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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTIONBackground of the Study
From traditional four corners of classroom to electronic virtual classroom, scholarly personnel can now take their students to any part of the globe right from within the corners of the classroom
. The
speedy progressive evolution of technology has elicited new initiatives in the academic realm, markedly in universities and schools. One of the utmost sententious developments in this field is the conceptualization of digital learning and studying. Although electronic learning environment has long been in existence since 1950s, learning management systems (LMS), in their leading-edge form, have only been available since 1990s (Bartolome, 2008).
Vollmer (2003), even before the proliferation of internet, academic institution has already been employing computer-based learning particularly that of computer aided learning technology which is a computer program that is developed to deliver educational resources which supports text, audio and visual based file. Decades have elapsed since the establishment of internet, computer aided learning platform has been outpaced with a more advanced platform which is called the learning management system which has then emerged as the standards in global educational system. Regardless of the intention whether for off campus or on campus education, numerous learning institutions are employing learning management system to improve learning within their institution enabling educator to organize and manage scholarly resources.
The shifting of learning institutions to adopt e-learning is a natural transition for educational institution of the 21st century. Many educators around the globe tend to build a collection of free commercial web services that are one trick applications, for instance, Facebook for social networking, electronic mails or Google Docs for submitting written assignments, drop boxes or file sharing cloud services for media files, Yahoo! Groups for discussion forums, and free test preparation sites. Utilizing all of these variety of services requires learners and teachers to create number of user accounts, one for each service, and manage them all accordingly. Faculty members must always keep track of their learners right across the assortment of services and sites. From a technical perspective this is not clearly an easy arrangement to administer and almost impossible to do on a medium or large scale. Secondary to the complexity of administrating different electronic means, a well-designed learning management system will have all the tools and services one needs to create and manage user accounts, courses, social networks, news, announcement and messages, discussion groups, assignment and file submission systems, assessment quizzes or test, presentation of lessons, grading and feedback among others in one convenient system, with one user account for each system Regardless of the means of delivering these academic activities, scholarly personnel perceive e-learning as an educational innovation that holds a substantial means for enhancing teaching and learning.
In essence, Kats (2013), defines learning management system as a software application that could either be mobile or web-based technology used to plan, implement, and assess a specific learning process. Conventionally, a learning management system provides support an instructor with a way to create and deliver content, monitor student participation, and assess student performance.
There are two general types of e-learning as claimed by Kruze (n.d.), the synchronous and asynchronous training. Synchronous refers to the actual interaction through the web in real time. While asynchronous allows the student to complete the web training on their own time and schedule, without live interaction with the instructor. Asynchrous e-learning is more popular known because it creates a just in time on demand student learning experience. In contrast, in synchronous training, students do not need to schedule their time around the predetermined plan of the instructor. Asynchronous training comes in two forms, facilitated and self paced. Facilitated asynchronous training involves instructor and students interacting not in real time. With this kind of training students will have more time for self research, and more peer interaction. Self paced training is form of delivery which is consists of standalone instructional material that can be accessed and completed via the web, without additional interaction among students.
By its nature, Brown and Johnson (n.d.), contend that learning management system makes all academic material available and accessible to multiple students from any location allowing consistency in delivery of the exact same course material. The learning management system also allows viewing the required learning path and track progress against the learning path for both the students and facility educator. Moreover, learning management system allows students to be evaluated prior, during and upon completion of the course.
Pertinent to usefulness, ease and convenience in the academe, learning management system has been adopted throughout the world. Among the many other nations that implements e-learning (Jodi Harrison, 2012), the United States, India, China, South Korea, Malaysia, Australia, South Africa and United Kingdom plays were among the key players in digital education.
In the US, a study conducted by the Sloan Consortium found that one third of all those enrolled in higher education are utilizing e-learning system. E-learning is also rapidly becoming popular in Australia wants to reconsider going back to school without placing careers on hold. In the United Kingdom, the governments online learning task force proposed an investment of approximately 159 million dollars in online education in order to support the nation build its brand, develop better online educational resources, and become a major international player in the distance learning market (Jodi Harrison, 2012).
In Asia, China is the home to almost 70 different online colleges, a number that will likely to grown in the coming years in order to meet the high demand for e-learning opportunities. Another high end growing nation that employs e-learning is South Korea with more than 17 Colleges, all of which boast state-of-the-art facilities and software. The small Asian nation Malaysia is also forging ahead at full speed when it comes to learning online (Jodi Harrison, 2012).
With the educational institution gearing towards electronic learning, a reliable content management system which is capable of managing academic contents designed to deliver, track, and manage training education is required (Lonn, 2009). With this matter at hand, several learning management software platforms were developed such as Virtual Learning Environments, Collaborative Learning Environments, and Modular Object Oriented Learning Environment (MOODLE).
Arimbuyutan (2012), claims that the earliest advocates that lead the drive to incorporate e-learning technologies into the Philippine school system were scholarly personnel from the irrefutable universities like the University of the Philippines (UP) which has established in 1995 the UP Open University, as an alternative to traditional classroom. The University of Sto Tomas (UST) which provides e-learning course through e-LeAP (e-Learning Access Program). Additionally, Ateneo de Manila University, Dela Salle University and other major universities offer some form of online courses, mostly these academic institution uses prepackaged programs purchased from suppliers, although some institutions have developed their own platform using different software. E-learning in the Philippines is new and still in its embryonic stage. Among many existing school in the country AMA Computer College is one of the few learning institution employing learning management system using MOODLE.
The AMA Education System is the largest educational network in Asia. It has an annual population of 150,000 students in its more than 200 campuses all around the Philippines and other parts of the world. Its main school, the AMA Computer University, is the first and largest ICT University in Asia. AMAES is committed to its perpetual vision to become the leader and the most dominant provider of globally recognized education and training in Information and Communication Technology. Like so many other educational sector, AMA Computer College goes global, and globalization in education goes hand in hand with an increase in the availability of digital learning resources.
Since AMA Computer College caters to a majority of Filipino who are into information communication technology its corporate vision and mission is to become the leader in information technology education and for the company to accomplish this it needs to understand and assess the current situation and needs in the Philippine education. By tradition, the Filipino culture places a high regards on education. The entireties of Filipinos accept the truth that the best way to alleviate poverty and to secure a better future is through education, this is upheld by the Philippine government providing educational scholarship. However, despite the governments thrust to provide free education, there are some areas in the country which are remotely located that access to colleges or universities is seemingly impossible. In addition, the inevitable predicament on acquiring learning materials such as books, journals and manuals are hindered by financial constraints. To recompense for these, e-learning is advocated to edify the circumstances. The electronic learning management system is the latest emerging concept in education as a part of reformation to supplement insufficiency in the Philippine educational system and current under developing stage.
While there are numerous dozens of different types of Learning Management System employed by various organizations to date, and although these system typically share a common purpose which is to manage and administer course materials to a larger distributed branches. In choosing an LMS, the AMA Educational System has chosen open source software secondary to its advantage which is free. And because the source code is open, customization is limited to certain extent. Further, since its for free, open source tends to be very complicated and does not hold dedicated customer support system than commercial ones. Without reliable and dedicated support, making even the smallest changes can be very difficult. Secondary to this, the current learning management system employed by the AMA Educational System does not fully meet the requirement of the users, thus making its usage insufficient to a certain extent
With this issue at hand, the developer being employed in AMA Computer College, Dagupan City Campus endeavors to seize the opportunity to be a part of the development and improvement of learning management system in the country specifically within its domain of employment, the AMA Computer College. The developer is motivated and dedicated to design a good learning management system to suit the students learning preference from AMA Educational system. Conceptual Framework
The context of the proposed system was identified and organized using the Input-Process-Output (IPO) Model. Under this instance, input corresponds to the identification of the existing learning management process of AMA Computer College in terms of course management, student performance management, and user management, the features of the proposed system, security and control measures of the proposed Learning Management System for AMA Computer College.
