A Proposed Computerized Student Monitoring System

for the Guidance and Counseling Office at Philippine

College of Science and Technology

PREPARED BY:

Rizalyn Batoy

Elvis Briones Jr.

Emerson Diaz

April Aquino

Araceli Palaganas

Jenifer Mamaril

Jigo De Vera

Cherry Ann Gonzales

Chapter 1

PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

Philippine College Of Science and Technology is committed to the pursuit of excellence relative

to the student's professional growth and development. PhilCST has maintained its vision of exemplary

performances, providing quality education, training students to become technically competent and

reaching the stature of excellence in the academe. For seventeen years, PhilCST has consistently

produced full-pledged engineers, educators, computer analysts, mariners, criminologists, mass

communicators, technicians, and hotel and restaurant managers. These are enough proof that PhilCST is

living up with their mission and vision. The institution is progressing and contributes to the maximum

development of their students. Evidently, the Guidance and Counseling Office played a very significant

part for this success.

Guidance and Counseling Office is a requirement for any academic institutions. It is an

indispensable office to all educational institutions. It is basically concerned with the good moral character

of every student wherein the guidance personnel give personal advices to students who needs character

improvement and personal changes in their lives. They motivate, enlighten and provide the needed push

on every student in their chosen career.

The general objectives of the PhilCST Guidance and Counseling Office are: (1) to work hand-in-

hand with the administrator on the fulfillment on its mission statement which is the provision of quality

education to every students by inculcating knowledge, attitudes, values and training them on skills needed

in order to prepare them for the world of work and to enable them to improve their quality of life; (2) to

be a helping hand to the instructors and staff in providing a productive and facilitative atmosphere in the

school, so students will be competent is capable of making decisions; (3) to be an open hand to students

by helping them develop attitudes of social consciousness, equality and justice needed in democratic

living. Moreover, its special objectives are: (1) to develop and implement a relevant guidance program for

PhilCST based on the guidance needs of students and the faculty every school year; (2) to assure parents,

guardians and relatives of students on the role of the staff and faculty (as second parents in the school) by

showing concern and follow-up students ‘ attendance and behavior in their classrooms and in the school

campus, and (3) to assist the Dean of Student Affairs in the supervision of student organizations and their

activities. The Guidance and Counseling Office has the following services offered to the students: (1)

Individual Inventory Service that aims to secure and compile students’ personal records and other data

which are to be used primarily by the counselors and students themselves. (2) Information Service

through which students and faculty members are guided on the rules and regulations of the school. (3)

Counseling Service taken care by four counselors whom the students can approach or set appointment

with for counseling. These counselors are professionally trained to listen and guide in finding solutions

for the problems of the students. (4) Placement Service where career guidance is conducted for graduating

students in coordination with the Philippine Employment Service Organization of the Department of

Labor and Employment. Students are taught how to be prepared for an interview and make a professional

resume. (5) Follow-up Service for students who are under-achieving and are chronic absentees. This is to

facilitate understanding of present status of students and find solutions to their problems. This also

follows up the employment status of graduates for possible assistance together with the PhilCST Alumni

Association. (6) Guidance Researches are done for the benefit of the students’ problems, students’’

absenteeism and dropping out are the bases of researches. The result of these researches will be the

benchmark data of organizing Student Peer Facilitators.

Not so long ago, all student monitoring systems were done manually, without any help from a

computer. Guidance and Counseling Office staffs invested a lot of time and energy keeping track of all

student’s data, files and information including the records for dropping and claiming of class cards. And

they did this all by keeping numerous files filled with track records for each and every student enrolled.

Nowadays, however, things are far simpler than they used to be. Because technology is always

dedicated to making things easier and better, quite a wide variety of computerized monitoring systems is

available to save them from tedious task.

The guidance personnel are using manual system and they often encountered problems such as:

a. recording the students’ personal data is time consuming

b. process of dropping/claiming of class cards is also time consuming

c. student’s data may be lost because records are kept in folders

For them to attend the needs of the students, they must have an organized, reliable, accurate and

efficient system to monitor the students’ performance and status.

Because of these problems, researchers came up with the idea of proposing a computerized

monitoring system for the Guidance and Counseling Office regarding these matters. The proposed system

will help the guidance counselors to monitor the students and increase their efficiency in their services.

This proposal intends not only to help ease the work of the guidance counselors but benefits the

administration and students as well, upon retrieval and secured keeping of records with its security

features. The researchers will provide a computerized application for the accuracy, accessibility and

reliability of the proposed system for the Guidance and Counseling Office.

