Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo

UNIVERSITY OF COLOMBO
FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

Proposed Database Design For the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon

Submitted for the fulfillment of requirements as Assignment for the module User Centered Database Design

By Evan Pathiratne

Database Design for Institute of Chemistry Ceylon

Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This documentation is relating to database design proposed to be the backend of a new computerized automation system. The automated system is envisioned to improve the operational functions within the organization.

This does not include any information related to database development or deployment, or any specifications on the computerized automation software package, but a high level overview primarily focusing on the database. The activities involved in why such a database is selected and how it will aid the automation system.

The company chosen is Institute of Chemistry Ceylon. This is the only local academic institute providing chemistry lectures for post A/L students. It has no direct competitors but competes for the target market of school leavers with institutions such as APIIT and ACBT.

The institute has taken a forward step into reengineering their business processes by initially computerizing some of its core business functions. Some of which include student management. This document contains a proposed database design for that computerized system. In order to get an overview of the operations currently undertaken at the institute interviews were conducted.

Afterwards the findings were analyzed and the database design was derive. Extended Entity Relationship (EER) Diagrams were used to get a high level overview of the database model. Afterwards the logical and physical models were created.

Database Design for Institute of Chemistry Ceylon

Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Database Design for Institute of Chemistry Ceylon

Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo

1.0 THE ORGANIZATION

1.1 COMPANY BACKGROUND
The institute of chemistry ,Ceylon was formed in 1971.The institute is a learned society catering to the chemical sciences as well as a professional and qualified examination body looking after and responsible for the maintenance and enhancement of the profession of chemistry in Sri Lanka. This is the oldest such body in Sri Lanka. The institute was declared an approved charity by the parliament, and donations made by any institution or individual to the institute of chemistry Ceylon, are therefore deductible from the income of the institution or individual for income tax purposes.

The institute provides a economically beneficial but also very effective and up-to-date courses in chemistry (biology and mathematics is also taught as support modules).Several students after the completion of this four level graduate courses have gone to do their higher level degrees such as masters and PhD to countries like France and the US. This shows that the institute and its education program is proven internationally as well.

The institute provides a four level degree programs that is equivalent to a local university B.Sc. special degree program. This is an opportunity for the post A/L students who was unable to transfer to local universities to get a certified chemistry degree from an internationally and locally recognized institute at an affordable price.

1.2 COMPANY SENIOR MANAGEMENTS GOALS

1. To promote education in chemistry at all levels. 2. To promote and advance chemistry and its applications in Sri Lanka. 3. Promote and encourage original research in chemistry to assess the eligibility of candidates for various grades of membership. 4. To provide the institutes students by establishing and maintaining up-to-date libraries and publishing matters of interest locally. 5. To come in contact and have bonding with other recognized institutes locally.

Database Design for Institute of Chemistry Ceylon

Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo

1.3 COMPANY SIZE AND STRUCTURE

The company is situated in welikada, Rajagiriya. Presently the institute is running in a four storied building which contains a library, five lecture halls, two large sized chemistry labs and two computer labs (consists of 25 personal computers). The institute takes in two batches of students per year and currently provides lecturing for more than 400 students. The institute gets in services of a total of 76 visiting lecturers who are very competent and experienced in their field of study. Lecturers consist of lecturers coming from Colombo, Peradeniya, Sri Jayawardanpura, Kelaniya, Ruhuna and the Open University. Personnel from the industrial sector are also present to provide lectures.

1.4 ORGANIZATIONAL HIERARCHY STRUCTURE

President

Vice President

Secretary International Relations

Chairman Academic Board

Secretary Educational Affairs

Chairman Admission and Ethical Practices Committee

Course Coordinator

Secretary Admission and Ethical Practices Committee

Lecturers

Mentor

Network Administrator

Lab Instructor

Database Design for Institute of Chemistry Ceylon

Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo

1.5 COMPANY BUSINESS OPERATIONS HIGH LEVEL OVERVIEW

Input Recruitment of qualified students for faculty programs. Recording student data such as their personnel information and keeping track of data sets such as their payment details, exam marks and attendance. Recording other company related data such as information about purchases, salary detail and events.

