Requirement Model For Student Monitoring Systems

Requirement Model For Student Monitoring Systems The focus of this study is to get a good requirement model for Student Attendance Monitoring Systems (SAMS) in secondary school. It is aimed at system designer who want to know how to design an efficient SAMS. At the end of this study, a SAMS prototype will be designed based on the requirement model and also analyze user acceptance of this system. A generation ago, either in principle or in practice, attendance was not optional. Today, often in principle and almost in practice, it is optional (Romer, 1993). According to Lim, Sim and Mansor (2009), most educational institutions administrators are concerned about student irregular attendance. Shendell et al. (2004) defines it can affect student in overall academic performance. Romer (1993) found that attendance did contribute significantly to the academic performance of students. There are a slightly stronger relationship between attendance and performance. Also, Durden Ellis (1995) conclude that attendance does matter for academic achievement. Thus, it makes student attendance mandatory in schools (Romer, 1993), (Woltz, 1955). Yet, almost everyone noticed that attendance in schools is far from perfect (Romer, 1993). There have a lack of school attendance data and a lack of consistency in the definition and measurement of non-attendance (Bourke, Rigby Burden, 2000). Large schools are more likely to have problems with student attendance than small ones (Epstein Sheldon, 2002). Everyday, school staffs spends much time to handle students attendance. There are many problems when recording data manually (Richard, 2005). Sometimes, the attendances record books were missing. In real situation, it is hard for school staffs to search students record by looking at attendances record books one by one. School staffs usually spend much time to find the students record especially when there are many classes in the school. Furthermore, parents may miss to get any information or letter from schools when their children didnt attend to school. According to Epstein Sheldon (2002), high school staffs communications with parents about attendance can increased student attendance and reduced chronic absenteeism. Hence, by creating school attendance system is one of the best solutions to address this problem. The system should help school staffs to take attendance for student especially in secondary schools. It must make the process of taking the attendance easier, faster and secure as compared to conventional method. The conventional method of taking attendance by calling names or signing on paper is very time consuming, inefficient, and insecure (Ervasti, Isomursu, Kinnula, 2009), (Lim, Sim Mansor, 2009). It is a one way that helps teachers or school staffs reducing the taken time to carry out routine processes and enable them connected with parents by sending real-time information on their childrens attendance immediately if students are not-attended to school more than the limit. Thus, teacher have more time for teaching. (Ervasti, Isomursu, Kinnula, 2009). Problem Statement In schools, attendance is important and mandatory. Nowadays, due to enlarge of information technology environment, it is efficient to use School Attendance Monitoring System (SAMS) to manage attendance in secondary schools. In recent years, system designers have expands many ways and characteristics in design a good system. The problem of this study is to identify important characteristics to design a good SAMS, set up a requirement model, and build a prototype for testing user acceptance. The requirement model must meet the user needs, goals and constraints in order to determine the important feature, relations and design implications. The requirement must be specify clearly about what and how the SAMS should perform. Objectives To create a SAMSs requirement model for secondary school. To design and build a prototype of SAMS. To help other system developer within related area. Scope The study will be conducted within the Kampar district, Perak. All schools chosen for survey will be secondary schools only. Similarly, there are nine secondary schools in Kampar district (sample size). People who manage secondary school organizations are the only respondents of the study. The population is between 15 to 25 or more school staffs. The particular focus areas of the study would include attendance system which is already used in secondary schools. LITERATURE REVIEW According to Epstein Sheldon (2002), reducing the rates of student chronic absenteeism has been and continues to be a goal of many schools and school systems. In 1999, a student tracking system involving a database is being trialed in government and non-government schools Western Australia (Bourke, Rigby Burden, 2000). The student tracking system involved a set of processes, procedures and systems which can identify and monitor the location of students. In the Torres Strait schools, they used a system called Student Information Management System (SIMS). The SIMS provides a good quality data regarding student attendance. This computer-based