The developer in this undertaking will employ the Agile-Scrum type of software engineering methodology which includes product backlog, sprint, and product release.
After substituting all the requirements of the study and undergoing the software engineering development methodology the expected result of the project is the Learning Management System for AMA Computer College.
Figure 1.1 shows the paradigm of the study to be conducted.
Statement of the Objective
The main objective of this project study is to design, develop and deploy a Learning Management System for AMA Computer College.
Specifically, it sought to meet the following objectives:
1. To identify the existing problem of learning management process of AMA Computer College in terms of:
a. course management
b. student performance management
c. user management
2. To describe the features of the proposed system.
3. To incorporate security and control measure in the proposed Learning Management System for AMA Computer College
4. To test the acceptability of the system
Significance of the Study
The developer aimed to develop a Learning Management System for AMA Computer College which provides significant technological advancement in promoting innovation for modern dynamic and efficient way of teaching and learning under the AMA Educational System.
Moreover, this undertaking shall be of great benefits for the following stakeholders who are actively involved in the development of the project study.
AMA Computer College. This project shall be of great benefits for the executive management and administrators of the company as the system promotes a good reputation with the potential of being a leader in information technology education. The system will also provide AMA with a good means to reinforce its education through technological innovation
Administrator. This project would be useful for the faculty members to standardize the process in consistency in delivering course content and to manage and facilitate learning resources with more flexibility in terms of schedule which can be done at any location and at any convenient time. Further, the system provides an efficient way to organize a wide effort of the educational system to standardize lessons throughout the different campuses. In addition the, the system also be of great significance due to its capability to keep a centralized academic record of the student and faculty which is more convenient rather than a collection of paper based manuscripts.
Faculty. The system served as an avenue for which the faculty members to deliver a more coherently organized courses. The system also served as a means for faculty members to create courses with activities, assessment in an efficient manner, thereby reducing the time involved in course management. Through the system, faculty members can follow a clear, concise timeline of activities and projects, look ahead to see what is in store ahead and review past work for critical reflection to improve themselves.
Students. The student shall be benefitted in terms of flexibility, accessibility, and convenience by allowing the students to access the course at any place and time whether at school, at home or even in public places such as restaurants or even coffee shops. Also, by adopting learning management system, students would have the option to download or view learning resources where combination of multimedia and textual instructional materials can produce a very rich learning experience that is repeatable and by providing practice activities with feedback and helped the learners retain the course content.
Scope and Limitation
This study primarily focused on the development of efficient Learning Management System for AMA Computer College where students engages in a non-prosaic manner of learning by making the system more interactive. The system shall served as an avenue and a catalyst for administering e-learning as an added supplement to classroom based lectures.
The system in general have the capacity to manage information pertaining to students, courses and instructors. The administrator has the exclusive right for providing and controlling privileges forbidding access to non-authorized user.
The webcast faculty has the privileged right for managing respective courses and holds the provision for uploading course content materials supporting different media format such as images, documents, videos and animations. Also, the system allows the generation of assessment tools which will be used to evaluate the students learning capacity by granting the instructor to set randomized questions presented in multiple choice, true or false, and matching type kind of assessment. Likewise, the system has the capability to check submitted quizzes by the student per activity save and download results for later reference by both the faculty and students. In addition to this, activities such as assignments, exams and quizzes are made available to gauge the students performance.
The system permits the student to view and download course content materials directly or through a given links such as Document, Powerpoint, Pdf and video and movie clips in flv and mp4 formats only.
Moreover the students possess the right to take assessment through quizzes embedded within the facility, generating immediate viewing of the test results. Moreover the facility allows communication with other users within the system through communications facilities like chat rooms, bulletin boards and forums to enrich the students learning experience.
Among other features, in order to ensure security of the system and to provide sufficient safeguards, the facility provides the user access rights with appended passwords to individual users of the system.
The system does not cover quality checking of content uploaded, language, and design process of the learning managements system. Further, this study will not cover operational, overhead and indirect cost such as implementation, significant related contracts, technical support, staff requirements and other college operation.
Academic resources associated with each course within the Learning Managements System shall also be excluded.
Definition of Terms
The following terminologies are operationally defined to help readers in the comprehension of the concept and ideas presented in the study.
Academic Material. Refers to the course syllabus, course outline, reading materials and multimedia materials to support a particular course.
Assessment. Refers to the systematic collection, review, and use of
information on educational programs used to improve students learning capability.
Asynchronous Learning. Refers toa student-centered teaching method
that uses online learning resources to facilitate information sharing outside the constraints of time and place among a network of peopleControl Measures. This refers to preventive measures taken use to
safeguard the relevant information in the system such as monitoring who access what data, and for what purpose, these are discretionary control to determine whether other people can read or change the data.Computer Aided Learning. A computer-based packages, which aimed
to provide interactive instruction usually in a specific subject area, and many predate the Internet that ranges from sophisticated and expensive commercial packages to applications developed by projects in other educational institutions or national initiatives to simple solutions developed by individuals.
Course Content. These are collections of different scholarly materials
which is used by the instructors to present lectures and important related activities which may be in the form of plain document text to multimedia platforms.
Course Management. An added feature of the system that refers to the
way in which the system manages information regarding scholarly course materials
Course Management System. A is a set of tools that enables the
instructor to create online course content and post it on the Web without having to handle HTML or other programming languages.
Distance Education. This refers to the concept in education that focuses on teaching
utilizing technology as a tool to deliver course material, course instructions and assessment. E-Learning. A new education concept by using the Internet technology,
it delivers digital content, which provides a learner-oriented environment for the teachers and students. E-Leap. Refers to a secure, easy to use, web-based training platform delivering rich, powerful, intuitive e-learning in multimedia environment using Web 2.0 technologies learning management system
Face-to-Face Faculty. A kind of faculty in charge of supervising and monitoring the student in the campus for a particular given course.Information Requirements. An abstract description of the services which the system should provide and the constraints under which the system must operate
Learning Management System. Refers to a software application for
the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting and delivery of e-learning education courses or training programs
MOODLE. Stands for Modula Object - Oriented Dynamic Learning
Environment. MOODLE is an open source course management system. which is used by thousands of educational institutions around the world to provide an organized interface for e-learning, or learning over the Internet.Pedagogical Model. Refers to the scholarly model used as a basis for the development of the e-learning system.
Security. This are measures taken to safeguard information system from
attack against confidentiality, integrity and availability such as `protecting the system with log in accounts and passwords.