Conceptual Framework

The use of computers versus manual management and compilation of data are likely to depend on

the availability and maintainability of computer hardware, the availability of staff with computer

operating skills, and the possibility of protection against heat, dust, power surges and computer viruses.

Effective computerization includes programs that check data as it is entered utilize commercially

available software and automatically back up data frequently. The computerized monitoring system can

increase the efficiency of the Guidance and Counseling Office to deliver its services and will provide

them a good and reliable output.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

Figure 1: Paradigm of the Study

Development of the Monitoring System of

the Guidance and Counseling Office using

Visual Basic and Database Software

Present Monitoring System of the Guidance and Counseling Office

Problems encountered in the present system

Computerized Monitoring System of

the Guidance and Counseling Office

Statement of the Problem:

General Problem:

What Student Monitoring System being utilized by the Guidance and Counseling Office at

Philippine College of Science and Technology?

Specific Problems:

1. What is the present student monitoring system implemented by the Guidance and Counseling

Office?

2. What are the problems being encountered with the use of the present system?

3. How could these problems be minimized?

Significance of the Study

This proposed system entails a more organized and systematic approach that will benefit the

following:

a. Administration – They will have more reliable and effective monitoring system that will

contribute to the success of the institution.

b. Guidance Counselors – The proposed system will help the guidance counselors to monitor the

students’ performances and increase the efficiency in their services.

c. Students – The process of claiming their dropped class cards consumes less time and they will be

given advices by the guidance counselors due to their absenteeism along with the formation of

their character.

d. Parents – They will be informed about the records and other activities inside the school campus

of their son/daughter accurately and efficiently.

e. Faculty Members – They will be given complete information about their students’ records in the

Guidance and Counseling Office.

f. Researchers - Their knowledge and skills in developing a system as well as in making a research

paper works will be enhanced.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The study will cover the monitoring of the students by the Guidance and Counseling Office of

PhilCST specifically the students’ personal information, absences and students’ behavior and activities.

The scope of the study will focus only on these data processing and monitoring reports and will include

other relevant matter.

Definition of Terms

The following terms were defined according to its use in the study to provide better understanding for the

readers:

Back-up – refers to a procedure or hardware used to recover lost or destroyed data to keep the system

operating.

Claiming – process of releasing class cards of the student by the Guidance and Counseling Office

Computer – An electronic tool used to manipulate data and make the process of recording data easier.

Computer System – A more advance system which uses computer as a main tool in performing works.

Data – collection of information stored in a computer

Database – collection of data with a given structure for accepting and storing data for multiple users.

Data processing – manipulation of data into a more useful form to achieved desired results

Dropped – remarks or status of a student which actually means he has been duly withdrawn from the

class with his/her knowledge

Guidance and Counseling Office – Office in the school that keep records on the students’ behavior and

academic performances, dropped class cards and personal data.

Guidance Counselors - professionally trained personnel who gives advices, encourages and motivates

students to do the right thing

Monitoring System – tracing the students’ records using manual system or computer system

Personal Data – Basic information about the student such as name, birthdates, age, address, etc.

Process- a part of the program that executes a step-by-step procedures and patterns

Student behavior – conduct of a student governed by the code of conduct and ethics and other policies

written in the PhilCST Student Manual

Virus – in computer security, a self-propagating program that infects and may damage another program

in a computer

Chapter II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE and STUDIES

This chapter discusses the different literatures and studies chosen by the researchers as

guide or references in the completion of the study.

LOCAL LITERATURE

Data processing machine can do also be used for the storage and retrieval of personal

data. Central data processing machines can now replace the handwritten cumulative records. The

individual student is given the code number (sometime the social security number is secured and

used for this proposed), and information about him is fed periodically into the machine. Such

information can include test scores, data about his home, school grade, school marks and

tentative educational and vocational plans and, in short, all the information, which is typically

found in a cumulative record. When the counselors who have spent hours transferring test scores

and other information to cumulative records, filing them, and finding them again can now have

this time for the practice of counseling itself to the dissemination of occupational information.

Computers may now replace the bulky occupational file, which may be at some central location,

so that several schools can use them at the same time. A student who wishes information about

the particular occupation can then retrieved it is the same manner as describe above. In some

cases, the computer may characteristics of an effective guidance program.

Attention to the more specific, tangible characteristics of highly reputed programs must

be paired with the awareness that such indices are based on acceptance of the value and validity

of present indices do not in themselves guarantee effectiveness but merely provide convenient

preliminary check on the way to a qualitative judgment. These characteristics, which are herein

enumerated, are subjective in nature and are derived from personal judgments. Although many of

them are useful, they should not be accepted unquestioningly. (A Breakthrough in School

Guidance & Counseling. Doris D. Tulio, Ph. D. Published By Aligned Transformations

Publications)

The literature provides the researchers information in planning a quality program for the

Guidance and Counseling Office’s student monitoring system.

