Database Management of Northampton Business School - Essay Example

Table of Contents Introduction 2 Task 2 Database Making 2 Entities of the Entity Relationship Model 4 Primary and Foreign Key 5 Task 2 5 Report Enrolment of Students 5 Report 2: Student’s Attendance 6 Report 3: Reason of Absence 7 Report 4: Students’ Performance Database 7 Task 3 8 Developing Student’s Webpage 8 Task 4 11 Data Collected 11 Conclusion and Recommendation 14 Reference 15 Appendix 17 Introduction Technology has revolutionized the Information and Knowledge management system dramatically over the years. From hand written logs to digitally entered data into a database, the database management system has revolutionized the information management system (Zhou, 2012). The organizations have realized that the key to an efficient running of a business operation or any management process is efficient access and storage of information. The electronic Database management system was designed to fulfil two primary needs, storage and access of data in a time efficient manner. The traditional database management was cumbersome and was not centralized (Anjard Sr, 1994). Information was limited within departmental boundaries of the organization. It was difficult for one department to access data of another department. Now with the development of computerized databases, data entry and data access, both are performed in a centralized manner (Zhou, 2012). The data can now be stored in a centralized server and can be accessed by all the departments. As a result, access to information has become faster which gives employees more time to invest in other endeavours. Thus, it can be stated that database management system has increased the productivity of an organization. Incorporation of database management into an organization is a perfect example of restructuring a management with the help of technology (Churcher, 2012). This paper is focused on creating a database management system for a proper and efficient management of the Northampton Business School. It also includes the entity relationship structure of the institute and how the centralized database helps to improve the monitoring of students activities. Task 1 Database Making The database is created in order to store the student data in such a way that it can be accessed instantly (Alhajj, 2002). The database is to be used to monitor students’ activity, their attendance, individual grades, enrolled courses, performance rating and behavioural conduct. The entity relationship structure will further describe the database and how it is linked to the entire organization of a centralized operation. It also reflects how the students, the faculties and the entire administration are interrelated. The master database shown below gives an example of how the database is structured. Enrolment no. Student Name Course Study Mode Gender Contacts 01011092 Alice Abraham MBA Full-Time Female +3289565 01011093 Alan Smith MBA Distance Male +7835239 01011094 Beatrice Bailey MBA Full-Time Female +3895634 01011095 William Clayton MBA Part-Time Male +4895648 Table 1: Students’ Enrolment Database of the Northampton Business School. Figure 1: Entity Relationship model of Northampton Business School Source: Created by Author Attendance Database Enrolment no. Name Attendance Study Mode Contacts 01011092 Alice Abraham 76% Full-Time +3289565 01011093 Alan Smith 84% Distance +7835239 01011094 Beatrice Bailey 74% Full-Time +3895634 01011095 William Clayton 65% Part-Time +4895648 Table 2: Student’s Attendance Database Entities of the Entity Relationship Model An entity relationship model describes how different entities are related in an organizational system. An entity is defined as an element in the system that can exist independently and can have a unique identification. Each entity is related to each other by “relations”, and the properties of the entities are defined by its attributes (Johnson, 2011). The two primary entities have been identified from the above relationship entity model, which are, a) Student and b) MBA. From the point of view of students, the associated attributes are Enrolment number, Name, Gender, Date of Birth, Study Mode and Attendance. The course is mentioned in the diagram as “MBA” which is related to the student by “Enrolled.” The student is also related to the entity “Management” by the relationship “Registered.” The Faculty is an entity which is indirectly related to the entity “Student” as both “Faculty” and “Student” are related to the course entity “MBA.” The “Faculty” is related to “MBA” with the relationship “Teaches.” The “Faculty” entity has the following attributes, Employee Id, Name, Designation, Contacts. The “Management” entity is related to the “Faculty” by the relation “Employed”. The “Management” entity on the other hand is related with the course entity “MBA” with the relation “Offers”. The course entity “MBA” itself has three