Information Systems (IS) Application: Part-Time Instructors and the Short Courses Database - Essay Example

Information Systems (IS) Application: Part-Time and the Short s Database Introduction As societies become knowledge economies, information has further increased its significant role; this would then result to the apparent evolution of information technology which would become an important commodity in the world today (de Guinea, et al., 2005). The importance of information has been also evident through the increasing role of information-related technologies which a number of systems have been utilizing. This can be seen in the growing functions provided by communications infrastructures and other access platforms which organizations have been also using as a part of their operational systems. As a means to increase competitive advantage, information systems have become an integral architecture in any organization's business processes. Organizations have adopted information systems in order to establish efficiency when it comes to the different areas of operations, ranging from the creation of system architectures that provide support for managerial decision-making through decision-support systems (DSS) to establishing a more highly coordinated supply chain, such as the implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software (Verboom, et al., 2004). Although system information can be regarded as a useful tool and a necessity in organizations today, it can be discussed as to how efficient information systems are to the organizations. The degree of information architecture that an organization adopts can be said to be a significant investment for the organization; hence, the extent of necessity and investment can be said to raised given that information systems, despite its complexity, has to be maximized to its potential. The advent of advance information systems has brought so much change in information delivery. And though this system has caused additional pressures on information systems developers because of increasing demand for efficiency, reliability, and security, information systems has improved and altered traditional information delivery which is usually time-consuming and less secured reason why information is prone to threats. Moreover, the use of information systems is no longer prevalent in large businesses because even educational institutions area already using it as well in order to manage their information, particularly the offered courses. Educational institution is just one of the several sectors that are abundant with information which can be mismanaged if there would be no proper and effective information management at hand. Fortunately, today's information systems is proven reliable and secured enough to be used in this sector reason why educational institutions may no longer have to adhere on manual information management and then switch to its technological counterpart, provided that there is a proper modeling of how the system should work out. This paper will discuss the application of information systems to an educational institution that offers short courses taught by part-time instructors, supported by data modeling using the data flow diagram (DFD) and entity-relationship diagram (ERD). Managing and Delivering Short Courses Just like any other businesses, educational institution is also governed by process and data management to ensure smooth flow of transactions and information, particularly the courses offered to the students. The educational institution, which is the subject on this paper, offers short courses. And the strategic objectives behind this specific offer is to efficiently delivery knowledge and information to students comprising of post-graduates, undergraduates, or those who just intend to take associate degree. But since information vary and is different from regular courses then evidently, all information engaged in short courses are managed separately. Unfortunately, the institution is obviously suffering from some difficulties in managing short courses primarily due to miscommunication and mismanagement between the coursework developers and the part-time instructors. There are also some instances where coursework developers incidentally mixed the short course with regular course and that part-timers have been given with the wrong curriculum to be delivered in classroom. Almost everything is surrounded by systems and so as education. Therefore, this educational institution should consider the automation of its process and data management because with reference to Castro, Kolp, and Mylopoulos (2002), information system would ensure efficient performance within ever-changing organizational management. And with a major role as a set of organized procedures that when executed can provide information for various purposes like decision making, communications, and control of the organization (Lucas 1992), information systems is evidently advantageous for the educational institution. DFD of the IS Application As previously mentioned, the goal is to automate the short courses management in order to prevent mistakes like mixing short courses with regular courses and wrong access of courses. To do this, IS application intends to provide a database where coursework developers can save short courses and course schedule. This database can only be accessed by part-time instructors who are assigned for all short-courses. Figure 1 presents the DFD that would illustrate the information flow. Figure 1: Context DFD for Short Course Management Figure above is a graphical representation of the movement of data from input to output. The first labeled rectangle was the entity which pertains to the producer of