Online Grades Inquiry of OLPCC San Manuel

Chapter 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING
Introduction

Through the years, Information technology constantly

gave something for the lives of human beings. Technology
gave us comfort every day, every hour and every minute of
our lives. Many technologies, tools, products and systems
are made through the use of IT.
A grading system plays a key role in the management
system of any school. But, such systems do not often relate
expectations, outcomes, and performance. As each student
desires to achieve a good score for each assignment, exam,
project and/or report, the whole process adds heavy workload
for

teachers

in

order

to

make

their

evaluation

fair,

comprehensive, and accurate. From the faculty perspective,

these are necessary to avoid disagreement from students and
parents.

An

Online

Grade

Monitoring

System

is

highly

desirable addition to the education tool-kit, particularly

when I can provide less effort and a more effective and
timely outcome.

Most educators like the systems if they work smoothly

and help students learn, according to teachers and teacherunion representatives. An Online Grades Monitoring System
can foster a strong home-school connection and allow busy
parents to be involved"and let them step in early if a
child is struggling. Online Grades Monitoring System can
help students as well as their parents. Parents can now view
their

childrens

grade

every

now

and

then,

so

as

the

students for them to help their self before its too late.
Studies show that making the students, parents and community
feel part of the school increases the effectiveness of the
school and helps all parties involved. (Zygmunt-Fillwalk,
2006) Indeed, there are school/community relations of some
form occurring all the time, whether school staff are aware
of

them

or

not.

Students

talk

with

their

friends

and

families about what happened at school. Parents talk to

other parents about their childrens school. Teachers talk
with each other about the students and parents. A gap of
mistrust is created, spread and widened because the parties
talked about are not the parties being talked to.
The present record evaluation of the school OLPCC SM
is that, the teacher or adviser of every class will compute

and write down the grades of the students and give it to the
office of Registrar. The Registrar will then wait for the
students to pick-up their grades. Sadly, not all students
can pick-up their grades on time. Sometimes the Registrar is
close or their grading cards have been misplaced. Sometimes
students who got their grades on time, dont want to show it
to

their

parents,

which

leads

to

parents

and

teachers

misunderstandings. In this way I come up to develop the

Online

Grades

Monitoring

System

in

which

students

and

parents can view their grades on time, faster, wherever or

whenever they want to.

Objectives of the Study

The study aims to develop a system for the research

proposal entitled Online Grades Monitoring System which
seeks to have the following purposes.
1. To create a module that will record the students name,
grade and section.
2. To create a module that will record students over-all grade
throughout the semester.
3. To develop a module that will shorten the process of inquiry
of grades.
4. To create a module that will secure and maintain the
integrity of data.
5. To create a module that will display the students record.

Conceptual Framework
In order to organize the way on how and why a project takes
place

and

to

understand

its

activities,

prior

research

was

conducted. I developed a conceptual framework that allows me to

map and assess the research findings.
The

Research

Paradigm

shown

in

Figure

represents

the

concept behind and development of a Grading system for the OLPCC

Cauayan, San Manuel Campus. It is usually the procedure upon
the development of the system.

Research Paradigm
PROCESS

INPUT

User
Students
Teachers
Admin
Hardware
Computer
Server
Internet
Software
XAMPP server
Scriptcase
MySQL
connector
Browser

OUTPUT

Online

Problem Identification

Providing a modern yet

easy way of distributing
grades for the students
without much time and
energy is used by the
students getting their
grades.

Data Gathering
Browse different sites
and journals for guides
in preparing the study.
Organized and analyzed
the gathered data.

Revised the papers

printing based on
suggestions.

Design and Procedure

Design Program Flow
DFD, USE CASE, OODM.

for
the

or

System Development
System coding
System Design
Testing and Evaluation

Testing
and
the program.

Debugging

is System
OK?

System Implementation

Deployment

FEEDBACK
Figure 1: Paradigm of the Study

Grades
Monitoring
for College
Department
of OLPC-C
San Manuel
Campus

Significance of the Study

The success of this study has great importance to:
1. To the Faculty. This will save the faculty effort
and will lessen the time of collecting grades and recording
them in grade sheets.
2. To the Students. This will help lessen the late
issuance of grades that can affect the students in many ways
including approval of scholarships, delay of graduation and
others.