Synchronous Learning. Refers to a learning environment in which
everyone takes part at the same time. Lecture is an example of synchronous learning in a face-to-face environment, where learners and teachers are all in the same place at the same time.WebCast Faculty. A kind faculty solely incharge for uploading official
syllabus, instructional materials, assignments and assessment intended for the studentsChapter 2REVIEW OF LITERATURES
The Current Problem
Learning management systems hold a position of first choice in learning technology adoption within higher education. Selecting a traditional Learning Management System requires balancing learning and management. The initial intent of an LMS was to enable administrators and educators to manage the learning process. This mindset is reflected in the features typically promoted by vendors: ability to track student progress, manage content, roster students, and such. The learning experience takes a back seat to the management functions. Numerous reports laud the management functions of an LMS. To-date, student experiences and efficacy of the tools have been subjected to limited research. A clear definition of learning vision and desired future states, created through input from stakeholders the administrators, faculty, students, and information services should provide the foundation for decision making, and the boundaries of platform selection. Learning Management Systems are often viewed as being one the critical component of any elearning or blended learning program. As such, a learning management system is an integral tool for learning professionals today. Without the right Learning Management System, learners wont get the education that they deserve. While most of the LMS solutions that are out there are quite effective, there are some issues that impedes its affectivity and AMA's learning management system is not an exception
AMA's learning management system like any other learning management system offer their greatest value to the organization by providing a means to upload instructional materials content and create a manageable structure for web and face to face instructors, administrator and students. The concept is not only to have a quality learning management system for the students, but to ensure that the users are satisfied with how it works. The end-user experience should what matters most in terms of usage.
With the current system used by the AMA educational System, several problems arise. Respondents in the interviews conducted revealed that the following problems were evident.
One of the common confronting issues concerning AMAs learning management system is the browser compatibility. With the wide selection of browser and their respective versions, it is very common to have incompatibility issues, despite the advancement of technology. For the learning management to function correctly, the browser should have certain capabilities suitably for the use of learning management system. It is always ideal to implement a learning management system across the board on multiple platforms. California State University (Adams et al., 2005) conducted an LMS review of Blackboard, WebCT Campus Edition, WebCT Vista, Desire2Learn, and open source systems Moodle and Sakai. After an initial review, all LMS were disqualified, except for WebCT Vista and Blackboard. WebCT Vista was ultimately selected. Systems were disqualified for a variety of reasons including: previous scale of integration, incompatible with campus data center standards (Adams et al., 2005), limited feature sets, limited ease of use, open source movement still in infancy, and lack of confidence in product support by an LMS vendor. Mention of learner and faculty concerns were largely ignored in the report. Brief mention was made of ease of use, eportfolios, and pedagogical flexibility, which is not defined. Migration, training, history with vendor, and technical concerns formed the bulk of decision-making criteria.Melbourne-Monash Collaboration in Educational Technologies in a studying the input from diverse stakeholders within the university environment was solicited during the report. Informal conversations with individuals directly involved in LMS implementation, support, and administration were combined with internal reports, meeting minutes, a literature review, and project management reports (Wise & Quealy, 2006). It has been found out that governance styles must be aligned with the nature of intended learning, the adoption of technology for learning differs based on faculty learning models and needs, hence a problem that needs to be addressed.
University of Oklahoma (CMS Task Force, 2000b) expanded its search for an LMS by including a series of surveys from faculty and students. The survey questions focused on individuals selecting needed features to support learning. As with other surveys and assessments, learning remained vague, poorly defined, and disconnected from how the organization viewed teaching and learning. Faculty responses were particularly revealing of the emphasis on what works versus how does this align with larger organizational learning objectives. Thus, creating a dillema in the implementation of the learning management system.
In summary thereof, the literature presented discusses about common problems encountered with the learning management system. One important factor presented in the study present is the proprietary of the learning management system making it difficult to customize and to migrate should there be a need to adopt another system. Further ease of use has always been a factor that usually confronts the adoption of learning management system.
Features of Learning Management System
E-Learning is now increasingly used in organizations throughout the world to implement training programs. With these modules being used organizationally wide, a lot of companies have begun investing in Learning Management Systems (LMS) to administer and manage course work, testing, the roles of instructors and learners. An LMS is basically the glue that holds all the components of learning in an organization together.
There are around 100 LMSs available today, both proprietary and open source. With so many LMSs around, Sumpathkumar (2012), cited 10 features to be considered when considering a Learning Management System, First, the interactive learning environmenta feature that needs to be kept in mind because students using the LMS would not want the course to be presented in a prosaic manner. Student engagement is very important; this can be achieved by making the courses more interactive. Features such as clicking on a text to obtain extra information or selecting answers from a pull down list engage the students and enhance the learning process. Secondly, the administration capabilities of the learning management system,which holds management of information, pertaining to students, courses and instructors. It should have provisions for controlling access privileges. Third, a good authoring toolswhich enable the instructors to develop courses easily. The tools should have provisions for adding pictures, videos and navigation buttons. The fourth feature that LMS should have is the communication facilities like chat rooms, e-mail provisions, bulletin boards and forums, all help users create a virtual learning space and a community to connect with each other and enrich their learning experience. Fifth, media support,good LMS must support various multimedia file formats such as Flash, Shockwave, mp3, and Rich Text. Sixth, the scalability, learning management system should be possible to scale up or down in size according to the number of users in the system. The seventh feature that LMS should possess is the inclusiveness; it should be possible to access the LMS from different platforms such as laptops smart phones or tablets. The eight features should be the security;a good LMS must include sufficient safeguards to prevent hacking, especially if it includes payment features. In addition, the last feature that a certain LMS must possess is the cost effectivenessorganization has to keep in mind that the implementation of Learning Management System is to reduce their administrative costs over a period of time. http://triumphindi.net/blog/All learning management is not created equal, some may offer a variety of features, and some may stay on top from among the traditional features while some offers extraordinary in technological innovations. The Blackboard (2013), includes features for administrator efficiencies, providing simple ways to for administrator to access data and manage. Blackboard also features global repository for rich educational materials including assessments, assignments, discussion, it also provides authoring environment. It also offer simple content creation, the easy to use content editor reads, writes and renders modern HTML, making it a breeze to create rich course materials for the students. Blackboard as added features includes notifications dashboards, student performance reporting, configurability of course themes and structures, student activity reporting, course enrollment and user authentications.
Another popular LMS nowadays is the Desire2 Learn (2013), which has the following features which includes course administration enhancements, increased mobile web access features, media integration, and advanced grading functionality. In addition to this, the instructor has the ability to assess quizzes by questions, the learners has the capacity to view assessments rubrics prior to the completion and submission of an assignment. Desire2Learn also features the inclusion of integrated audio recording tools directly within the learning environment, for both learner submission and instructor feedback. Another added feature is the participation in discussion on-the-go regardless of preferred device, built in instant messaging features, language packs for nationals who dont speak English.
MOODLE (2013), has the following features such as repository support, portfolio support, completion monitoring, assessment monitoring, plagiarism prevention, backup and restore, enrollment plugins, file handling, HTML editor, roles and permission, theme configurability and language translation system, quiz module and question bank, and wikis.
SAKAI (2013), has the following such as configurable URL shortening service, reCAPTCHA supports for logins, collapsible portal navigation menu, mobile portal user interface, question import handling, customizable letters and number for grades, updated language packs, feature to set open and close dates for discussion boards, and forums.
In relation to the proposed study, literatures presented contends that each LMS has its own features depending upon the users such as Login and Configuration, Personalization and Customization, Navigation, Common Modules, Forms, Authoring Tools, Help and Documentation. However, differences in terms of login and personalization were noted for each user. In cases of login failure, Blackboard explains error in plain text, Desire2Learn redirects to a simple page with short error description and ok button which redirects back to the login page, MOODLE and SAKAI shows only error message. In terms personalization, Desire2Learn, MOODLE, and SAKAI are non frame based, while Blackboard is based on frames. In terms of navigation Blackboard has good combination of list, headings, expand, collapse technique, for Desire2Learn it possess top level navigation, MOODLE uses heading structure, SAKAI has assistive technologies for navigation.