attributes, “Full-Time”, “Part-Time” and “Distance”. The attendance attribute will help the institute to find out how frequently the students are dropping classes and also the exact reasons behind it, so that the institute can take necessary actions to increase the attendance of the students. The database shown in table 3 stores the absence record of students and the reason for their absence. Beatrice Bailey, Enrolment no.: 01011094 Days of Absence Reason of Absence 14 October, 2014 Sick leave 11 November, 2014 Casual leave 20 November, 2014 Casual leave Table 3: Individual Student’s Attendance Database. Primary and Foreign Key In order to efficiently arrange and access the data distributed in several databases, the concept of Primary Key and Foreign Key is used. A primary key is a set of data which is unique in the entire database and cannot be duplicated. Attributes like Enrolment number of students, Employee Id of faculties and telephone numbers are Primary key in this situation, because no two students can have same telephone number or enrolment number, likewise no two faculties can have same employee id (Oracle, 2011). A primary key acts as a unique identifier of an entity. It is used to efficiently extract data from the database of any particular attribute. On the other hand, a foreign key is a set of data which relates two databases. It is a set of data which is common in more than one database and these databases can be linked with help of the foreign key. The student’s enrolment database of Northampton Business School and the Student’s Attendance Database, both contain the column “Enrolment no.” Thus, the enrolment number is the foreign key that links the two databases. Task 2 Report 1: Enrolment of Students This report is focused on the enrolment of students in different study modes, i.e. Full-Time, Part-Time and Distance. This will help the institute to measure the popularity and effectiveness of the study modes. After the management gets a clear picture of the number of students getting enrolled in each study modes, it can assess the gaps present in the education system of each one of them and make necessary improvement to increase student’s enrolment. The number of students enrolled in each study mode can be accessed from the Student’s enrolment database. The Attendance database will provide information about the percentage of absence in each study modes. This data will help the management to assess which study mode is preferred by the students and the reason behind it. Three separate databases based on the study modes can be created from the student’s enrolment database and the absence database, which will contain data like students name, enrolment number, and attendance percentage. These three databases will give the management a clear idea of how individual study modes are preferred and the level of attendance in each one of them. Full-Time Enrolment no. Name of Student Attendance (%) Part-Time Enrolment no. Name of Student Attendance (%) Distance Enrolment no. Name of Student Attendance (%) Table 4: Study Mode Databases. Report 2: Student’s Attendance The attendance of the students is a major concern for any institute. It reflects the students interest in the institute and it also ensure whether or not the process of education is preferred by the students. The student’s attendance database will give the clear idea of the level of attendance of each student. For further details, the individual attendance record (shown in table 3) can also be accessed by using the enrolment number as a foreign key. Inside the system the user can simply click on individual student, which will take him to the student’s attendance database. The management can also get a clear idea of the reason behind the student’s absence. The students with poor attendance can be segregated by using filters on the “Attendance percentage” attribute. All the students below 60% attendance can be separated and individual reason of absence can be accessed. The management can also contact the students’ guardians by the provided telephone number and report them of their wards’ poor attendance. In order to reduce the absenteeism, the management can take up certain steps like barring the students to sit for the examination who has low attendance, or it can make certain changes in the teaching style by making it more interactive in order to increase student’s interest. Report 3: Reason of Absence The reason of absence is a vital attribute of the entity ‘Student”. It gives the clear picture of the reason behind the decreasing attendance. The individual student’s attendance database can be accessed to get the exact reason for their absence. The assessment can be done based on whether the student is absent due to sickness or he/she is taking several casual leaves. This can be cross checked by medical certificates and an official letter signed by the guardian. The reason of absence can be accessed by using the enrolment