system collates individual class attendance records on a weekly basis (Bourke, Rigby Burden, 2000). The relationship between staffs and parents was seen as vitally important by parents and principals. The student survey results indicated that attendance levels were significantly higher among students when teachers got in touch with their parents to talk about how they were going at school (Bourke, Rigby Burden, 2000). Therefore, in schools where students have attendance problems, school staffs may need to go beyond the school building to involve parents in reducing absenteeism (Epstein Sheldon, 2002). Hence, student attendance monitoring system should help school staffs and parents easy to communicate. There are varieties of opportunities for implementing IT in management education. Technology can be used to facilitate the display of information, to increase access to external explicit information, and to increase the sharing and construction of knowledge (Leidner Jarvenpaa, 1995) but some of the use of this technology is not yet widespread, efficient and practical for implementation of data management (Wayman, et. al., 2004). Implementation of an application system can present many unforeseen challenges. The first step toward implementing a student data analysis system should be to thoroughly assess the data, needs, and resources available to a school or district. The successful implementation is important for the long-term development of a data based decision-making climate (Wayman, et. al, 2004). Fig. 1 shows the model for integrated functional requirement which has been explained by Malet et al. (2007) Figure 1: Model for Integrated Functional Requirement In Fig. 1, functions can be linked with specific processes. The technical realization of functions takes place in these processes. Functions can also be related to specific positions in the product structure. As a result of linking the requirements with functions, functions to processes and the product structure, an indirect relation between requirements, processes and the product structure has been established (Malet et al., 2007). There are many views of softwares development or development process though that has evolved over the years. What follows is a brief discussion of the theories of the software development process that recently used today. The first formal description of the software development process model is published in 1970 by Winston W. Royce. Below is one of the software development processs model: Figure 2: Conceptual model of software development process According to Royce (1970), firstly, developer must analyze user requirements. After that, make requirement specifications by clearly set out necessary features of system based on user requirement. Then, developer can design a suitable solution and do implementation by develop the proposed solution. In addition, developer must test the system to ensure that the solution solves the original problem and works in context. Lastly, developer must maintain the system. METHODOLOGY Fig. 3 shows the requirement modeling process which has been explained by Malet et al. (2007) Figure 3: Requirement modeling process The first step is elicitation of requirements. The requirements will be based on collected data. The sites are the secondary school managing departments. The sampling frame will be based on the list of the secondary schools within area of Kampar district, Perak. The sample size will be nine secondary schools. The population is between 15 to 25 or more employees including principal, clerks, and teachers. The method of data collection is by questionnaire and interview. According to Creswell (1994), measurement instrument can helps in get a quantifiable data. A questionnaire will be given to each employee within the sampling to get employees personal details, personal experiences of using any school attendance system, problem with existing attendance system and an opinion or suggestion for the future systems developer. The purpose of the study and how to answer the questionnaire will be explained to the employees under study. During interview session, the informants will be selected ind ividuals within the sample employees who had an experience of using any school attendance system. The second step is analyzing the requirements. All user requirements will be investigated. The data will be analyzed and displayed using SPSS 16.00. The percentage, the mean and statistic formula (ANOVA) will be used when describing the data. It will be interpreted and translated into a form that suitable for other developer (sequence diagram, activity diagram, class diagram etc.). A requirement specifications model will be defined by clearly set out necessary features of SAMS. The third step is managing the requirements. In this step, a prototype of SAMS will be design and built based on user requirement model by using several types of tool such as Dreamweaver CS4, Photoshop CS4 and etc. The programming language that will be used for building the system is PHP. During this system development lifecycle, requirements might be change and evolve. These changes need to be tracked and traced (Malet et al., 2007). Lastly, the fulfillment of requirements needs to be validated with virtual or physical tests. A product is deemed successful (by means of satisfying the customer) if all requirements are fulfilled (Malet et al.,2007). SAMS will be tested to ensure that the solution solves the original problem and integrate the system to make sure that the solution will working in circumstance. The user acceptance testing will be done by choosing user randomly within the sample. Requirements modeling takes place in all phases of product development. More emphasis needs to be put on later development phases such as usage, recycling and maintenance. The knowledge gained in these phases, once included in the development process, can accelerate the development of new products (Malet et al.,2007). EXPECTED FINDINGS At the end of this study, the requirement model can help any system designers to design good SAMS for secondary schools. They will know how to design useful, usable and desirable SAMS such as in the system should contain the right functions, secure and must be user friendly. SAMS should contain all these basic needs of attendance system. Below shows the flow of Students Attendance Monitoring Systems (SAMS): 1 Record attendance 2 Check attendance 3 Process data 4 Save data 5 Send email Figure 4: The flow of Students Attendance Monitoring Systems (SAMS). SAMS should helps school staffs records students attendance, checks either student is present or absent, process the attendance data, save it and send an email to the parents if student was absent more than three days. SIGNIFICANCE The aimed of requirement model for Student Attendance Monitoring System (SAMS) is to help system designer in designing a good attendance system and also conduct them to develop the attendance system in the future. Attendance system are important because can gives many benefit to schools such as security on attendance, reduce work time on taking attendance and create connection between school staffs and parents. CONCLUSION There is no comprehensive and generally accepted manual on how to design good human factors into computer systems (Shackel, 1984) but there are a lot of guideline on how to design a system. However, this requirement model can guide any system designers who want straightly focus to design Student Attendance Monitoring System (SAMS). Creativity and innovation are required to make a great SAMS. The system should be usable. Usability consists of many pieces such as system performance, system functions, user interfaces organization and so on. REFERRENCES Bourke, C. J., Rigby, K., Burden J. (2000). Better Practice in School Attendance: Improving the School Attendance of Indigenous Students. Commonwealth of Australia. 1-62. Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research design. Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. Durden, G. C. Ellis, L. V. (1995). The Effects of Attendance on Student Learning in Principles of Economics, The American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings of the Hundredth and Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Economic association Washington, 85(2), 343-346. Epstein, J. L., Sheldon, S. B. (2002). Present and Accounted for: Improving Student Attendance Through Family and Community Involvement. Educational Research and Improvement. 95(5). 308- 318. Ervasti, M., Isomursu, M., Kinnula, M. (2009). Bringing Technology into School NFC-enabled School Attendance Supervision. ACM 978-1-60558-846-9 09 Leidner, D. E. Jarvenpaa S. L. (1995). The Use of Information Technology to Enhance Management School Education: A Theoretical View. MIS Quarterly: Special Issue on IS Curricula and Pedagogy, 19(3), 265-291. Lim, T. S., Sim, S. C. Mansor, M. M. (2009). RFID Based Attendance System, Symposium on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ISIEA 2009), 2, 778-782. Maletz, M., Blouin, J. G., Schnedl, H., Brisson, D., Zamazal, K. (2007). A Holistic Approach for Integrated Requirements Modeling in the Product Development Process. The Virtual Vehicle-Research Center, Graz, Austria. 1-10. Richard, L. (2005). Handling Qualitative Data: A Practical Guide. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. Romer, D. (1993). Do Students Go to Class? Should They?. Journal of Economics Perspectives, 7(3), 167- 174. Royce, W. W. (1970). Managing the Development of Large Software Systems. Proceedings IEEE WESCON. 1-9. Shackel, B. (984). Information Technology: A challenge to ergonomics and design. Behaviour and Information Technology. 3. 263-275. Shendell, D. G., Prill, R., Fisk, W. J., Apte, M. G., Blake, D. Faulkner, D. (2004). Associations between Classroom CO2 Concentrations and Student Attendance in Washington and Idaho. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: LBNL Paper LBNL-54413. Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/88r0924r Wayman, J. C., Stringfield, S., Yakimowski, M. (2004). Software Enabling School Improvement Through Analysis Of Student Data. Research on the Education of Students, 67. Woltz, C. K. (1955). Compulsary Attendance at School. Law and Comtemporary Problems. 20(1), 3-22.