Operations Conducing of lectures related to the field of chemistry. Marking attendance currently manually has opted for an automated attendance tracking barcode system to be implemented. Preparing effective time table schedules for the institute lecturers. Module evaluation in terms of the course structure and its contents. Evaluation done by two criteria, written exams and practicals. (It is to be noted that the panel of lecturers in the institute decide the weighted percentages of written and practical exam marks for each module that the students undertakes.) Lectures are conducted in different faculties. These faculties each have one course program (Ex- Analytical Chemistry Stream, Electro Chemistry Stream, Organic Chemistry Stream Etc.) Each study stream will have different modules that will be taught lecturers. Lecturers get aid from lab instructors for practicals, and students have computer lab facilities to do there assignments and analytical functions .Network administrators are present in the computer labs. Student carrier guidance program done through an appointed mentor (this is optional for students) which will help the students in figuring out their paths in the field of chemistry.

Outputs Certificates to show student progression, annual awards are given.

Database Design for Institute of Chemistry Ceylon

Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo

2.0 THE BUSINESS CASE FOR DATABASE DESIGN

2.1 CURRENT PROCESSES AND SYSTEMS USED
The institute already has a computerized system and a database backend for its payroll and library management functions. The accounting department and the librarians respectively are the process owners for the aforementioned systems. Both the system runs independently of each other.

The student enrolment is done in a traditional way (totally paper based). The course coordinator of the institute handles all inquires related to prospects and selects the qualified students and enrolls them to the institute. Different registries are kept for different faculties. Also different batches are kept in different registry books. No proper records are kept on different modules. Whenever a need for a module description arises the course coordinator and subject specialty lecturer discusses the module contents (examination criteria, number of credits, pass marks) and publishes them on institute journals/ brochures and publications.

Students usage of computers in labs and experiment desks in laboratories is done without any senior member supervision. Any vacant experiment desk available will be used. There is no option of pre booking assets for scheduled use for any practical.

This is the case for lecture hall booking as well. The current process does not allow lecturers to view available laboratory rooms or lecture halls to conduct lecture sessions or practical sessions. The process currently is completed by communication between lecturer and course coordinator verbally.

Student attendance records are not kept. There is currently no process for marking and storing student attendance to lecture sessions or practical sessions.

Database Design for Institute of Chemistry Ceylon

Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo

2.2 AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT

According to the interview conducted, though the companys yearly intake has been increasing yearly (mainly because the diversion of interest within local students from business and IT study streams to science streams due to current job market trends) there has not been a management initiative to invest in a computerized student management system. Therefore the institute operations have been having the following weaknesses/operational in-efficiencies for some period. 1. Its the standard norm to have computerized systems to keep tack and record an institutes enrolment and assessment driven business transactions. But the presence of a manual (written registries) within the institute have made the searching and retrieval of data by course coordinators (and sometimes lecturers) very time consuming and in-efficient. 2. Studies have shown that the attendance of students to lectures has an impact on their overall performance and their final results. Currently the institute does not keep track of student attendance. When looking at other institutes such as University of Kelaniya attendance is marked for lecture sessions as well as laboratory sessions which are an essential part of students learning. 3. The summarized reports (reports related to enrolments per year, from which district, which age group, Student performance, lecturer performance) that the company top management receives are paper based. The amount of time that is consumed to transferring the critical information to the influential parties in the institute has made the overall organizational decision making process inefficient.

4. Room booking for lecturers and asset bookings (Computers and laboratory experiment desks) for students can be automated and made more efficient.

Database Design for Institute of Chemistry Ceylon

Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo

2.3 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

Create operational efficiencies within the institute to cater to the growing student intake demands. The computerized systems and its databases should be able to support the business process when achieving this. -

Maintain student performance to the highest standards by supporting them, providing them more control over institute assets in a controlled manner.

This will inadvertently create a general concise that this institute is maintaining international standards amongst internal and external student communities. This is important when competing with secondary competitors such as IT and business degree offering institutes such as APIIT, ANC and ACBT.

2.4 SCOPE OF THE DESIGNED DATABASE

This proposed database will have 5 modules. They are 1. Student Enrolments Module 2. Exams and Grading Module 3. Room Booking Module 4. Asset Booking Module 5. Student Attendance Module

Each of the above mentioned modules will cover those respective areas under its operation. (Detailed EER diagrams representing the data flows and entities is given in chapter 5) The database model however will not store any data related to payroll functions or library functions since that is currently managed through a separate system and a separately built database.