number as the foreign key in the Student’s attendance database. This report will include a list of students whose attendance are below a certain percentage and attributes like enrolment number of the student, Name of the student, Attendance percentage, reason for absence. It will also include another column with attribute “Approved” or “Disapproved”. The “Approved” or “Disapproved” attribute will show whether or not the reason of the absence has been authenticated or not. This report will help the management to take the proper decision based on the reason of absence. Report 4: Students’ Performance Database The student’s performance needs to be monitored by the management in order to assess the effectiveness of the education process. The student’s performance database can be created based on semesters (as shown in table 5), so that the progress from semester to semester can be easily measured in terms of marks obtained. The students’ aggregate performance on individual subjects will allow the management to figure out if the students are doing good or bad in individual subject. Based on this data, the management can instruct the faculties to improve the teaching quality, so that the student’s performance can be improved. Moreover, the faculties can isolate the students who are performing poorly irrespective of the subjects and can give them more attention on their academics (Bell, Kindhal, and Thalmann, 2010). Semester 1 Enrolment no. Students’ Name Organisational Behaviour Critical Issues in Business Leadership Operations and Supply Chain Management Competitive Strategy and Innovation Strategic Marketing Total (%) 01011094 Beatrice Bailey 74 65 70 82 68 75 72.33 Semester 2 Enrolment no. Students’ Name Organisational Behaviour Critical Issues in Business Leadership Operations and Supply Chain Management Competitive Strategy and Innovation Strategic Marketing Total (%) 01011094 Beatrice Bailey 68 88 75 78 Absent 70 63.16 Table 5: Student’s Performance Database Task 3 Developing Student’s Webpage The interaction between the students and the Institution must be improved in order to monitor the students in an effective manner, and at the same time the students’ feedbacks can also be received (Piedade and Santos, 2008). This website is created as a portal for the students, where they can access all the University information, study materials, exam schedules and also the feedback forms where they can put their reviews and suggestions. The website will give “read only” access to some of the database, so that the students can have access to his attendance records and the mark sheets. The website should be built in such a way that it does not look mundane and it also needs to be interactive and user friendly. The login page should be appealing to the student. The website shown in figure 2, includes the statement “Welcome to The Northampton Family,” this give the student a sense of attachment to the institute. The login page is made in a simplistic manner so that the student does not feel any clutter while opening the web page. The picture shown in the login page portrays a group of college students, which will encourage the user to involve in social communication among them. Figure 2: Students’ Portal Website (Login page) Source: (Created by Author) The Homepage of the website needs to be extremely user friendly so that it is easily accessible to a new user. The website shown in figure 3 is the Home Page of the Students’ Portal where there are links to different domains is clearly seen. All the elements of website are clearly segregated in three distinguishable buttons, “Notice Board”, “Study Material” and “Survey”. Under the notice board the students can have access to the databases like attendance sheets, mark sheets and exam schedules. Under the “Study Material” section, all the relevant course materials are available in pdf format. Finally, in the “Survey” section the students can give their feedbacks and reviews in the survey form. This will help the student to easily access the website. Figure 3: Students’ Portal Website (Home page) Source: (Created by Author) Task 4 Data Collected The data collected from the students’ databases and the survey questionnaire in the website reveals the following. Number of Students Enrolled. Figure 4: Number of Enrolment in each study modes Source: (Created by Author) From the data collected from the Student’s data base it is seen that the Northampton Business School currently holds 618 students, of them 226 are in full time, 182 are in part time and 210 are in distance. Figure 5: Attendance on each Subject. Source: (Created by Author) The attendance data gathered from the attendance database reveals that none of the subjects has attendance higher than 80 percent. The attendance records in the above figure is taken from a period of four months. It can be seen that subjects like Critical issues in Business have high attendance, whereas Organizational