollment System [pic] Figure 1.5.6 Page Layout of Samar State University Automated Enrollment System Technology innovations had influenced man's work, from data processing, business transactions, research, planning, monitoring and even in medical operation of man’s body is now entrusted to computer technology. Samar State University (SSU) as one of the University in Samar Island aims to be the center of excellence in education had recently made changes to some of its existing systems. The enrollment system of the university is now computerized, and other systems are on its way. This only show that they are coping with the latest technology. The Automated Enrollment System of Samar State University aims for an accurate, user friendly, efficient system that can help both the student and personnel for fast data processing of enrollment. Engr. Hediki Hashimoto, a Japanese volunteer headed the creation and conceptualization of the system. The information technology faculty from the College of Engineering and Arts and Sciences assisted him. The system that is web based uses PHP programming language with data stored in My SQL is run through the intranet of SSU.A dry-run for this automated enrolment was done last summer and the first semester of this school year. Offices affected with the automation were the registrar, cashier, accounting, and the Colleges of Education, Engineering, Arts and Sciences, Industrial Technology, Nursing and Graduate Studies. Feedbacks from the students were formulated when the first semester started. Over 75 % of them say that the automation process of enrollment was better compared with the old system. With the good result of the dry run the automated enrolment system will be finally implemented this 2nd semester. (OOPA, 2012) The development of the automated system for Samar State University was caused by the various issues brought by the previously implemented manual system and it took combined efforts of people within and outside the school, with the aim to merge and simplify the tasks of the different departments within the institution. During the dry-run of the implementation of the developed system in Samar State University received a positive feedback which led to its total implementation. The same is expected with the developed system for Santa Isabel College as the developers conduct the survey with the intent of not only trying to get the pulse of the prospect users towards the implementation of this innovation but more than that to verify the regularity and runniness of the developed system. 1.6 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY Innovation is useful to people since it is a combination of different ideas that aims to give solutions to any problems which underwent a careful observation, analysis and study. Business in any field, including academic firms will get a positive feedback from customers once any type of innovation is implemented in their office as it reflects to their goal of continuous development in the service of their customers. To fulfill the intention of the developed system, the following served as the general and specific objectives of the study, to wit: 1.6.1 GENERAL OBJECTIVE The general objective of the study is to develop the current manual enrollment system in the Higher Education Department of Santa Isabel College faster, easier, more accurate and convenient through computerized innovation. 1.6.2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES The following are the specific objectives of the study: • To computerize the Enrollment/Registration Form to minimize the difficulty in accomplishing the required fields on repeated basis. • To computerize the viewing of the subject schedule of all course and year to ease the administration and the students from the inconvenience in posting and inquiring at the bulletin boards. • To produce a more reliable database for easy storage, retrieval, reference or any future use. Since the system aims to computerize every enrollment transactions, the use of paper will be minimized. • To ease students from going to different offices and the administration from attending to all different concerns of students or applicants through the adoption of the developed system as it will make the process faster and easier. • To generate reports fast and easy since the developed system could easily manage the production of the needed report in the enrollment process thereby unloading the workload of the Registrar. 1.7 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS SCOPE The study aims to computerize the current manual enrollment system of the Higher Education Department of Santa Isabel College, allowing the students to perform enrollment tasks themselves. The system has the following features: Log-In Module (Student and Administrator) • A form that contains two fields which contains the unique ID number and personalized password. This form determines the level of user of the log-in, which directs the user to the specified form as well as warning note located at the bottom part informing the user of the number of times the user could log-in otherwise the account will be locked. Student Module Student Information • This module is displayed after logging in which contains the different information about the student. The fields in the Personal Information tab are Name, Civil Status, Address, Age, Gender, Religion, Date of Birth, Course, Nationality, Guardian, and Contact Number while the fields in the Educational Background tab are Primary Course (Elementary), High School, Intermediate, current School Year and Last School Attended. The student can choose to edit this information or proceed to the Enrollment/Registration Form. Student’s Standing Module • This form is where students can select between Regular and Irregular, depending on their standing as students, particularly in terms of the subjects they have taken. Enrollment/Registration Form Regular • Since the schedule for regular students, they will only be asked to select their year, which is available