Security Features for Learning Management System
Like any other enterprise system, Learning Management System must meet the security needs of the organization. This is especially true in the current era, where LMS functionality is largely delivered via the Internet, not enterprise intranets or extranets.
One of the major security functionalities is the protection against unauthorized login. This is primarily not so much a function of the LMS, whose login functionality relies on universal web standards, but rather the placement of the system within the corporate intranet environment and the inherent security features of that placement. Further, locking users out of capabilities should not be included in their user profile, in other words, keeping users from doing particular things once in the system that they are not authorized to do.
One of the popular learning management system is the MOODLE (2013), holds simple security measures, such as strong password protection for administration and teachers against brute force of cracking accounts.
Desire2Learn (2013), utilizes personal identification number to secure its content from unauthorized entry into the portal The personal identification number is limited to 8 characters allowing combination of numbers and letters, including special characters in order to prevent brute force attack
Edmodo (2013), presents the usual security feature in preventing unauthorized intrusion by means of user account constraints given to users of the system.
Sakai (2013), stated that preventing security vulnerability, LMS must employ user with SQL administrator password however, issues identified as security-related are prioritized and addressed differently than functionality or other issues classified as bugs will be attended by the SAKAI security work group. The Sakai security group will develop fixes for both vulnerable released versions and vulnerable branches. Security vulnerabilities classified as a critical risk involve the possible exposure of data to unauthorized viewing, modification, deletion or acquisition as well as attacks that could result in data corruption will also be attended by the security group.
In summary, most learning management system employs user account access to allow users to get into the portal, they only differ though on how the access are granted, either personal identification or user account security feature.Acceptability of Learning Management System
Acceptance testing is the final test action prior to deploying the software. The goal of acceptance testing is to verify that the software is ready and can be used by the end-users to perform those functions and tasks the software was built to do. There are three common strategies for implementing an acceptance test. They are formal acceptance, informal acceptance or alpha test and beta test
Acceptance tests represent the customers interests. The acceptance tests give the customer confidence that the application has the required features and that they behave correctly. It is a contract between the developer and the customer (Miller, n.d)
Accepatnce test do three important things for a software developer. The acceptance captures user requirements in directly verifiable way, and measures how well the system meets the requirements. In addition, acceptance testing exposes the problems that unit test miss. It also provide a ready-made definition of how done is the system.After careful consideration of the development of the system, developers must now consider taking the entirety of the system into usability test of the system, in an article entitled Research-Based Web Design & Acceptability Guidelines (n.d.), there are two major considerations before performing acceptability testing. The first consideration is that the best possible test methods must be implemented. It was stated on the same article that it would be better if a representative users will be interacting directly with the system. The representative users, known as tester, will be submitting a test report to the developer. The test report contains the findings which includes both quantitative data and qualitative observations information.The second major consideration is the iterative approach. After the initial system testing, the findings must be complied by the developer by making the necessary changes. After making the changes, the system will be tested and evaluated again by the tester and give their findings.
The literature presented on this chapter helped the developer on identifying the data requirements that involves in mall map and directory. Thus, the existing android application presented on this chapter gave the developer an idea on what features that the system should include and what are the features that the system will no longer cover. The literatures also helped the developer on determining the data requirements that the proposed system should possess. In like manner, the developer had an idea on the specifications needed to develop and implement the system in terms of hardware and software. The last section of the chapter allows the developer to determine the considerations that must be understood before conducting a usability test.
User acceptance of blended learning instructional strategies is an important benchmark in ongoing efforts to develop distance learning programs. Student satisfaction is a key component in developing user acceptance (Irons & Keel, 2002).In an article published by Khan and Iyer (n.d), it was pointed out that, the use of technology to facilitate learning is accepted to be of value across educational institutions. A cursory view of technology use in the teaching process across different levels indicates that the range varies from the use of presentation software such as Powerpoint in the classroom to using a Learning Management System such as Moodle for course management.
A study conducted by Pan (2005), presented scale where most of the students had a more favorable attitude WebCT, indicating that they liked the online learning system that was incorporated within the course they were taking. Most of them may have been competent and comfortable with WebCT related skills, which made these goals driven students log in and out of the course quickly.
In addition, Hindess (2005) study regarding a LMS-based course indicated that learners attitudes toward LMS-based instruction are positive, and LMS-based instruction provides a learning environment for learners to develop electronic literacy skills and share their ideas and projects. Individual reasons such as negative attitudes could influence the technology use in the classroom
Further, Psycharis (n.d), in general, agreed that students concentration tends to be positively correlated to their intention to use Moodle for education. Thus, it should be recognize that these users as not only system users but also learners. Students can also perceive its usability and acceptability in terms of the opportunities it can offer. The confirmation of the study were done with the use of descriptive statistical analysis in treating the data collected particularly normality test Kolmogorov Smirnov and t-test in evaluating the performance of the subject before and after usage of LMS. The data presented by Kills (2002), in his study indicates that increased use of the Blackboard Learning System implemented as a learning portal, MyGateway, results in higher estimates of learning activity, higher degrees of satisfaction, and higher student or teacher communication than in courses not using the LMS. In relation to the proposed study, the presented literatures supported the contention that the more students are exposed to learning portals like MyGateway, MOODLE, blackboard and the like results to positive effects amongst its users. The literatures presented here are not only applicable to the MyGateway, MOODLE, Blackboard, Desire2Learn it is thus contended that similar findings are likely in any learning portal implementation when students get accustomed to using Learning Management System, especially when the course consists of a blend between traditional co-present classrooms and asynchronous, computer-mediated learning portals.Chapter 3
METHODOLOGYResearch Design
In order for the developer to develop an organized plan of study to accomplish its stated objective, a detailed outline on how the project takes place was established to served as the guidelines for this undertaking.
The developer in this project utilizes the descriptive-developmental type of research. Key (n.d.), defines descriptive research as the type of research used to obtain information concerning the current status of a certain event. In order to acquire all pertinent information thereto several survey method were utilized. Such acquired data shall be treated statistically to analyze and evaluate the current condition of the system. Hence, descriptive type of research is employed because the study involves gathering, organizing, tabulating, interpreting and presenting data that were obtained from the respondents to describe the current existing system.
The developmental type of research according to Seels & Richey (1994), is the systematic study of designing, developing and evaluating instructional programs, processes, and products that must meet the criteria of internal consistency and effectiveness. It involves the production of knowledge with the ultimate aim of improving the processes of instructional design, development, and evaluation. Developmental research is based on either situation-specific problem solving or generalized inquiry procedures.
The descriptive type of research design utilized by the developer has been perfectly matched with a software development type of tool dubbed as agile-scrum software engineering model that served as a guide in the creation of the software.
These two approaches are deemed appropriate and absolutely suitable for the development of the project on hand as both of these research designs complement one another. Descriptive research describes, evaluates and analyzes the existing current system and in addition it provides information on the desired functions and features of the stakeholders, while the developmental type of research is administered in order to develop an improved system in accordance with the requested requirements both functional and non functional.
The developmental method employed the Agile-Scrum Methodology. According to Pressman (2012), a Scrum is a project management tool used in agile software engineering development tool process. The Scrum model has long been used and the most popular and leading software engineering model to used to develop web-based development projects. Scrum focuses on delivering highest priority features in the shortest span of time. It allows rapid and repetitive inspection of the actual software through a series of sprints in order to achieve real working system, the developer may decide when to release the system as soon as possible in order to allow the users to use and evaluate the system whether the features and other functional requirements were achieved. Should the requirements were not met system will be returned to the developer for further enhancement through sprint.