Fiber-optic Communications :: Fiber-optic essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1987, both Eli Yablonvitch and Sajeev John got together to discuss research that both had previously discovered. Eli Yablonvitch was an electrical engineer at Bell Communications Research in Red Bank, New Jersey. Yablonvitch was known for refining a laser that would become a mainstay of fiber-optic communications. Sajeev John is a Harvard graduate student who worked on a thesis inspired by Philip Anderson of Princeton.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The two agreed that the name of their idea should be called a photonic band gap. Phontonic crystals have the regular lattice structure of natural crystals. Their purpose is to try and trap light without destroying it. The trick is to not kill the photons but to tame them, by allowing light out when you want. Microchips are made of semiconductors and a semiconductor is a band gap. A band gap makes is possible to control the flow of electricity in a chip. In order to make light chips, you need the photonic equivalent of silicon: a material that can trap light. â€Å"You need a way of trapping the light so there are no escape channels,† says John.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It was until 1997, when European investigators succeed in trapping light in a random material. Diederik Wiersma and his colleagues used a powder of gallium arsenide. The laser could not penetrate a layer of powder even when the layer was less than a hundredth of an inch thick. It was indeed the very first time that anyone had trapped light, but as they knew, microchips cannot be made out of powder.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Yablonovitch was in his office on day in October 1986, â€Å"I started drawing crisscrossing lines, and everywhere the lines crossed I put a heavier mark. Before I knew it I had drawn a checkerboard. And then I said, ‘Well, I might as well do it in three dimensions.’† This later became known as Yablonovitch’s â€Å"eureka moment.† He realized that what he had drawn was a crystal structure that might trap light through interference. Interference happens when two light waves of the same wavelength meet.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Bragg reflection is when light waves pass through one plane but is reflected back by the next plan. All waves that interfere constructively intensify the reflected light. Yablonovitch found that if you could design a crystal that Bragg-reflected light now which direction is was coming from, you would have built a trap.

Financial Crises Essay

I have literally found a solution for all Americans struggling to mitigate their personal financial crises this day. They cannot just sit back expecting the government and business to work wonders. It is time for them to take personal responsibility for the economic downturn. Orwell (1945) was correct when he wrote that â€Å"All animals are created equal but some animals are more equal than others,† actually referring to human beings whom scientists refer to as animals. Throughout the history of humanity, people have generally known that they were created equal. And yet, there have been separations, discriminations, dissimilarities, and inequalities, for the reason that God, Nature or Evolution – depending on what we choose to believe in – did not grant equal abilities, talents, and gifts to all human beings. Some men are richer and more intelligent than the others. Some are born deaf, dumb, and blind. And, some must rely on income support because they just cannot beat poverty on their own. Then there are those who neither care that others remain poor nor hold themselves back from buying things they may or may never actually use – simply because it is fashionable in our consumer society to purchase unnecessary things as these objects make the individual who purchases them appear as though he or she belongs to a high socioeconomic class (Twitchell). As though this is not ridiculous enough, our consumer society enjoys humorous advertisements about products rather than people as the source of all personal satisfaction (Kilbourne). No wonder the divorce rate is high, compounding personal misery during the current economic recession. Undoubtedly, advertising is a hallmark of capitalism. In other words, it is a representative of Mammon. We generally assume that we cannot imagine a world without advertisements because ads represent the human need to enjoy life to the fullest with the best of food, clothing, etc. But, Kilbourne’s article, â€Å"Jesus is a Brand of Jeans,† reminds us that this need does not have to exist beyond our changeable minds. Yes, it