information residing outside the limits of system to be modeled. Subsequently, the arrow going to the sphere represents the input information while the sphere itself pertains to the process-a transformer of information residing within the bound of the system to be modeled. Next, the processed information would be stored into data store or the so-called database which is represented by a two-parallel line. Lastly, the output information from the database will be accessed by the second entity which is represented by a two-row labeled rectangle. And following the movement with proper association of name of entity, process, and data store, the course developer who is the first entity would input information, which is the developed coursework, using a computer-based system designed for content development and then save it to a relational database. Then the course developer schedules the course details. And this relational database produces the output information, which is actually the saved coursework, which can only be accessed by part-time instructors. By following this, no unauthorized instructors can access the short course, resulting to a more organized access to courses to be delivered in the classroom. On the other hand, this system can be revised every now and then whenever some changes occurred such as short courses should already be accessible for full-time instructors. After all, the system should be designed with security measures like authentication through username and password in order to carry out the system's objectives. Figure 1: DFD Level 0 for Short Course Management Figure 3: DFD level 1 for the Short Course Management ERD of the IS Application The DFD diagram from the previous figure is evidently simple and easy to understand. And similarly, ERD or the entity-relationship diagram should be easy to understand as well since its primary purpose is to represent data objects and its relationships with one another. However, it is important to recognize that the accessibility of good understanding regarding the ERD depends on its associated types of connectors. There is a so-called expanded ERD in which the representation is quite complex but with the help of proper understanding of associated connectors, can yield better knowledge on every detail of data objects and relationships. 3) Table 1: The data entities and attributes Course Part Time Teacher Course Schedule Attributes: Course Code* Course Name No hours Required Course Structure Book List Subject Group Attributes: Teacher Code* Teacher Name Subject Group Attributes: Date Schedule No Course Code Teacher Code This particular IS application made use of expanded ERD in order to show detailed relationships. Figure 2: Expanded ERD (iii) ERD Narrative Explanation of the ERD (Figure 2): The educational institution offers one or more short courses developed by one or more coursework developer. And since the school assigned short courses to part-time instructors then short courses developed can only be accessed by these instructors. And according to the policy of the school, one short course can only be accessed by one instructor only. For example, the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) programme can only be accessed and taught by instructor # 1 while the second programme which is the Craft of Technical Writing and Project Management can only be accessed and taught by instructor # 2. Subsequently, a part-time instructor teaches short courses and programme training to one or more sections depending on the workload designed for them. And this only shows that the SDLC programme, for example, can be taught by only one part-time instructor but with different sections which actually vary in schedule. Now, the key attributes of the section are the types of students who serve as the recipient of knowledge, skills, and information. And since the attributes mainly include undergraduate, associate degree students, and post-graduate then there is obviously a high demand for quality knowledge and information delivery. The above ERD only shows the relationship between the short course, part-time instructors, and the course scheudle. And based on the entity-relationship delineation, it is conclusively difficult to maintain a good-working relationship without information systems that suits the demand of this particular expanded relationship. Tait (2000) likely indicates that students desire to develop educational preparedness through quality learning and so as the educational institution and its lessons provider. And this reasonable desire can only be met efficiently if the school would make the necessary automation. Relational Data Model course coursecode coursename subjectgroup booklist coursestructure nohoursrequired 1 c computer 1. Balagurusamy, 2. Let Us C All concetps in let us C 20 parttimeteacher teacherCode teachername subjectgroup 1 john computer courseschedule scheduleno coursecode teachercode date sessionno 1 1 1 5/19/2009 1 4. Requirement Analysis Functional Requirement: 1. The course details of the short term courses should be maintained 2. The details of the part time instructor need to be managed. 3. The schedule for the short term courses should be created by the course developer using the short time course information and the part time teacher information. 4. The mix up of the regular and part time courses needs to be solved. 5. The Part time teacher should be given the access the assigned short course information. 6. The part time teacher should be given the access to the schedule information for which the teacher is assigned on. Non functional: 1. The course developer time consumption in creating the schedule should be minimized. 