Design and implementation of electronic tutors for students in higher institutions in Nigeria

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Whether you’re having doubts about the effectiveness and legitimacy of online electronic tutoring, or you still have a few questions and would like some more information, this research work will allow you to make an informed choice that suits your student’s online tutoring needs. For instance, with the computational and information manipulation capabilities of the computer, the office secretary sees many of the office procedures significantly changing, the accountant must adjust to the dramatically changing accounting techniques, the business manager must learn to use highly sophisticated market forecasting tools, the engineer must become re-oriented to a whole new set of ground rules in problem solving, therefore some average educational bodies like primary schools, secondary schools and even higher institutions must adjust to the rapid change of information processing using computer and its systems. As a result of these changes above, Software is needed to instruct the computer system to carry out the required tasks such as online Learning, Downloading books online, Courseware (Time-Tables and Course Outlines) and Management (Charlier, 2000). This research work is limited to higher institutions because the target users are the lecturers and the students. The application is web based instead of a standalone application. Reasons for a web based application is simply because of regular accessibility of the system and other benefits associated with online applications.

1.1     Background of Study

This research work is focused on Computer Science Department, university of lagos. The method of learning used in the department is the normal manual/traditional way of learning which is, the classroom learning where student must come to a particular lecture venue at a stipulated time. Though, some few efforts has been made towards automating some of the lecturer-student relationship and routine like submitting assignments online, discussing with a lecturer on social media etc. This project research work (Modelling of an Electronic tutor) is embarked on to eliminate the manual way of classroom learning by surrounding our self with computer and other computing devices which will enhance the method of teaching.

1.2     Statement of Problem

The major setbacks in our everyday classroom lectures are numerous, some of which include but not limited to time constraint, insufficient attention and course material management.

Time Constraint: There is a fixed amount of time for interaction and which everyone will be expected to be present. Any student that is not present at the specified time definitely will miss that lecture and might not really have the time or the lecturer will not have the time to repeat or emphasize on that lessons.

Insufficient Attention: It is often difficult to understand within that stipulated time, they need much time as much attention will be needed to comprehend.

Courseware Material Management: the unending heaps of files, projects, lecture notes, internal correspondences, timetable and course outline occupy much space and the process of storing and retrieving information are cumbersome.

He above mentioned challenges are the problems facing the learning processes by the department of computer science at unilag. It is against these backdrops that the design and implementation of electronic tutor for students in Higher Institution, using Unilag  as a case study becomes necessary. This work is going to ameliorate the problems identified with traditional approach of teaching and avails a new horizon of opportunity made possible by technological advancement.

1.3     Objective Of Study

This project is targeted to the design of an online electronic tutor for higher institution with the following aims:

1. To access the present traditional way of learning in the department of computer science unilag.
2. The end design an online application that will perform some basic functions and duties of the class room activities, combining online activities to create whole online courses presents additional possibilities and issues.
3. To implement an online tutor for students in the department this helps students to receive lectures from anywhere and anytime irrespective of their geographical location.
4. To provide a private tutorship and individual attention for the student as long as necessary.
5. To introduce a wide variety of PDF, Course outline for pre-learning, visual learning that is clear & attractively illustrated.
6. To create a platform that will enable the students to interact, share information and seek opinion.

1.4     Scope Of The Study

On the basis of the subject matter this study focuses on the design and implementation of electronic tutors for students in higher institutions in Nigeria, a case study of University of Lagos.

1.5     Significance Of Study

This study is immensely significant to Federal Ministry of Education & policy makers, students and stakeholders in the country. For the Federal Ministry of Education and Policy Makers, the findings and results that will be derived from this work will provide reliable feedback on the implementation of electronic tutor for students in the higher institution. The students, lecturers and stakeholders aided with more valuable insights and empirical support for electronic tutor for students in higher institution.

Finally the study will be a source of information, knowledge for future researchers and students who wish to research more on the subject or related subjects.

1.6     Limitations Of Study

A study of this nature requires analysis of all the teaching processes and methods in all the tertiary institutions in Nigeria. However, this is not practically possible. Another obvious limiting factor is the answering of questionnaires administered to them and interrupted power supply of power as seen in the country. There is a poor system security leading to viruses and spyware.

1.7     Definition Of Terms

BROWSER: a program with a graphical user interface for displaying Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) files, used to navigate the World Wide Web.

COMPUTER: An electronic device capable of performing computations and making logical decisions at speed of times faster than that of human beings can, it makes use of input and output (input-raw data-information, out-put-processed-feedback).

COURSEWARE: computer programs or other material designed for use in an educational or training course.

CSS: A cascading style sheet (CSS) is a Web page derived from multiple sources with a defined order of precedence where the definitions of any style element conflict.

CLIENT: It requests and consumes the services provided by another having the role of server.

DATABASE:  A collection of different files in a specialized way for easy retrieval and update.

ELECTRONIC TUTOR: Is referred to as a web-base/computerized tutor, it makes use of electronic technologies such computer and internet to teach and enable people to learn.

HARDWARE: These are the physical component of the computer.

INTERFACE: Is a software environment, which serves as welcome view that is design to friendly welcome a user to page.

INTERNET: The global communication network that allows almost all computers worldwide to connect and exchange information.

JAVASCRIPT: an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers.

MATERIALS: Are set of tools or information tools that aids in calculation/counting and many other learning practical.

MENU: This provides the user with a number of options and a simple means of selecting between them.

MYSQL: is an open source relational database management system. Information in a MySQL database is stored in the form of related tables.

PHP: Hypertext preprocessor is a server side scripting language designed for web development as well as general purpose programming language.

PROGRAM:  It is a set of instructions, which enables particular processes to be performed by a computer.

SERVER: it is a combination of hardware and software designed to provide services to the client.

SOFTWARE: It is used to describe all programs that are written in a particular computer installation and their associated documents