Behaviour has low attendance. The management must take steps to improve the teaching pattern of the subjects where the attendance is low. Figure 6: Reason of Absence Source: (Created by Author) The attendance sheet present in the student’s portal needs to be updated by the student after each leave they take, where they need to mention the actual reason for their absence. It has been found that in case of male candidates almost 76 percent of all the leaves taken are casual leaves and rest are sick leaves. On the other hand, in case of female candidates 55 percent are casual leaves and rest are sick leaves. In the survey section the students are asked to rate the teaching methods in each subjects and they are also asked to rate the individual faculty. The data collected is shown in figure 7. A closer look reveals that the performance on the subjects is directly proportional to the rating. Thus, it can be stated that the subjects where the students are doing poorly must be reviewed by the management and the teaching pattern should be changed. Figure 7: Rating given by students on the quality of education of different subjects. Source: (Created by Author) Conclusion and Recommendation The study of the data collected from the database shows that the reason of absenteeism is primarily linked to the quality of education. The subjects in which the absenteeism is more, have been rated poorly by the students. This suggests that the qualities of education in those subjects are not up the mark. The management should change the allocated faculty and recruit a new one for these subjects where he/she will adopt a different teaching style than before. It is also seen that the performance of the student are also poor in the poorly rated subjects. Thus, it can be concluded that the teaching pattern in the poorly rated subjects should be changed, which in turn will increase the interests among the students and they will eventually like to attend those classes. This will be further reflected in their grades. Thus, to improve the overall image of the Northampton Business School, the management must improve the education system wherever necessary. Reference Alhajj, R., 2002. Extracting the extended entity-relationship model from a legacy relational database. Information Systems. Elsevier Science Ltd. Anjard Sr, R. 1994. The Basics of Database Management Systems (DBMS). Industrial Management & Data Systems, 94(5), pp.11-15. Bell, C., Kindhal, M. and Thalmann, L., 2010. MySQL high availability: tools for building robust data centers. Sebastopol, Oreilly. USA Churcher, C., 2012. Beginning Database Design. 2/e. Apress. New York. Johnson, R,. 2011. The entity Relationship Model. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 28 November 2014] Oracle, 2011. Primary Key, Foreign Key and Check Constraints. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 28 November 2014] Piedade M.B. and Santos M.Y., 2008. Student Relationship Management: Concept, Practice and Technological Support, 5, pp.1-5. Zhou, H., 2012. 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ACM-SIGFIDET , Workshop, San Diego, Calif., November. pp.1-18 Hammer, M.M. and Mcleod, D.J., 1975. Semantic integrity in a relation data base system. Very Large Data Base Conf. Sept. 25-47 Kumar, V. and Reinartz, W, J., (2009) Customer relationship management: A database approach. 4th ed. New York: Physica-Verlag. Tsichritzis, D., A network framework for relation implementation. In Data Base Description, B.C.M. Douge and G.M. Nijssen, Eds., North-Holland Pub. Co. Amsterdam, pp.269-282 Yang, A. and Chen, P. P., 1996. Efficient Data Retrieval and Manipulation using Boolean Entity Lattice, Data & Knowledge Engineering, 20, pp.211-226 Appendix (I) Questionnaire 1) Name 2) Course 2) Which subject do you like most? Organizational Behavior Critical Issues in Business Leadership Operations and Supply Chain Management Competitive Strategy and Innovation Strategic Marketing 3) How do you like the teaching style of these subjects? Rate in a scale of 1 to 5. (1= lowest, 5= highest) Organizational Behavior Critical Issues in Business Leadership Operations and Supply Chain Management Competitive Strategy and Innovation Strategic Marketing 4) Rate the following in a scale of 1 to 5. (1= lowest, 5= highest) a) How do you like the faculties of these subjects? Organizational Behavior Critical Issues in Business Leadership Operations and Supply Chain Management Competitive Strategy and Innovation b) How helpful is the student’s portal website? Rate in a scale of 1 to 5. (1= lowest, 5= highest) c) What do you want to change the most about the organization? Management Teaching Style Environment Infrastructure Fees (II) Data Collected from data base 1) Total Number of enrollment 2) Attendance of students. Data collected from past four months. 3) Reason for absence 4) Rating given by student to each subjects based on the teaching pattern. Read More