Student Academic Management Mobile Application

Abstract

Over the last decade, Students in higher education around the world have been facing a number of challenges and potential threats to attain academic excellence. The major problem identified in this research was the lack of a solution based on current technology and data infrastructure to provide response to address student challenges. Most of the students face poor time management skills, unavailability of academic records, and lack of communication with lecturers and insufficient bursary' information and last but not least the lack of instant event notification. The dissertation is an applied research which implemented research tools such as observations, interviews and questionnaires with the aim of identifying the common challenges encountered in higher education and thereafter proposing a hi-tech unified solution for the students. The research sample was drawn from Strathmore University students, who were provided with questionnaires. The data collected was used to draw important conclusions for the design algorithm. Control data was collected by interviewing few students from a public university, which doesn't have a technological solution. Eventually a comprehensive review of challenges and current solutions were presented from findings of the survey. The suggestions obtained from the literature review and conclusions of research findings' influenced the design of an academic solution. Hence an android based mobile application was developed to address student challenges in the following sections: Planner, Timetable, Records, Communication and an instant notification service. The prototype application was tested among a few Strathmore students and an acceptance level of 81.5% calculated from findings. The test results showed that the application has improved students time management skills by 25%, enhanced communication by 33% and has improved the students' general performance by a grade difference of 15%. These values are a proof of the positive impact it has on university and college students. The dissertation has systematically identified the student challenges, literature about common architecture and solutions, carried out a survey using questionnaires and interviews, analyzed the results and drew conclusions. Finally a mobile application was designed to fill the identified technological gap and tested to prove its acceptance and effectiveness.