The Scrum model has the characteristics of controlling very complex process of software development through a series of sprints, giving emphasis of the delivery of usable functionality to the clientele by identifying sprint backlogs. The following figure shows the phases of the Scrum model.
In relation to this, a study conducted by Salinas (2012), and Salvio (2013), utilizes the same Agile Scrum methodology for the development of Learning Management System for Colegio De Dagupan and Content Management System for Pangasinan State University respectively, establishing that Scrum is the ideal methodology for developing such system because of its iterative nature with the advantages of focusing on capturing product feature, incremental development through product delivery and testing until the desired product is accomplished. Both recommended the methodology because of its innate nature which is high visibility progress, regular customer feedback, measurable productivity, self organizing team and emphasis on face to face communication.
Figure 3.1: The Agile Scrum methodologyPhases of Scrum Model
Basically, a scrum is a skeleton that contains sets of practices and predefined goals. There are three important entities involved in scrum these are: scrum master, the product owner, and the team. The scrum master is the entity responsible for planning; the team is the functional groups that do the analysis, design, development, implement and testing while the product owner correspond to the clientele.
Product Backlog. These are the prioritized list of project requirements or features that provide business value for the product owner. It is an specific ordered list of the desired work on the project which are gathered from the system owners, usually a combination of story-based and task based work. This contains prioritized list of the desired feature of the product.
In this phase, the developer identified all the requirements acquired from the clientele which is most likely consists of assumptions of the desired future system. The developer now identifies the task to be done in order to meet the features and functional requirements of the system.
Sprints. Consist of work units that are required to achieve a required to achieve the stated requirement defined in the product backlog list that must be fit into predefined time-frame (typically 30 days). It contains a list of task needed to complete the product backlog items the team has committed to complete in the sprint.
The developer in this phase analyzes the product backlog based on the given requirements from the product owner and system users. Tasks were then identified and were given priorities in order to determine which has the highest priority in the development. At the end of each sprint, the product developer conducts sprint retrospective meeting with the product owner together with other teams to show what has been accomplished. Typically, this takes the form of product demonstration of the new features.
Throughout this phase the developer identified the required time to accomplish the entire tasks that were not done yet. The remaining approximated task in the sprint were calculated on a daily basis and graphed, resulting in sprint. The developer analysis of the system is divided into five major iterations, the design intended for the system module, coding and integration of the different modules of the system along with alpha testing, were done
Product Release. The final phase of the scrum is the product release, every time the sprint is accomplished; a new system feature is delivered to the product owner for testing and employment. Once the sprints were accomplished, the system on hand will be delivered to the product owner or clientele for product testing of the new feature that were added. It important to note that the demo may not contain all planned functionality, but rather those functions that can be delivered within the time-frame that was established
In this phase the developer ends the development process and the product shall be prepared for the release which includes integration, product testing, user documentation materials, training, and marketing preparation.Sources of Data
In order to meet the main objective of the study, Tippett, (2012), requires that data must be carefully acquired and that the sources are of utmost importance. Research or any project study problems and objectives needs to be very carefully constructed and clearly defined, as they dictate the data that needs to be obtained and analyzed in order to successfully address the objectives themselves. Data indeed serves as the backbone of this project. There are two mainly sources of data, the primary and the secondary.
The primary sources of data involved the event or subject the developer has chosen for the study, or by people who were direct observers of, or participants in the events. The primary sources of data for this undertaking include the College Dean, Facility Instructors, and Student which were chosen because of their active and participative role in the development of the Learning Management System.
The secondary types of data on the other hand were data which has already been collected in written form. All pertinent scholastic materials such as internet articles, books and journal were carefully evaluated in terms of relevance and reliability prior to its usage and citations. Articles from Wikipedia, BlogSpot and the like were excluded from the sources secondary to its opinionated and possible bias nature.
Instrumentation and Data Collection
The developer utilized different data gathering instruments and techniques necessary to achieve the stated objectives. The developer employed an established systematic data gathering procedures to ensure essential and accurate requirements are obtained needed in order to develop the system. These techniques are highly significant for it served as the hallmark for the development of the proposed system.
In this study, the developer employed questionnaires, structured interviews, observation and comprehensive and meticulous document analysis to complete the study.
Structured Interview. An appointed formal conversation is conducted by the developer to obtain reliable and valid information which is considered to be an essential element in the development of the system. The developer clarifies questions pertinent to the study as deemed necessary during the course of interview in order to elicit proper responses. Questions are presented in a manner of order of significance and introductory and concluding remarks were done so as to reduce the anxiety of the respondents that would potentially deviate the direction of the interview.
Internet Research. A research is used to gather information on and study a particular subject using resources published on the internet. The developer utilized this type of research to gather information online pertinent to the study.
Library Research. A research used to gather printed literatures such as book, thesis, dissertations, magazines, journals in relation to the study thereof. The developer gathered all pertinent printed scholarly documents to support the study being conducted.
Tools for Data Analysis
The developer employed various tools in software engineering in order to treat and analyze the data that have been collected from the respondents. In analyzing the data that has been collected the developer will use the following tools such as use case diagram, entity relationship diagram, database schema
Use Case Diagram. This tool captures the features the intended behavior of the system. This behavior may be expressed as services, task or features the system is required to perform. Use Case diagram can be use to capture the features and the actors that interact within the system required to accomplish specific goal. (Pressman,2012).
The developer made used of use case diagrams to identify the basic features that the system must posses using this diagram the developer identified the scenarios showing how the system will work when implemented, aside from this the developer also identified the actors of the system. The actors can be personnel who will directly or indirectly interact with the system or other external system which interfaces with the system
Entity Relationship Diagram. The heart of the Learning Management System for AMA Computer College is the information placed within the database. The pertinent contents of the database are best represented using the Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD). This graphical representation identifies the main components of the system: entities, attributes, and relationships.
The developer identified the entities that have something to do with the operations of the system. These entities contain information which describes the attribute that are unique to each entity. Each entity is uniquely identified by a key called primary key. The developer used the primary keys to relate each entity with one another the entity relationship diagram helped the developer to design the structure of the database and the relationship that will be implemented within the tables of the database.
Database Schema. It is structure described in a formal language supported by the database management system (DBMS) that refers to the organization of data to create a blue print of how a database will be constructed. In a relational database, the schema defines the tables, the fields in each table, and the relationships between fields and tables. Schemas are generally stored in a data dictionary. Although a schema is defined in text database language, the term is often used to refer to a graphical depiction of the database structure. This schema aided the developer in outlining visually the records in the database.
The schema is basically based on the designs specified on the entity relationship diagram the schema shows the structure of each table after the developer implemented the design shown on ERD.
Wireframes. A wireframe is a visual depiction of the functionality and basic layout of a software application. Much like a blueprint, a wireframe depicts the structure of the application and describes its functionality, but it is not used to describe the look and feel of the software application. While in a blueprint it matters where the sinks are located within your house, with wireframes, even layout to a certain extent is not as a part of the wireframe deliverable.The developer used the website wireframe to determine the layout of the web interface as well as the position of the elements, thus it allowed the client to decide the layout that they want before the implementation or coding of the system.