Database Design for Institute of Chemistry Ceylon

Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo

2.5 CONSEQUENCES OF NON ADOPTION

Human error can cause in effective business transactions and may in evidently lead to employee/student dissatisfaction. In severe cases might even damage the institute popularity and acceptance as a competent academic institute. The non existence of checking available assets or rooms will mean longer communication cycle between lecturers, students and course coordinators which will lead to operational inefficacies. No asset tagging of PC or experiment desks. Stolen items cannot be tracked. Without proper computer labs and chemistry lab lecture session management some slots may become overloaded.

2.6 ADVANTAGES WITH THE NEW DATABASE DESIGN

Deters the misuse of computer labs and chemistry labs because account are kept of the students that used them and the other details such as duration and time used Additionally it promotes self study initiatives among students (They can use library assets and computer resources available whenever they need by pre booking, similar to library book borrowings) Company senior executives can get timely and more accurate records on student intakes, lecturer performance and batch performance. This is because now the process is automated and the data is kept in a relational database capable of retrieval. Makes the work of course coordinators much easier, this would mean a secure store for data (rather than the current manually kept records) and a faster more accurate ways of retrieving them through the to-be-built software.

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3.0 FACT FINDING METHODOLOGY

The chosen fact finding technique was interviewing the key stakeholders in the institute. First Interview Interviewee- Senior Lecturer Date-2010/04/05, Monday (Phone Interview) Time -10.30 a.m

Summary -This was done at the initiation phase of the project to get an overall company view from a managers perspective and to get to know the scope of the problems found. The information discussed in 1st and 2nd chapters was documented through the findings in this interview. And also an overall idea on the business transactions that the institute uses was identified.

Second Interview Interviewee- Course Coordinator Date-2010/04/05, Monday (Phone Interview) Time -2.30 p.m

Summary -To identify the core processes in the institute and understand how it is being carried out. The student enrolment process, how the assessments are marked? How are the student information kept? were found out from this interview .The information found from this interview is documented is reflected on the EER diagrams in chapter 5. The core processes involved and the difficulties faced when committing to a fully manual transaction management system was identified from this interview.

From this phase of the project the requirements for the database was identified. This lead to the formation of the functional requirements for the database

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4.0 FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS OF THE DATABASE

The database should be able to support the following functions. Enabling the storage of data regarding student attendance to practical sessions as well as lecture sessions. Automation of the process of student enrolment allowing for the students personnel data to kept in an efficiently retrievable manner. Student exam marks has to be stored in the database. Exam Supervisors has to be able to provide feedback to lecturers. Students should be able to lodge request for exam mark rechecks. Account management of students that has made bookings in chemistry labs and computer labs. Course coordinators have to able to create time tables for lectures and exams. Lab experiment desk and computer booking function for students and room booking function for course coordinators. View booking schedule for lecturers.

Users of the system will be, 1. Student Enrolments Module (Student, Course coordinator) 2. Exams and Grading Module (Student, Lecturer, Exam Supervisor, Course coordinator) 3. Room Booking Module (Lecturer, Exam Supervisor, Course coordinator) 4. Asset Booking Module (Student) 5. Student Attendance Module (Student via attendance tracking system)

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5.0 EXTENDED ENTITY RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAMS EERD Module 1 - Student Enrolment

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Logical Reasoning
Student related some attributes that require lengthy data store requirements have to be kept as data type string. A multi valued attribute was not placed because it will create unnecessary additional tables Student mentoring is an optional service for a student. Hence partial dependency There is only one course coordinator having administrative rights to update the time tables. One faculty contains a section of modules. These modules are a study stream for a student. Lecturer determines the written and practical percentages for the modules.

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EERD Module 2 Student Exams and Grading

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Logical Reasoning
Marks entity is categories as a weak entity because without the module it relates do not exist all the marks are no longer needed to be kept of it. This weak entity however has a relationship with lecturer as well. Course coordinator needs to validate the recheck submit request from student before it is sent to the lecturers to avoid unnecessary request. Such data has to be stored separately. The number of time a module exam has been rechecked also needs to be stored hence its presented as an attribute on the relation. The exam supervisors are not lecturers so they have to be stored separately. The give their feedback on student performance on the exam(such as plagiarism offences) that is needed for lecturer to perform penalizations on exam marks. This feedback is stored separately for later use (in occasions such as student evaluations)

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EERD Module 3 Room Bookings

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Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo

Logical Reasoning
The entities within room booking also need to be uniquely identified by its own ID. Hence the relationship is U instead of a normal disjoint. Surrogate keys will be in use.(Later depicted in relational schema) Updates relates to the users making bookings and updating the details of it. Only one network administrator and one lab instructor is given access privileges for making bookings.

