Abstract:
Monitoring systems are very important today, because they allow us to see which processes
work well and which do not. Educational institutions incorporate many processes for proper
operation and, thus, require monitoring systems. Currently, the process of student
attendance recording is determined by the type of school where it is done (schools, colleges
or universities), and is made based on the needs of each institution. This research aims at
providing a software solution for monitoring the attendance of students by making it available
as a subscription service (SAAS), using fingerprint scanning technology for authentication,
and Web Services to obtain student data from each educational institution`s systems.
1. INTRODUCTION
Inefficient or even inexistent
student attendance monitoring is a
problem
in
many
learning
institutions such as schools,
colleges and universities located in
Lima.
Many of these institutions perform
teacher attendance monitoring by
means of a variety of automatized
mechanisms that, in one way or
another,
allow
adequate
monitoring. However, when it
comes to student monitoring, these
schools
have
neither
the
technological nor the financial
means that would allow them to
implement their own monitoring
software system.
In order to meet this need, these
schools resort to hand-written
records. The problem with this way
of attendance monitoring resides in
the impossibility to secure and
retrieve the attendance record, in
case of theft, misplacement or loss
(unless the instructor has made
copies of the record, which is
seldom the case).
For this very reason, I have
deemed necessary to conduct the
implementation of a web-type
system that would allow student
attendance
recording
and
monitoring, making use of Web
Services
technology
and
Biometrics Identification Systems
(fingerprint scanning), as well as to
offer it as a subscription service
(SAAS) instead of going the
traditional route (installation in
clients own servers). This would
reduce the implementation and
maintenance cost, making it
possible to capture a greater share
of the market while at the same
time providing a personalized
solution to the particular needs of
each institution.
Section 2 of this article shows a
brief description of a Biometrics
Identification systems (in particular
regarding fingerprint scanning),
and Web Services. Section 3
3. ANALYSIS
3.1 STRATEGY
TO
BE
EMPLOYED:
The proposed solution seeks
to:
1. Eliminate the use of
student
attendance
handwritten
record
keeping, which is so
common in many learning
institutions.
2. Integrate all departments
and classrooms of an
institution,
regarding
record processing and
student
attendance
monitoring.
3. Integrate systems that are
already
in
place
in
learning institutions.
4. Allow users to obtain
student attendance record
performance reports.
Because of this, the strategy
consists of:
a) Procesamiento de
requerimientos:
Requirement definition,
based on interviews.
Requirement analysis
and selection of the
most
significant
requirements.
Validation
of
requirements
previously
analyzed
with the users.
b) Use case modeling:
Modeling use cases
found and validated.
Specify the use cases.
Database model based
on the use cases.
c) Web Services
definition:
Web Services
entry/exit
definition.
Web Services
elaboration.
interface
interface
variable
interface
d) Application development:
Application development
based on the use cases
and data modeling.
e) Application deployment:
Application deployment
into a web server.
3.2 ANALYSIS RESULTS:
I. IDENTIFYING USE CASES:
The following use cases
(shown in figure 3.1) have
been identified as a result of
the corresponding:
a) System access: The staff
needs to access the system
to activate the record as
well as to obtain the
necessary reports, and they
will
do
so
through
fingerprint scanning.
b) Attendance recording: In
this context it is the student
who will record his/her own
attendance
through
fingerprint scanning.
c) Request of each students
attendance record: The
instructor will be able to
request
individual
attendance records.
d) Request of attendance
record by subject: The
instructor will be able to
request
the
student
attendance by subject.
e) Attendance record editing:
the instructor will be able to
edit the attendance record
of a particular student.
Use case diagram
II. PACKAGES
IDENTIFIED
FOR USE IN THE SYSTEM:
1. Login Package: It is the
package which contains the
system access use case.
2. Attendance Record Package:
It is the package that
contains the use case in
charge
of
attendance
recording.
3. Report Package: It is the
package which contains the
use case in charge of report
generation.
System Packages Diagram
3.3 TECHNOLOGIC
TO BE USED:
PLATFORM
commercial
development.
application
4. PROPOSED
SOLUTION`S
ARCHITECTURE:
4.1 HIGH
LEVEL
ARCHITECTURE:
The high level architecture is
composed of the following
elements (as shown on figure
4.1)
1. Business
logic
and
presentation layers: The
presentation layer interacts
with the user. It is the one
that
shows
graphic
interfaces, captures the
fingerprints and shows
reports. The business logic
layer is the one in charge of
processing data sent by the
presentation layer, such as
fingerprints. It summons
web
services
and
processes both sent and
received data.
2. Web Services: It is a
system component that will
request and process the
external
systems`
Proposed
solutions
architecture
high
level
5. CONCLUSION:
1. The research carried out aims
at reducing the time and effort
spent
by
instructors
in
recording
and
monitoring
student attendance.
2. This solution is offered as a
subscription service. Thus, an