in the left portion of the form. The larger portion of the form is for the display of the schedule itself where the Time, Day, Subject Code, Subject Description, and Unit fields are shown. The total units are also shown. A ‘Submit’ button is present to verify the subject information selected. To ensure that the student have selected the correct standing, a button ‘Back’ is also present in the form to go to the previous form (Student Standing). Irregular • The form is similar in appearance as for the students in regular standing. The difference is that there is no template list of subjects. The students can manually select the subjects they wish to take using the schedule form as reference. The ‘Check’ button is to verify and display all other subject information once the subject code is encoded. Checklist • This form shows the subjects a student must take on the course of his/her stay in Santa Isabel College. The form displays the Subject Code, Description and the grade for those subjects which have been taken already. These subjects are grouped per year. Schedule • This form puts the schedule of the different courses and year. Same as with what is present in the regular student’s Enrollment/Registration Form, this form contains the Time, Day, Subject Code, Subject Description, and Unit of each subjects. Faculty Module • This form is for the maintenance of the members of the faculty of the Higher Education Department of Santa Isabel College. The form contains the list of the names of the faculty members on the left side and displayed on the larger portion of the form is the detailed information like their Full Name, ID Number, Program where he/she is under (e.g. Computer Studies Program), and College Degree taken. Administrator Module Main Form • In this module, the main buttons are User Information, Edit Enrolled Subject, Edit Schedule and Lists. The commands present at the task bar located at the upper-left portion of the form are Checklist, Reports, Maintenance, and Logout. This form has a size big enough to display every function needed by the administrators to execute the needed tasks for the completion of the whole process. The current time and date is also displayed. Reports Module • This is where the administrator can view the reports before being printed. The main form for reports contains different drop-down menus where the user can select from the desired report to be printed. The reports which can be printed are Certificate of Matriculation, list of all students per subject or master list, list of all students per year level, list of all students per course, list of all students per year and course, list all students enrolled in the Higher Education Department and the Audit Trail. Forms The computerized forms made available in the system which are currently used in the manual system are: • Checklist Form- this is the guide of students on their standing during their stay in Santa Isabel College. The checklist contains the list of all the subjects (subject code and description), the grades of those subjects which have been taken already, and the pre-requisites. The subjects are arranged per semester. The checklist also displays the limit of units a student may take per semester; • List of Available Subjects Form- this is the output of the encoding, arranging in tables and printing of the subjects by the administration in the manual system. In the software, a soft copy of this list is made available as reference of what subjects to in the semester; • Enrollment/Registration Form - this is the form secured from the Secretariat's office where the subjects can be written in the manual system. In the computerized system, a copy is made available for input of subjects. It will only take a single click from the available subjects include a particular subject in the form. • New Student Form - Since new students doesnot have their own log-in or student number yet, the administrator should log-in their account to let new students input their personal information and be given a student number and be able to input a password. The division by frame and required fields are the same as the ones shown in the Student Profile module of students. The student number is auto-generated by the system to avoid duplication and the password is can be personalized. The button Save is present in the tab to confirm the information encoded and save the entries in the database. • Enrolled Subjects Form - Since there are cases where students’ entries are needed to be edited, there is the tab for editing the subjects – either adding or removing entries. There is a search button at the left part of the tab where the administrator can input the student number and the list of subjects saved by the student will be shown. These entries can now be made available to the administration to be edited. • Schedule Form - For the available subjects in the incoming semester, the administrator can encode entries which are arranged according to course and year. Blank fields for the subject information are shown in the tab – subject code, subject description, day, time and number of units per subject. Saved entries an also be edited in this tab and once the administrator is done, there is a Save button present at the bottom right part of the tab LIMITATIONS: The following serves as the limitations of the study: • Evaluation of students with different subject codes as far as the encoded subjects are concerned who may be reflected in the following cases: o students with curriculum taking up subjects in the new curriculum; and o Transferees from other schools with different subject codes. • Request for tutorial classes since this particular part of enrollment is based on the discretion of the Program Chairperson and the Registrar. The system will not be able to evaluate as how the authorized member of the administration could. • Cashiering system of the school and the generation of official receipt since the school is currently using a system linked to that of all other DC schools in the Philippines.