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EERD Module 4 Asset Bookings

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Logical Reasoning
Timeslot is a multi valued attribute because different timeslot data has to be stored for every booking that is made. The data on this attribute will be represented in a separate relation in the relational schema. Many lab instructors are working in one lab. But for one computer lab only one network administrator is present. The test labs are for students research work. And data related to that has to be stored separately.

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EERD Module 5 Student Attendance

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Logical Reasoning
Attendance has to be keep track of for both lecture session as well as practical session, hence two separate entities. Each entity has to be uniquely identified from each other instead on joining them as a session entity. (If this was done a common primary key has to be used to identify both lab and lecture sessions)

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6.0 EERD MODULES AFTER INTEGRATION

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7.0 THE LOGICAL MODEL

This chapter will detail the conversion results of the above mentioned ERDs into its relational schemas.
1. Student Enrolment Module a. Student(StdID, FirstName, LastName, StdEmail, StdAddress, StdPhone, StdQualification, BatchID) b. Mentor(MentorID, MentorName, MentorEmail, MentorPhone) c. Student_Mentor(StdID, MentorID) d. Batch(BatchID, Year, NoStudents, Description, FacultyID, TimeTableID) e. Faculty(FacultyID, FacultyName , Description, Fac_Students) f. Time_Table(TimeTableID, Date, Time, Notes, Co_CordinatorID) g. Course_Cordinator(Co_CordinatorID, Co_CordinatorName, Co_CordinatorEmail, Co_CordinatorPhone ) h. Module(ModuleID, ModuleName, LecPercentage, PracPercentage, Mod_Description, FacultyID, TimeTableID ) i. Lecturer(LecID, LecName, LecPhone, LecEmail, LecAddress, LecQualification)

Legend: PrimaryKey ForeignKey SurrogateKey

2. Exam & Marks Module a. Student(StdID, FirstName, LastName, StdEmail, StdAddress, StdPhone, StdQualification) b. Module(ModuleID, ModuleName, LecPercentage, PracPercentage, Mod_Description, MarkedBy, OverseenBy ) [ MarkedBy foreign key field is the primary key LecID of the Lecturer entity. It has been renamed here to improve understandability and readability] [ OverseenBy foreign key field is the primary key SupervisorID of the ExamSupervisor entity. It has been renamed here to improve understandability and readability] c. Modules_Taken(StdID, ModuleID, AttemptNo)

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d. Lecturer(LecID, LecName, LecPhone, LecEmail, LecAddress, LecQualification) e. ExamSupervisor(SupervisorID, SupName, SupEmail, SupAddress, SupPhone) f. Marks(ModuleID, MarksID, WrittenExMarks, PracMarks, StdID, LecID) g. FeedbackGiven(SupervisorID, LecID, Feedback) h. Course_Cordinator(Co_CordinatorID, Co_CordinatorName, Co_CordinatorEmail, Co_CordinatorPhone ) i. ExamTimeTable(ExTimeTbID, ModuleName, Date, StartTime, EndTime, Co_CordinatorID) j. Lec_Refer_ExTmTable(LecID, ExTimeTbID) k. Award(AwardID, AwardName, Year, UpdatedBy, StdID) [UpdatedBy foreign key field is the primary key Co_CordinatorID of the Course_Cordinator entity. It has been renamed here to improve understandability and readability] l. RecheckApplication(RecheckID, Notes, StdID, ReferredBy) [ReferredBy foreign key field is the primary key Co_CordinatorID of the Course_Cordinator entity. It has been renamed here to improve understandability and readability] m. Pass_Recheck_Request(Co_CordinatorID, LecID, RecheckID) 3. Room Booking Module a. Lecturer(LecID, LecName, LecPhone, LecEmail, LecAddress, LecQualification) b. Room_Booking(BookID, Date, Start_Time, End_Time, NoOfParticipants, Notes) c. Lecture_Hall(LHallID, Purpose, Request_by, BookID, UpdatedBy) [UpdatedBy foreign key field is the primary key Co_CordinatorID of the NetworkAdministrator entity. Its has been renamed here to improve understandability and readability] d. Computer_Lab(ComLabID, NumberOfPCs , ComPractical_Info, BookID, UpdatedBy) [UpdatedBy foreign key field is the primary key NetAdminID of the Course_Cordinator entity. Its has been renamed here to improve understandability and readability]