is possible to imagine a world where publicity is meaningless. In this view of the world, everybody must be satisfied, without some of the people envying others, some others enjoying chocolate cake, while the rest grieve because they did not get a piece. Most importantly, in a perfect world we would not have to hoard in order to appear rich and famous to the others. Rather, we would be content with ourselves without feeling the need to impress others with our higher incomes, statuses, etc. If we are able to change our mindsets in our consumer society, we would not even have to save up to attend classes in â€Å"happiness institutes† (Schumaker). This would definitely lighten our personal financial burdens through this economic mess confronting our nation. Moreover, regardless of what we possess at present – if we honestly long to get through our personal financial crises – what if we try to share the little that remains with us, be it our skills or funds, with those that are less fortunate? This seems like yet another scientific technique to change the mindset of the consumer society. It is all possible, after all. This is America. Let us get through our personal difficulties with the American Dream formula! It has worked. It still works. It would always work. Sincerely, Name References Kilbourne, J. Jesus is a Brand of Jeans. Chapter 11: Consumer Society. Orwell, G. (1945). Animal Farm. London: Secker and Warburg. Schumaker, J. F. The Happiness Conspiracy: What does it mean to be happy in a modern consumer society? Chapter 11: Consumer Society. Twitchell, J. B. Needing the Unnecessary. Chapter 11: Consumer Society.

How Modify French Nouns With Adjectives (Adjectifs)

An adjective is a word that modifies a noun by describing it in some way: shape, color, size, nationality, etc. Differences Between French and English Adjectives French adjectives are very different from English adjectives in two ways: French adjectives change to agree in gender and number with the nouns that they modify, which means there can be up to four forms of each adjective:   Adjective: pretty joli Masculine singular joli Feminine singular jolie Masculine plural jolis Feminine plural jolies In English, adjectives are always found in front of the noun, but most French adjectives follow the noun they modify:​ green book un livre vert smart teacher un professeur intelligent But there are some French adjectives that precede the noun: handsome boy un beau garon small glass un petit verre Agreement of Regular French Adjectives (Accord des adjectifs rà ©guliers) French adjectives change to agree in gender and number with the nouns that they modify, which means there can be up to four forms of each adjective. The different forms for adjectives depend mostly on the final letter(s) of the default form of the adjective, which is the masculine singular. Most French adjectives add E for feminine and S for plural. This rule applies to adjectives that end in most consonants as well as all vowels except the unaccented E. It also includes all regular and most irregular  present participles  and  past participles: Adjective: green vert Masculine singular vert Feminine singular verte Masculine plural verts Feminine plural vertes Adjective: blue bleu Masculine singular bleu Feminine singular bleue Masculine plural bleus Feminine plural bleues Adjective: funny amusant Masculine singular amusant Feminine singular amusante Masculine plural amusants Feminine plural amusantes Adjective: spicy pic Masculine singular pic Feminine singular pice Masculine plural pics Feminine plural pices When the masculine singular adjective ends in an unaccented E, there is no difference between the masculine and  feminine forms: Adjective: red rouge Masculine singular rouge Feminine singular rouge Masculine plural rouges Feminine plural rouges When the default form of the adjective ends in S or X, there is no difference between the masculine singular and  plural forms: Adjective: grey gris Masculine singular gris Feminine singular grise Masculine plural gris Feminine plural grises While most French adjectives fit into one of the above categories, there are still quite a few that have irregular feminine and/or plural forms. Note:  These rules are the same for  making nouns feminine and plural. Agreement of Irregular French Adjectives Most French adjectives are regular, but there are a number of irregular adjectives, based on the final letter(s) of the masculine singular adjective. Adjectives that end in a vowel plus L or N usually become feminine by doubling the consonant before adding E. Ending: el elle Adjective: personal personnel Masculine singular personnel Feminine singular personnelle