2. The part time teacher access should be enhanced using account information of the teacher. 3. The running time should be real time oriented. 4. The user interface of the system should be user friendly. 5. Fulfilling the Transaction The ERD and DFD already depicted significant relationships and necessary points for automation, respectively. And referring to figure 1, the DFD only shows the simplicity of transaction needed by the institution. Specifically, the transaction only needs an automated process or movement starting from input information, storing, and generating output. And since the educational system has limited resources and necessities then this simple desired transaction no longer needs to be fulfilled in other way around such as redesigning and reengineering. The process of automating the current process and data management of the institution can be somewhat difficult because it requires some factors to consider, such as the ones mentioned from the previous sections. However, it is considerably natural and should not be a reason for developers to find any other way in order to fulfill the task because not all alternatives are technically desirable. Basically, in fulfilling automation tasks, redesigning and reengineering usually pose as an alternative or an approach for reverse engineering simply because it has the capability to provide a backbone for development framework and system implementation that have undergone reconsideration of decisions, designs, and processes in order to ensure minimized impact of changes while improving the anticipated system process (Huang, Kwan, & Hung 2001). However, it is imperative to absorb the fact as well that the efficiency of system reengineering or redesigning vary according to the situation. Redesigning and reengineering can be best suitable for huge enterprises that really needs wide-ranging systems but for a case like the educational institution which only have limited resources and data to manage, enough to be handled by a simple information system, system reengineering should no longer be a necessity. Further, one major reason for the variation of reengineering application is its complicated and prolonged process which the institution should not necessarily experience. With reference to Yang, Liu, and Zedan (2000), reengineering can be facilitated greatly, especially when through original legacy system but the process might prolong the period before the new system can be implemented and this is due to the three parts of reengineering that has to be considered. The first one is approaching the comprehension and production of formal specification which actually serves as the notion of abstraction. Subsequently, transformation has to be followed shortly in order to help in changing original source code into alternative forms without changing the semantics. And lastly, the actual abstraction has to be executed because this is use for hiding irrelevant details. These three parts might be less in number but the actual process is quite complicated, especially if the system to be reengineered is technically complex and wide-ranging, such as those in the enterprises that has different branches and needed to connect its systems through its main or mother location. And since the educational institution obviously needs a simple information system that would prevent course developers and part-time instructors to mismanage their roles and responsibilities in providing quality learning through courses developed then evidently, there is no need for system reengineering and redesigning just to fulfill this specific desired transaction. Conclusion By revisiting the figures and explanations from the previous sections, it is conclusive that technology, particularly the information systems, has really revolutionized the educational industry. From conventional process of data management and learning delivery, information systems not only lessen the hassles of course development but also the likelihood of mismanagement such as wrong administration of courses to instructors and mixing short courses to regular courses. IS application and intervention might already be considered as one of the most significant developments in the educational industry but its advent also placed a lot of pressures for educational institutions and its people because of necessary adjustments, especially if the IS intervention has completely altered the processes and management employed for many years now. But since its intervention is for the better then everyone must be patient enough to adopt. Fortunately, modeling such as system should no longer be difficult because of the availability of data modeling techniques that can help developers in seeing the flow or movement of information within the boundaries of the system to be automated. As a result, developers can already predict what can be the pros and cons of the automated system once it was implemented. On the other hand, modeling the anticipated system depends on how the developers would design it but a combination of ERD and DFD are considerably recommended because it provides necessary details, from the relationship of entity and attributes up to the desired process that the system to be automated should execute. References Buwalda, H 2008, Automation and requirements, viewed November 19, 2008, Castro, J, Kolp, M, & Mylopoulos, J 2002, 'Towards requirements-driven information systems engineering: the Tropos project', Information Systems, vol. 27, no. 6, pp. 365-389. De Guinea, A., Kelley, H. & Hunter, G. 2005. 'Information Systems Effectiveness in Small Businesses: Extending a Singaporean Model in Canada'.Journal of Global Information Management, vol. 13, pp. 55-79. 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