CHAPTER 1

BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM

1.1 Introduction

When a graduate program reaches a certain level of maturity, the need

to systematically re-examine, re-evaluate, and reflect on the program's success in

preparing our alumni becomes very important. Some group of alumni has a tendency

to become potential advisors. It is important to continuously improve the program so

that the incoming students will have higher chance of employment when they

graduate. The reasons for maintaining contact with alumni include networking for

current students to obtain internships and professional positions, meeting

requirements for accrediting agencies, and determining how well the program

prepared the graduates for their professional careers. To maximize the potential of the

graduates’ and strengthen their ability, the graduates should convert their theory into

practice. To stay on top level, the graduate program needs to stay on their current

professional practices. (Kathleen Ingram, Linda Haynes, et al, 2005)

Recent shifts in education and labour market policy have resulted in

Universities being placed under increasing pressure to produce employable graduates.

Some employers prefer a graduate that able to navigate through the world of work and

manage their career building process. A graduate that has desirable traits and

attributes are the ones that knows the importance of managing their self and their

career. (Ruth Bridgstock, 2007)

1.2 Project Context

Universidad de Zamboanga has been producing professionals that

graduated from different courses. These professionals are ready to compete for jobs

and career. Some of them are employed to jobs that are not related to their chosen

field of expertise. The number of graduates produced by the Universidad de

Zamboanga is one of the factors of difficulty in tracing graduates and their careers.

The University has many departments, makes tracing graduates too hard because of

different courses taken.

This is the reason why UZ Alumni Profiling with Visualization and

Analytics was conceptualized. This will support the Alumni Tracer Study. The

Alumni Profiling with Visualization and Analytics will be able to track graduates

from Bachelor of Science in Computer Science program if they are employed or

unemployed, and if employed the project will trace whether their jobs fit to their

course graduated. It is for the Academe to know if there are changes to be made in

curriculum, or to know the percentage of unemployment or job mismatch.

1.3 Purpose and Description

This capstone project on Alumni Profiling with Visualization and

Analytics for Bachelor of Science in Computer Science of School of Engineering,

Information and Communications Technology of Universidad de Zamboanga will be

beneficial to the following:

To the Computer Science program, it will able to keep trace alumni

where he/she currently working and also where he/she previously worked. And what

is his/her work right now and his/her previous work before he/she got his/her present
job. It will also able to track by programs what program is the highest percentage of

employed and unemployed or their jobs mismatch on their field of expertise. The

department will take actions whether they have to improve the curriculum on the said

programs for the benefits of the upcoming students.

To the Alumni, they can trace their own record in case of urgent

needs. The system will also able to help all past and present students looking for help

in finding a job or even an internship.

To the University, they will benefit and make use of the information

and analysis of the present study on Alumni Profiling with Visualization and

Analytics by making it as their reference of their research.

To the future Researchers/Developers, they can make use of this

study as their reference to their study and improve this study.

1.4 General Objectives

This capstone project aims to design and develop an Alumni Profiling

with Visualization and Analytics for Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from

School of Engineering, Information and Communications Technology of Universidad

de Zamboanga that will consistently monitor and accurately process the alumnus’

records.
1.5 Specific Objectives

The specific objectives include the following:

1. Collect the requirements and the relevant information needed in profiling

alumni.

2. Design an Alumni Profiling System with Visual Representation of data to

meet the requirements of the proposed system that has been collected through

series of interview from the client.

3. Develop an Alumni Profiling System with Visual Representation of data for

decision makers.

4. Test and Evaluate the developed system in terms of Usability Testing.

1.6 Scope of the Study

The scope of the capstone project is to show whether or not the

graduates specific work assigned are related to their field of study, to figure out the

length of waiting time before the graduate get employed, and indicate possible deficit

in given educational program.

The proposed system will have its own built in survey form to gather

data from the alumnus for their convenience. The alumnus will need to answer the

survey questionnaire. The data will be analysed and processed to generate information

like, employment rate, relevance of their jobs to their course graduated. The

information will be used to generate reports like data visualization and data analytics

that will help the admin read and get the information.
1.7 Limitations of the Study

The capstone project is only limited for Bachelor of Computer Science

from School of Engineering, Information and Communications Technology of

Universidad de Zamboanga and designed for those graduates that would like to

submit or engage themselves to use the system. The system limits the access of the

Alumni’s account when there is no internet connectivity.

1.8 Definition of Terms

Analytics - The systematic computational analysis of data or statistics.

Alumni - A group of people who have graduated from a school or

university. Alumni are usually used to refer to a group of graduates of either one or

both genders, while 'alumnus' traditionally refers to a single male graduate, with the

feminine term being 'alumna'.

Academe - The community and scholarly environment within an institution of higher

education, and it's more often called "academia." Professors, graduate students,

researchers, and undergraduates all contribute to the environment of academe, and if

you plan on teaching at a university someday, you hope to enter academe. The earliest

meaning, from the Greek word Akademeia, was simply "The Academy."

Data - can be defined as a representation of facts, concepts, or instructions in a

formalized manner, which should be suitable for communication, interpretation, or

processing, by human or electronic machine.

Information - is organized or classified data, which has some meaningful values for

the receiver. Information is the processed data on which decisions and actions are

based.

Profiling - The recording and analysis of a person's psychological and behavioural

characteristics, so as to assess or predict their capabilities in a certain sphere or to

assist in identifying a particular subgroup of people.

System - A set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an

interconnecting network.

Tracer - A person or thing that traces something or by which something may be

traced.

University - An educational institution designed for instruction, examination, or both,

of students in many branches of advanced learning, conferring degrees in various

faculties, and often embodying colleges and similar institutions.

Visualization - The representation of an object, situation, or set of information as a

chart or other image.