Masculine plural personnels Feminine plural personnelles Ending: on onne Adjective: good bon Masculine singular bon Feminine singular bonne Masculine plural bons Feminine plural bonnes Adjectives that end in  er  or  et  need a  grave accent: Ending: er re Adjective: expensive cher Masculine singular cher Feminine singular chre Masculine plural chers Feminine plural chres Ending: et te Adjective: full complet Masculine singular complet Feminine singular complte Masculine plural complets Feminine plural compltes Other final letters lead to very irregular feminine endings: Ending: c che Adjective: white blanc Masculine singular blanc Feminine singular blanche Masculine plural blancs Feminine plural blanches Ending: eur euse Adjective: flattering flatteur Masculine singular flatteur Feminine singular flatteuse Masculine plural flatteurs Feminine plural flatteuses Ending: eux euse Adjective: happy heureux Masculine singular heureux Feminine singular heureuse Masculine plural heureux Feminine plural heureuses Ending: f ve Adjective: new neuf Masculine singular neuf Feminine singular neuve Masculine plural neufs Feminine plural neuves Irregular plurals: The ending  al  changes to  aux  in the plural: Adjective: ideal idal Masculine singular idal Feminine singular idale Masculine plural idaux Feminine plural idales Note: Most of the above rules are the same for  making nouns feminine and plural. Irregular French adjectives There are several French adjectives which have irregular feminine and plural forms, as well as a  special form  when they are placed in front of a masculine noun that begins with a vowel or a  mute H: a handsome man un bel homme an old friend un vieil ami Adjective Singular masc vowel/H Singular fem Plural masc Plural fem beautiful beau bel belle beaux belles new nouveau nouvel nouvelle nouveaux nouvelles crazy fou fol folle fous folles soft mou mol molle mous molles old vieux vieil vieille vieux vieilles Position of French Adjectives In English, adjectives virtually always precede the nouns they modify: a blue car, a big house. In French, adjectives may be placed before or after the noun, depending on their type and meaning. This concept can be aggravating for French learners, but with patience and practice youll be able to describe any object like a natural. The following explanations should cover about 95% of adjectives, but, alas, there are always some exceptions. Placement After the Noun Most  descriptive adjectives  are placed after the noun they modify. These normally have an analytical meaning, in that they classify the noun into a certain category. These types of adjectives include shape,  color, taste,  nationality, religion, social class, and other adjectives that describe things like  personality  and  mood. round table une table ronde black book un livre noir sweet tea du th sucr American woman une femme amricaine Catholic church une glise catholique middle-class family une famille bourgeoise In addition,  present participles  and  past participles  used as adjectives are always placed after the noun. interesting story une histoire intressante lively debate un dbat passionn      Placement Before the Noun Certain adjectives are placed before the noun, some which you can memorize with the acronym BAGS: B Beauty A Age G Good and bad S Size (except for grande with people, see below) These descriptors—and a few others—are considered inherent qualities of the noun: pretty girl une jolie fille young man un jeune homme new house une nouvelle maison good child un bon enfant small problem un petit problme sincere condolences les sincres condolances vague promises les vagues promesses kind boy un gentil garon In addition, all non-descriptive (i.e.  demonstrative,  indefinite,  interrogative,  negative, and  possessive) adjectives are placed before the noun: these books ces livres each person chaque personne which pen? quel stylo ? no woman aucune femme my child mon enfant Placement Depends on Meaning Some adjectives have both a figurative and an analytic (literal) sense and can thus be placed on either side of the noun. When the adjective is figurative, it goes before the noun, and when its analytic, it goes after the noun. Figurative: my green (fruitful) years mes vertes annes Literal: green vegetables des lgumes verts Figurative: a great man un grand homme Literal: a tall man un homme grand Figurative: a sad (mean or bad) person un triste individu Literal: a sad (crying) person un individu triste Figurative: my old (former) school mon ancienne cole Literal: my old (aged) school mon cole ancienne Figurative: a certain (type of) look un certain regard Literal: a certain (assured) victory une victoire certaine