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e. Chemistry_Lab(ChemLabID, NumberOfDesks , NumberOfInstr, ChemPractical_Info, BookID, UpdatedBy ) [UpdatedBy foreign key field is the primary key LabInsID of the LabInstructor entity. Its has been renamed here to improve understandability and readability] f. Lecturer_RoomBooking(LecID, BookID) g. Course_Cordinator(Co_CordinatorID, Co_CordinatorName, Co_CordinatorEmail, Co_CordinatorPhone ) h. NetworkAdministrator(NetAdminID, NetAdminName, NetAdminAddress, NetAdminEmail, NetAdminPhone ) i. LabInstructor(LabInsID, LabInsName, LabInsEmail, LabInsAddress, LabInsPhone) 4. Asset Booking Module a. Test_Lab(LabID, LabType, LabSize, LabLocation) b. Computer_Lab(ComLabID, NumberOfPCs, ComPractical_Info, LabID) c. Chemistry_Lab(ChemLabID, NumberOfDesks, ChemPractical_Info, NumberOfInstr, LabID) d. NetworkAdministrator(NetAdminID, NetAdminName, NetAdminAddress, NetAdminEmail, NetAdminPhone ) e. LabInstructor(LabInsID, LabInsName, LabInsEmail, LabInsAddress, LabInsPhone) f. ComLab_Manage(ComLabID, NetAdminID, DateOfAssignment) g. LabIns_Worksin(ChemLabID, LabInsId, DateOfAssignment) h. BookingSchedule(ScheduleID, ScheduleType, Date, LabID) i. Session(SessionID, ScheduleID) j. TimeSlot(SessionID, TimeSlot) k. Std_Ses_Res_Booking(StdID, ResourceID, SessionID) l. Student(StdID, FirstName, LastName, StdEmail, StdAddress, StdPhone, StdQualification) m. Resource(ResourceID, ResourceType, ResourceLocation, LabID) n. Computer(MachineID, Brand, Speed, HardDisk, Memory, ResourceID) o. Experiment_Desk(DeskID, DeskSize, ResourceID)

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5. Student Attendance Module a. Student(StdID, FirstName, LastName, StdEmail, StdAddress, StdPhone, StdQualification) b. LectureSession(LecSes_ID, LecSes_Title) c. LecSes_Attendance(StdID, LecSes_ID, Attend_Date) d. PracticalSession(Prac_ID, Prac_Title) e. PracSes_Attendance(StdID, Prac_ID, Par_Date ) f. Module(ModuleID, ModuleName, LecPercentage, PracPercentage, Mod_Description) g. LecSes_PracSes_Module(LecSes_ID, Prac_ID, ModuleID)

8.0 THE PHYSICAL MODEL

Normalization Process The Normalization process was followed to further refine the relations that were derived by mapping the entities and relationships in EER diagrams into relations. The relations were considered up to 3NF (3rd Normal Form). 1NF (First Normal Form) All relations were checked for composite attributes, multi-valued attributes and nested relations in order to be the relations in 1NF. All existing relations were in perfect 1NF. 2NF (Second Normal Form) The relations were passed through the second step of the normalization process which looked for non-functional dependencies among the primary key and other attributes of the relations. All existing relations were in 2NF. 3NF (Third Normal Form) The 3rd step in the normalization process guaranteed that no non-prime attribute of a relation is transitively dependent on the primary key. This also was consistent with 3NF.

Next page details the physical models of the identified relational schemas.

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9.0 CONCLUSION
The proposed database design is mainly targeted at aiding the institute in supporting it daily transactions. The database will act as a single point of storage for institutes essential data, its main hub. The design stages of the project were the most complex in this project due to the fact each module was done by separate designers. Initially several guidelines and standards were agreed upon (Ex-naming conventions) to avoid confusion when ER views are integrated.

The whole project was done having the 3NF database model in mind even from the initial stages. This saved the team time because automatically the tables were in its 3NF form.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My group appreciates the guidance and tutoring provided by the module lecturer Mr. Rukshan Manchanayake, who aided us in understanding the basic concepts of database modeling and how it could be viewed from a manager business perspective. The practical approach shown by him in his lectures by using case studies and many inclass exercises aided us in understanding these concepts better.

The following cooperate web site has been used in the compilation of this research and analysis paper , further information can be obtained from it. Institute of Chemistry Ceylon (2010). [Online]. http://www.ichemc.com/ [Accessed 21th April 2010]

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