Average Weighted Mean. The developer made used of the AWM to determine the usability of the system. The following 5 point Likert scale was used to interpret the result:
Table3.1. Five point Likert Scale
Scale ValueInterpretation
5Very Agree
4Agree
3Neutral
2Disagree
1Strongly Disagree
Chapter 4
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
The Existing Process
The AMA Educational System is a computer school that holds courses both in the undergraduate and graduate studies with more than 200 campuses all over the world. To date, the educational system of AMA is affiliated at the moment with four giant computer industry partners such Microsoft, CISCO, Oracle Academy and NVDIA and has more than 300,00 student population in the Philippines and other parts of the world. Secondary to the growing population of the school, different means of administering education has been probe in, to maximize its potential in rendering education.
Currently, The AMA Educational System utilizes a centralized gridlocked online text based learning management system. The system is usually employed during the course of the academic semester. However, the preparation of the system is done ahead of time in order to ascertain that all academic materials are uploaded and tested for viewing and other features in or to make sure that it is fail safe when classes starts. The system holds four different modules, for the administrator, the elearning coordinator, the dean and the students. The systems focal point is on course and student management. Thus, making the learning management system a very vital system for the operation of the branches.
The developer conducted an actual interview to the stakeholders of the company in order to identify the existing process of delivering learning management system. In view of the results of observation and interview conducted by the developer, the following processes were identified as a part of the learning management system of AMA Educational System. These are: providing the academic materials per course, assigning of elearning coordinator per campus, assigning of webcast teacher and face to face teacher per campus, enrollment of the student into the system and the validation of the deans with respect to the enrolled students.
User Management Process
Initially, webcast faculty members to handle courses are carefully chosen based on their qualification set by the criteria of the office of the academic affairs. The selection is very rigid since the role of the webcast teacher is austere and contemplative in nature that is to deliver live streaming lectures throughout the campus. Once the webcast teacher has been selected, it is the responsibility of the teacher to prepare the academic materials such as syllabus based on the course outline given by the academic affairs department, learning modules and assessment materials. The webcast teacher shall then be mandated to attend short training on how to use the learning management system provided by the global educational system department. Once the webcast teacher has been trained, the teacher would now be given the privilege to manage the courses on the system. The webcast teacher can upload lecture notes in text format and objective quizzes.
Subsequently, the elearning coordinator shall be recommended by the college dean per campus based on the criteria given by the academic affairs department. The elearning coordinator shall be mandated to attend learning management system training conducted again by the global education system department through webcast meeting. After the training, the elearning coordinator would be given an access to the system and shall be responsible in enrolling the students in their respective courses as per official registration released by the registrar which is extracted from the oracle campus system. In addition to this, the elearning coordinator shall also be responsible in administering the online assessment as deemed necessary by the webcast teacher.
After choosing the elearning coordinator, the face to face teacher will now be selected based on their field of specialization with respect to the course offering under webcast department. The local human resource supervisor and the dean are be responsible in choosing and recommending face to face faculty members based on criteria of the academic affairs department. The face to face teacher shall be given orientation training on the usage of the learning management system presented again by the global education system. Right after the orientation training, the face to face teacher shall be given access right into the learning management system of the learning institution. The face to face teacher will be responsible in conducting classroom based classes to supplement and reinforce the webcast class and will be responsible in placing class standing.
The campus dean shall be responsible for verification and validation of the students enrolled in the learning management system.
After the student were enrolled and validated they may now be able to view, download the learning materials and to take quizzes as deemed required by the webcast teacher
Figure 4.1 Flowchart of the existing Learning Management System
Course Management Process
The management of courses is primarily done by webcast faculty member in coordination with the face to face faculty from the branches. The webcast faculty member retrieves a course outline of a given course from the curriculum development. The webcast faculty member in charge shall be the one to develop a course syllabus in consonance with the given course outline. Once that the course syllabus has been structured based on the course outline, the syllabus would then be reviewed by the academic department for the content. Once approved, the faculty member will then prepare class lessons to be partitioned into four segments, the preliminaries, midterm, prefinal and finals in the form of module. This modules may be in the articulated in the form of text based document either, pdf, powerpoint or microsoft office document, which shall all be arranged and uploaded in accordance of course syllabus. In addition, all pertinent audio and visual presentations shall also be constructed in order to support the text based documents for visual and auditory learners. These modules, audio and visual files will then be forwarded to the academic department in charge for a thorough review of the content. Once approved, this document shall then be uploaded into the system. Assessment shall also be prepared ahead of time such quizzes, assignments, including examinations, once ready, the academic department reviews all the manuscript based on the table of specifications. After the review and approval from the academic department, the webcast faculty member is now ready to upload all the pertinent files into the system
Figure 4.3 Flowchart for Course Management
Student Performance Management
Management of student is initially done by the appointed eLearning coordinator of the branch. All officially enrolled students are enrolled in their respective courses. Once the students has been enrolled in the system, it is now the role of the campus Dean to verify whether the students enrolled were official, this is done with a list of students taken from the registrars department. The dean will compare the students enrolled in the system and compares it with the official list, once that the list tallies, the dean will now click on the approve button to allow the students to access the system. Once everything is done, the webcast teacher will now upload all pertinent instructional materials including assessments. Upon loading of the aforementioned materials, the students may now access the portal and view all uploaded instructional materials. In addition to that the students may also take course assessment in the form of quiz or examinations constrained under the requirement of the webcast faculty members. The student may also post topics which they would to clarify in the class discussion through forums, the face-to-face faculty member may in turn address all posted questions or topics. In the same way the students may also collaborate ideas and concepts through electronic chats. Problems Confronting in the Existing System
Learning Management Systems are often viewed as being the critical component of any elearning or blended learning program. As such, a learning management system is an integral tool for learning professionals today. Without the right Learning Management System, learners wont get the education that they deserve. While most of the LMS solutions that are out there are quite effective, there are some issues that impedes its affectivity and AMA's learning management system is not an exception
AMA's learning management system like any other learning management system offer their greatest value to the organization by providing a means to upload instructional materials content and create a manageable structure for web and face to face instructors, administrator and students. The concept is not only to have a quality learning management system for the students, but to ensure that the users are satisfied with how it works. The end-user experience should what matters most in terms of usage.
With the current system used by the AMA educational System, several problems arise. Respondents in the interviews conducted revealed that the following problems were evident.
One of the common confronting issues concerning AMAs learning management system is the browser compatibility. With the wide selection of browser and their respective versions, it is very common to have incompatibility issues, despite the advancement of technology. For the learning management to function correctly, the browser should have certain capabilities suitably for the use of learning management system. It is always ideal to implement a learning management system across the board on multiple platforms.
During the course of usage of the learning management system, students claims that there are some instances where the web links in the navigation of the learning management system displays a blank page instead of the chosen URL when using Google chrome and Mozilla Firefox and even safari. Not only it displays blank page, there are also instance where the browser displays the content of the page incorrectly, large blocks of white space on the screen, the images are displayed in places where they are intended to be.
Another drawback confronting the existing learning management system of AMA Computer College is that it does not support multimedia contents. Based on an interview and observations conducted by the developer, the existing system of AMA displays the instructional materials in a plain static based which can only be viewed as a plain dull, regular website that lacks interactivity. According to Mayer (2005), people can learn more deeply from word and pictures than from words alone. By words, Mayer means either text or spoken words, and by pictures he means illustration, photos, animations or videos. There is evidence in his study that both visual ad auditory stimuli can work best together leading to a better learning outcome. Hence, the system should support multimedia formats to optimize its purpose.