LOCAL STUDIES

The use of computers versus manual management and compilation of data are likely to

depend on the availability and maintainability of computer hardware, the availability of staff

with computer operating skills, and the possibility of protection against heat, dust, power surges

and computer viruses. Effective computerization includes programs that check data as it is

entered, utilize commercially available software and automatically back up data frequently. The

computerized monitoring system can increase the efficiency of the Guidance and Counseling

Office to deliver its services and will provide them a good and reliable output. (Student

Monitoring System of the Guidance and Counseling Office of the Philippine College of Science

and Technology, April 2005)

The study will help the researchers to emphasize the importance of a computerized

monitoring system for the Guidance and Counseling Office.

The use of computers and other data processing machines may have a great influence on

the work of the counselor in the future. Many tasks have taken much of the counselor’s time and

keep him from using his professional skills may soon be performed by machine. When this

happens, the counselor role will be dramatically changed. No longer will he be a slave to routine

work, but on the other hand, no long will he be able to hide behind a paper curtain. He must then

emerge into the professional spotlight where his skills can be evaluated without the excuse that

he has no time to do what he has been trained to do. (The Propose Computerization of

Dropping / Claiming of Class cards in the Guidance Office at PhilCST: A Feasibility Study, S.Y.

1998-1999)

The statement of the studies will impart the role of computers to the work of guidance

counselors.

FOREIGN LITERATURE

Appropriate, usable records containing information about each student should be

maintained and should be accessible by the guidance counselors. Physical facilities should

provide for space, privacy and accessibility in the Guidance and Counseling Office.

(Fundamentals of Guidance.Shertzer and Stone. Boston.Houghton Mifflin Co.,1981 pp.457-458)

The literature helps the researcher in analyzing the importance of each records and the

place to be considered once the student monitoring system is implemented.

The advantages of a computerized system over traditional, paper-based methods of

record keeping are perhaps more obvious.

Here are some of them:

If the Guidance and Counseling Office will be using the computerized monitoring

system, there’s no need for possibly voluminous files. It can also retrieve and change data far

faster than a human can. A computerized monitoring system’s accurate up-to-date information is

available on demand of any time.

(Database: A Primer Date C.J. Addison Wesley Publishing Company Inc., 1983. p12).

This provides the end-users (guidance counselors) the benefits of a computerized system

that can increase their efficiency in rendering their services.

In many schools, machines are already making schedules. If you give computer sufficient

information about such matters as the staff, plant, course that will be offered, and desired class

size, the computer can design the schedule much more quickly and efficiently than a human

being. Beyond the making of the master schedule, which was sometimes a counselor’s functions

although more generally that as of administrator, computers are also now doing the scheduling of

the individual students. A computer can determine more quickly and efficiently than a counselor

whether Jhonny should have Algebra 1, second period or fifth period. Heretofore, scheduling the

students into the classes probably took more of counselor’s time that any one single activity.

However, it has long been plain that this is a relatively routine task. Some schools have turned it

over to secretaries, other have thought counselor aides to perform it, but the best current solution

is to have this task perform by computers. Should the school so desire, the computer can not only

schedule, but provide class test with whatever data about the individuals student that are needed.

Those who complain about the lack of personalization in such activity need to specify to the

computer, those personal elements they want considered. The computer will take into account

intelligent test scores, achievement scores, educational goals, or any other matters that can be

specified and feed its memory. (Fundamentals of Guidance.Shertzer and Stone.Boston.Houghton

Mifflin Co.,1981 pp.457-458)

The literature helps the researchers in dealing with the handling and keeping the

students’ information in a computerized system for an efficient and fast-service processing of the

student monitoring system.

Relevant Information has been acquired in the review of literature and studies which

helped the researchers to conceptualize the next process in developing the system. The

statements above helped the researchers to think deeper about the situation in which a monitoring

system is really needed. It helped the researchers in identifying the functional requirements of

the proposed system.

Chapter III

METHODOLOGY

The methods, procedures or tools of action that will be developed by the researchers can

work well in the development, implementation and application of the study.

The following are the methods which researchers are going to use in gathering data which

are relevant to the study to make the research possible.

