INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (IMS) FOR THE NEW CURRICULUM OF THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF PERADENIYA

Abstract

The present day Universities and different faculties affiliated to them are in an era where the valuable information can be obtained easily at the click of a button. In order to sustain in this competitive environment a well organized, automated Information Management System (IMS) has to be provided to streamline the Academic programs well. Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya is one of the largest faculties in the University System in Sri Lanka, which provides medical knowledge to over 1000 students per year. Therefore, the management of curriculum, examinations and students are the main functionalities of day-to-day work. These functions were mainly carried out by manually with extensive paper work. These are chiefly time consuming activities. Data redundancy, inaccuracy, inflexibility of accessing stored data; data duplication and security of data were the other drawbacks with the current system. After undertaking a detailed study about the current system and found certain drawback in it, there was an urgent necessity to implement an automated system, which uses today s computer technology and to overcome those drawbacks and enhance the productivity of the current system. As a solution for those problems, this project was started with the aim of minimizing the drawbacks of the existing manual system and to make a better system to ensure automated-system of student registration, examination process and management of course content of the new curriculum of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya. After analyzing the existing system, it was decided to implement the new system with two components named Windows-based system and the Online system. To develop those systems, several methodologies were used during the design and implementation stages of the project. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) was used in the basic design stage to create visual models of the system. Rational Rose 2002 was utilized as a tool. This included use case diagrams, case scenarios, activity diagrams and class diagrams. In designing the database both conceptual design and logical design were used. Smart Draw 2009 was used to draw an ER diagrams. When developing the database, SQL Server 2000 has been used. SQL database design provides capabilities to querying, modifying and managing databases for high volume of data. SQL Enterprise manager and SQL Query Analyzer were used as development tools. All modular (component) and subsystem programming codes have been done during the implementation stage. Object-Oriented programming methodologies have been used to implement the new system. Microsoft Visual Studio. NET 2008 was used as a programming environment in the Windows-based system and ASP.NET was used with the Internet Information Services (IIS) server for implementing the Online system. Both the languages were interacted well and were used in Windows platform. HTML Help Workshop was used to implement the Help system. After the implementation stage, the new system was tested with real business environment. It was deployed as a trial with users in Curriculum Coordinating Centre (CCC) and Medical Education Unit and observed. All the end-users were pleased to use the new system and we had very positive feedback from them. With using newly implemented system, users could perform their day-to-day work with very efficient, accurate and user friendly way. Due to less paper work, quick and secure data retrieval, ability to streamline students and academic affairs, consistency, automated reports generation as required, end users were satisfied with new system to be implemented as half of existing system and targets have been achieved successfully by new automated system.