A further result of the interview and observations conducted by the developer reveals another drawback of the existing learning management system. The system lacks support to peer learning features such as chat and forums defeating the purpose of the system which is in nature thereof the collaborative principle. In an article written by Chromy (2007), states that people can learn better with collaborative online learning activities. In this principle the students will be expected to participate in the class discussion forum by posting questions, responding to questions posted by other students and/or commenting on discussions questions designated in the readings or lessons. All students must participate in the discussion forum in order to further explore relevant issues with the assistance of the instructors.
In addition to the said drawback, the developer also found out that during the observation, questions during assessment were non randomized making it possible for the students to cheat, defeating the purpose of assessment. The main goal of assessment is to improve students learning and teachers teaching as both responds to the information provided. With non randomize questions, improvement of the course material will not be reasonable.Features of the Developed System
This section provides the summary of the expected features that the system must possess in order to perform its functionalities
The notion of the development of the learning management system for AMA Educational System is secondary to the advanced changing and escalating development in the web development technology. The current learning management system processes of the educational system were the considered to be the guideline through which the developed system was based. Mostly, the purpose of the Learning Managements System is to manage users, courses and students
The Learning Management System will serve as the official site where the AMA Educational System will manage students courses online. The system will provide a linkage between students and faculty members.
To begin with the developed learning management system for AMA Educational System holds three main modules specifically these are course management, student management and user management which can be accessed by the identified stakeholders. The system features are based on the functionalities and services that were identified and required by the different stakeholders to meet their needs and to achieve the objectives of the business.
Hereunder the features of the developed system based on the requirements of the stakeholders.
Login Page. Login refers to the credentials required to obtain access to a computer system by a certain user by means of a controlled authentication through a credential presented by the user itself. Getting started with the system is easy, the login page allows the registered user, to logon to the system. User is authenticated against the data stored in the database of the system, and once the authentication is successful user is allowed to proceed with the system. The login window contains three fields to enter, the type of user account, username and password. Registered user can login to the system with the personal username and password provided by the administrator of the system. Should the user forget its username or password, the system allows the user to retry for entry up to three attempts. At the last attempt, the system holds a password retrieval feature through email. The system will send the correct password or the username of the user by means of email that will be sent to him.
Plate 4.1 Login Page
Homepage (Administrator). The administrator homepage entails important functions which are paramount to the intendment of the system. It incorporates navigation Course Management, Employee Management, Student Management, and Forum Management. Each navigation is designed for specific functionalities intended for substantial purpose. The course management includes add courses, assign courses and viewing of courses. The employee management tab encompasses adding of employees and viewing of employees. The Student Management tab carries adding of students and viewing of students. The forum tab allows the administrator to view and delete posting of the students in the message board as deemed necessary, such as offensive word. The profile tab on the other hand lets the administrator places his identity and for password management.
Course Management FeatureThis corresponds to the basic yet the most important feature of the developed system. This page will allow the user to create courses, define the structures and publish it online.
Course Management. This page focuses on the management and distribution of courses and the faculty members assignment as well. (Ferriman, 2012)
The course management page allows the administrator to add course duly prescribed by the academic department and to assign the course to as per approval and recommendation of the branch HRD and Dean. In addition, the course management page concedes viewing of courses for specific academic year. The course management page initially loads up with the view sub link so as to present the courses that has already been placed within the system. It has a search feature so as to explore the list of courses in a particular.
Plate 4.1 Course Management Page Add Course. This is the page where the administrator generates the courses to be offered for the semester. The add course navigation has the following dimensions for adding courses such course code, course title, academic year, course type which could either be major or minor course. It holds the brief description of the course being added for, the course code and the course title respectively. The Academic Year drop down box corresponds to the year and the semester to which a given course be offered. The course type defines whether a given course is minor or simply general education courses and major for computer courses. The description text box is where the administrator provides a concise and clear description of the course.
Plate 4.2 Add Course Page
Assign Course. The assign course link is the page where the administrator designates a specific course to the faculty both webcast and face-to-face. The assign course link incorporates search feature by academic year, course code, and campus so as to look for a specific subjects to be assigned with the faculty. Further, a dropdown box is located on the upper part of the page to assign the course to the webcast faculty. The lower part of the page however holds a dropdown box to assign the course to a face-to-face faculty member.
Plate 4.2 Add Course Page
User Management Feature
This is the page where user roles such administrator, webcast faculty, face-to-face faculty, elearning coordinator is assigned. The users also holds the personal profile of each users of the system
Employee Management. The employee management page is the link where the administrator registers an official employee to be engaged in the implementation of the system. The employee management holds details about the employees, for instance employee ID which will serve as the username of the employee, the password in order to gain access into the system, personal information such as the last, first and middle name of the employee and other employee details such as email which will serve as the way in which the administrator communicates with the involved employee in a private manner should a confidential announcement be made and date of birth so as to additionally post the employee who will be celebrating their birth date
Plate 4.3 Add Employee Page
View Employees. The view employee page is the page where the administrator views all the list of employees responsible for the implementation of the system. It specifically holds features for searching employees within the database in term of branch, by last name or even first name. To make viewing of employees in much easier way, the system incorporated search feature in order to look for specific employee within the system. The search feature is done and sorted according to branches, last name and even first name. This is one of the functional feature of the system since to date, AMA Computer College has 41 campuses nationwide, excluding foreign branches. With that number of campuses, it can be assumed that employees are numerous, and that searching for a particular employee would be difficult without this feature
Plate 4.4 View Employee Page
Student Management Feature This is the page where the administrator adds and view official students of the campus. This feature carries out a way in registering the student into the system. The manage students portal initially loads with a view student link. View Students. This feature allows the administrator to view all students who have registered into the system. The students are presented in such a way that the lists are sorted in alphabetically arranged. The view student feature also has a search feature to easily search for a particular student within the database of the system. The search feature has specific filters in terms of campus in order to view only the registered students within the given campus. Further to view a student in a quick and efficient way, students are filtered either by first name or last name.
Plate 4.5 View Student Page
Add Student. The add student page is the page within the manage student link so as to add students into the database. The list of students to be encoded includes the following student details such as universal student number, password in order to gain access into the system, personal information such as the last name, first name, the middle name and the branch to which the students is presently enrolled. Plate 4.6 Add Student Page
Index Page (Webcast). This page is where the offered courses are managed, once the course has already been assigned to the webcast faculty member. The index page holds the following navigations and sub navigations such as post announcements, upload modules, manage test, manage assignments, view students, view grades, chatroom and forums. The post announcement is where the webcast faculty member post all pertinent announcement in line with the courses being handles, such as schedules of quizzes and examinations. The aforementioned sub navigations are deemed significant and is considered to be the heart and soul of the system. It also have the chatroom feature wherein the students can interact with the webcast faculty should any question regarding the courses offered, it is where the students can collaborate ideas and concepts with some other students enrolled in the same course. Further the index page has forum features where questions or matters concerning the course are posted, these are matters that do not require immediate respond, this concerns in turn are entertained by the faculty in charge whether if its face-to-face or webcast faculty.
Plate 4.7 Index Page for WebcastUpload Modules. This page is one of the most significant part of the system, there is where initially the management of courses begins, The webcast faculty member will be the only authorized user to post all appropriate instructional materials. These instructional materials are materials which have been duly approved to be posted by the academic department.
Plate 4.8 Upload Module PageManage Test. The manage test page once loaded present initially the term to which the quiz or examination is intended for. It also has the feature to select whether the assessment is created for lecture or laboratory. Further, the system allows a user to determine whether the assessment being developed is designed for quiz or examination. The user will also have the option to choose when to make the assessment and when to lock the assessment. Lastly, it also has the capacity to add question and choices for the selected assessment.