METHOD OF RESEARCH TO BE USED

The researchers will use the descriptive method in the study in order to describe the

nature of situation as it exists at the time of the study. The researchers will be conducting an

interview to ask specific questions to the guidance counselors as well as to the students. The

interviews will be intended to get feedback directly from the Guidance counselors and gain more

realistic picture of how this Student Monitoring System will be implemented. It may require

more time but it allows the researchers to have in-depth answers about the nature of the guidance

services and its effect to the students. The researchers will also have the opportunity to observe

the reactions of the guidance counselors and some students from the present monitoring system

to the proposed computerized monitoring system for us to gather data that can help in the study.

RESPONDENTS OF THE STUDY

The main respondent of the study will be the guidance counselors who will be probably

using the proposed computerized monitoring system. Aside from them, researchers will also

consider a number of students who will be getting benefits in the proposed system.

RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS

To fulfill the goals of the study, the following research instruments will be utilized. First are the files or

documents of the students in the Guidance and Counseling Office that the researchers will be going to use in the

study. Also, an interview questionnaire for the guidance counselors and a number of students for the verification

and documentation of resources that will be gathered.

DATA GATHERING PROCEDURE

The researchers will gather data through library techniques. This will include researching different kinds

of books, scanning and jotting down important and related information. Books, thesis of undergraduate students,

and other reading materials will also be used to supplement more information that the researchers need in the

development of the system. After gathering related information from reading materials, researchers will evaluate

the student’s personal information which is needed in a monitoring system. Researchers will also observe and

interview guidance counselors to understand and design a system that is well suited for them to have a better

performance rendering their services.

SOURCES OF DATA

The sources of data in the study are the following:

The personnel of the Guidance and Counseling Office composed of four female were the

primary sources of data in this study.

Secondary source is considered to be the support or sustainable materials and or

documents used in this study. As a secondary source of data, the researchers used internet,

books, and unpublished thesis to serve as a guide or pattern to get some information or hints for

the interface of the proposed system and also for the data flow.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

Doris D. Tulio, Ph. D.

2008 A Breakthrough in School Guidance & Counseling

Mandaluyong : Aligned Transformations Publications.

Shertzer and Stone

1981 Fundamentals of Guidance

Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co.

Date C.J.

1983 Database: A Primer

Massachusetts : Addison Wesley Publishing Company Inc.

UNPUBLISHED RESEARCH MATERIAL

Danica Aisa Jorvina

2005 Student Monitoring System of the Guidance and Counseling Office of the

Philippine College of Science and Technology , Philippine College of

Science and Technology, Calasiao.

Cipriano M. Aquino

1998-1999 The Propose Computerization of Dropping / Claiming of Class cards in

the Guidance Office at PhilCST, A Feasibility Study, Philippine College

of Science and Technology, Calasiao.

INTERVIEW GUIDE

Name : ______________________

Position: ______________________

I. Questions with regards to system

1. What is the present monitoring system implemented by the Guidance and Counseling

Office?

______ Manual

_____ Computerized

If Manual, would you want the student monitoring system be computerized?

_____ Yes

_____ No

2. What are the different services being rendered by the Guidance and Counseling Office?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

3. How important are these services for the students?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

4. What are the records to be included and handled in the computerized system?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

5. How would you know the numbers of the dropped and claimed class cards every day?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

6. Are there provisions for confidentiality of records?

Yes _____

No _____

If YES, what are the provisions for confidentiality?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

7. Are there provisions for the security of records?

Yes _____

No _____

If YES, what are those provisions for the security of records?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

8. What are the issues of the students as well as the guidance counselors in both dropping

and claiming the class cards?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

9. Do you prepare daily report at the end of the day?

Yes _____

No _____

If YES, what are the content of the daily report?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

10. What are their expectations in a computerized system?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

11. How can this computerized student monitoring system improve the services of the

Guidance and Counseling Office?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

II. QUESTIONS WITH REGARDS TO PROBLEMS

1. What are the problems encountered in terms of recording data?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

2. What are the problems encountered during the transaction?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

3. What are the problems encountered in terms of preparing report?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________

Signature

QUESTIONNAIRE

Name : ________________________________

Course/Year : ________________________________

DIRECTIONS: Please read the questions carefully and put check on the option that satisfies your

answer.

PART 1:

What are the problems you usually encounter in claiming your class cards?

_____ Lots of requirements

_____ Waste of time

_____ Misplaced records

_____ Other

If Other, please specify your answer.

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

PART2:

Are you in favor of the implementation of a Computerized Student Monitoring System

for the Guidance and Counseling office at Philippine College of Science and Technology?

_____ Yes

_____ No

If YES, please specify your answer.

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

PART 3:

What are the feature that you expect to see from the proposed project?

_____ Accessible

_____ Much easier to use and not time consuming

_____ Records are well kept

_____ Other

If Other, please specify your answer.

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________