Plate 4.9 Manage Test
Manage Assignments. This is the page where the webcast faculty member posts assignment as one of the assessment criteria of the student. The webcast faculty may member can post assignment which can be viewed at the students portal. The students upon viewing the assignments is required to respond back by uploading the required documents online.
Plate 5.0 Manage Assignment PageAcceptability of the Developed System
Upon the completion of the system, the developer conducts a test to determine the satisfactory of the system. The developers presented the developed system to the stakeholders, particularly that of the ELearning Coordinator, Webcast Faculty Member, Face to Face Faculty Member, the Dean and the Students. An acceptability test was conducted that may prove that the developed system will be esteemed and accepted by the educational system.
Ayrmer (2010), states that User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is a very essential for the successful implementation of any bespoke system. User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is the procedure of testing the functionality of a bespoke system once the development phase has been completed. The ideal world to test the platform is to recreate a real life situation, including data that allows the user to test the user interface and functionality of the system.The developer made use of the standardized Website Analysis and Measurement Inventory test in accomplishing the acceptability of the system. The themes imposed in the Website Analysis and Measurement Inventory (WAMMI) are based on a data using a statistical methods known as latent variable analysis. In the same way, Cecil (n.d) utilizes the same tool analysis WAMMI for the evaluation of CSL Learning Management System
The sophisticated statistical methodology behind Website Analysis and Measurement Inventory (WAMMI) guarantees a reliable and valid voice for the users for the web site being evaluated for. The evaulation tool for the acceptability dubbed as WAMMI has been scientifically proven and has a reliability data rating of between 0.90 and 0.93.The service revolves around the statement questionnaire and the international database. User experience is measured by asking the expected stakeholders of the website to compare their expectations against what were actually experience during the actual usage. Improvement of the system is done by obtaining pertinent data from the users for analysis. In a study presented by Gardner and White (n.d), WAMMI was used to test the acceptability of the system through the percieved usefulness.
To test the acceptability of the system, the developer conducted a survey to the intended end users such as students, face-to-face instructor, elearning coordinator, webcast faculty members and administrator using WAMMI.
The succeeding table below shows the feedback of the identified users in terms of: Learnability, the speed at which users become familiar with a website. Remeberability, refers to the ease at which the users remember how to use a website when they return to it. Efficiency of use, which refers to the websites features which are easy to find and quick to load up. Reliability in use, which refers to the website being available and complete. User satisfaction, which refers to the degree to which users feel comfortable using the website. To give relevant meaning to the organized numerical data, a Likert Rating Scale of one to five will be used. The likert Rating will a value of 5 for strongly agree, 4 for agree, 3 for neutral, 2 for disagree and 1 for strongly disagree.Table 4.1: System Evaluation According to Learnability
LearnabilityMeanDescription
1. This website needs more introductory
explanations. 4.61SA
2. Learning to find my way around this website
is problem4.61SA
3. Using this website for the first time is easy4.74SA
4. Remembering where I am on this website is
difficult.4.68SA
Weighted Mean4.56SA
Table 4.1 presents the system evaluation criteria for the learnability of the system. Learnability is the pace at which users becomes familiar with a website, as presented in the above table, a weighted average mean garnered a score of 4.56 which reveals that majority of the respondents strongly agrees that the developed learning management system is learnable and that it is uncomplicated and simple to use.
Table 4.2 System Evaluation According to Efficiency of Use
Efficiency of UseMeanDescription
1. It is difficult to move around this website4.60SA
2. I can quickly find what I want on this
Website4.80SA
3. This website seems logical to me4.56SA
4. This website helps me find what I am looking
for4.60SA
5. The website is too slow 4.67SA
6. I can easily contact the people I want on this
website4.67SA
7. I feel efficient when Im using this website4.69SA
8. It is difficult to tell if this website has what I
want4.58SA
9. Using this website for the first time is easy4.62SA
10. Using this website is waste of time4.73SA
Weighted Mean4.65SA
Table 4.2 shows the system evaluation criteria for the efficiency of use. The efficiency of use of the developed system refers to the features which are easy to find and quick to load up. Based on the analysis, a weighted average mean of 4.65 were obtained which connotes that a great number of the users strongly agrees that the systems features is easy to find, relevant and loads up quickly.
Table 4.3: System Evaluation According to User Satisfaction
User SatisfactionMeanDescription
1. The website has much that is of interest to
Me4.60SA
2. The page on this website are very attractive4.80SA
3. I feel in control when Im using this website4.56SA
4. I dont like using this website4.60SA
5. I can easily contact the people I want to on
this website4.60SA
6. It is difficult to tell if this website has what I
Want4.72SA
7. This website has some annoying features4.60SA
8. Using this website is a waste of time 4.73SA
9. I get what I expect when I click on things on
this website4.60SA
10.Everything on this website is easy to
Understand4.73SA
Weighted Mean4.65SA
Table 4.3 presents the criteria for the evaluation of the system based on user satisfaction. The satisfaction of user refers to the degree to which users feel comfortable using the system. Maskari (n.d) in his study states that user satisfaction is subjective variable which can be influenced by several factors such as system effectiveness, user effectiveness, user effort and user characteristics and expectations. User satisfaction is generally considered as one of the most important evaluating factor which is generally considered as a criterion of system success and effectiveness Griffiths et. Al. (2007)Based on the analysis of the data presented, a score of 4.65 weighted mean were obtained which signifies the users strongly agree that the system is very comfortable in terms of user satisfaction.
Table 4.4 System Evaluation According to the Reliability of Use
ReliabilityMeanDescription
1. This website is too slow4.78SA
2. I get what I expect when I click on this
website.4.71SA
Weighted Mean4.74SA
Table 4.4 presents the criteria for the evaluation of the system based on the reliability of the system. Reliability signifies that the system is being available and complete all the time. Analysis of the obtained data from the users reveals a weighted average score of 4.74 which insinuates that the system is reliable, available and all links are active.
Table 4.5: System Evaluation According to the Rememberability
RememberabilityMeanDescription
1. Remembering where I am on this website is difficult4.67SA
Weighted Mean4.67.
SA
Table 4.5 presents the criterion for the evaluation of the system based on remeberability. Rememberability refers to the ease at which the users remember how to use a website when a user returns to the system.
An analysis of the data gathered from the users reveals a weighted mean of 4.67 which signifies that the system can easily be remembered by the users.Table 4.6: General Weighted Mean for Acceptability of the SystemDescriptionMeanDescription
1. Learnability4.56SA
2. Efficiency of Use4.65SA
3. User Satisfaction4.65SA
4. Reliability4.74SA
5. Rememberability4.67SA
Weaighted Mean4.65SA
Table 4.6 presents the general weighted mean for acceptability of the learning management system. The overall average weighted mean based on the criteria such as learnability, efficiency, user satisfaction, reliability, rememberability
Chapter 5
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
The project aimed to develop a Learning Management System for AMA Computer College, Dagupan Campus. This undertaking gave the learning institution, specifically the AMA Computer College, the opportunity to render an enhance quality education through a technologically innovative rich learning environment. The developed system will serve as a principal substantial reinforcement in administering a well rounded education. In lieu thereof, the project met the following objectives: identify the existing learning management process of AMA Computer College in terms of, course management, student performance management, user management, describe the features of the proposed system, incorporation of security and control measure and to test the acceptability.
The study utilized the SCRUM software engineering methodology because of fast feedb