Students

retrieval

of

records

can

easily

be

accessed.
3. To the School, the study will provide an improved
method of processing the hundreds of grade reports they
print and distribute to their students each quarter.
4.
conduct

Future
studies

Researchers.
will

realize

Future
that

researchers
the

who

traditional

will
grade

reporting process can be enhanced from manual processing to

an online paperless system.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The Online Grade Monitoring System offers more than
just

class

card

function,

encoding

of

the

students

personal data and issuance of summary grading sheets which

include the grades of the students. The system will lessen
the work especially of those within the registrars office
because the grades will be stored directly into a database.
Users

from

the

department

would

be

able

to

access

information they will need anytime. This grading system is

exclusively designed for the faculty members, registrars
personnel and trusted staff of the School. It is off limits
to

the

privilege

students,
to

find

meaning
out

students

their

grades

are

not

before

given

their

the

actual

report card is released.

The proposed system will not compute for the grades of
the students and is only for viewing grades for students.
Only

authorized

students.

personnel

can

edit

and

enter

grades

of

Statement of the Problem

The

study

aims

to

develop

an

Online-Based

Grades

Monitoring System for the School.

Specifically, the study seeks to answer the following:
1. What are the problems encountered by the students and
teachers in the current Grading Systems?
2. What design of an Online Grades Monitoring System may
be proposed?
3. How secured are the storage of files?

Definition of Terms
The following terms were defined operationally for a
better understanding of this study.
Average. It is derived by adding all the grades in
every grading component, then dividing it by the total of
number of grading component.
Grade. It is the achievement of each student in every
subject.
Grading Sheet/ Class Record. It is composed of all the
components needed to make a final grade; a tally of the
students performance based on a certain component.
Internet.
connects

An

computer

electronic
networks

communications
and

network

organizational

that

computer

facilities around the world.

Online. A connected to, served by, or available through
a system and especially a computer or telecommunications
system.
Record. Set down in writing or other permanent form.
Database. Collection of information that is organized
so that it can be managed and updated.

Computer. A machine used to manipulate data according

to a list of instruction.
MySQL. It is also called My Sequel the worlds second
most widely used open-source relational database management
system.

It

is

named

after

co-founder

Michael

Widenius

daughter, My. The SQL phrase stands for Structured Query

Language.
Php. It is a server-side scripting language designed
for

web

development

but

also

used

as

general-purpose

programming language.
Registrar.

person

in

charge

of

recording

and

maintaining student information and grades.

User-Friendly. A program easy to use even though an
individual is not knowledgeable about the system.

Chapter II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITTERATURES AND STUDIES
This
studies

chapter

that

states

were

the

conducted

different
for

the

literature

research

to

and
gain

familiarity that are relevant and similar to the present

study.

Local Literature

Nowadays, computers and other technology are very useful in

the fields of education especially in our daily activities. The
importance

of

computers

cannot

be

denied

in

the

fields

of

education because as we all know, computers are very significant

in terms of learning and working. With those technologies, we can
save time for other activities. Computers connected with internet
also

serve

as

useful

tools

for

communication.

Through

this

process various types of descriptive information and measures of

students performance are converted into grades that summarize
students accomplishment. Online Grading System is designed to
provide

incentive

reward

for

achievement

and

assist

in

identifying problems of the student. Grading System is the most

commonly used in computing and analyzing the performance, talent

and

skills

of

student?

Grading

system

is

an

exercise

in

professional judgment on the part of the teachers.

It involves the collection and evaluation of evidence on
students achievement or performance over specified period of
time. Teachers work load can be lessen. Online Grading System of
Cauayan Sounth Central School (CSCS) is design to provide the
system where in the parents of the students of Cauayan South
Central

School

can

access

the

grades

of

their

childen.

Originally, the school was opened in the year of 1953 through the
initiation and encouragement of the late Teodoro Cario, who was
at that time the Division Academic Supervisor from Pangasinan who
resided here in Cauayan. The Teaching Staff welcomed and embraced
the

growing

enrolment.

Through

their

sincere

and

dedicated

service to the community, they begged for more school buildings

to house the school children hungry for formal education.
From this point of view, the school will serve as a potent
instrument because of the vast extent of outreach and of the size
of

the

populace.

To

optimize

this

contribution

to

social,

intellectual and cultural development, it has to maintain the

accelerate its progress to be able to cope fully with changing
world. It is believed that with the time tested, loyalty and
cooperation of the school officials and teachers, the CSCS will
surely be the best show window of the City Division. Thus, the
above reasons drove the researcher to conduct a study regarding

the Online Grading System, which aims to improve their present

system.

Foreign Studies
Richard (2004) emphasized that information about students
grades is vital, but timeconsuming to manage and it is essential
that the most effective tools be used to aid both staff and
students go about their work and studies. The Cambridge Student
Grading System (CAMSGS) replaced various student records system
used by the colleges, departments and universities. CAMSGS
provides comprehensive and accurate information about students
grade body and also improves data quality, reduce the
administrative burden dramatically and provides better services
to both academic staff and students.
According to Desousa (2008), Web based application have four
corebenefits. These are the following: 1) Compatibility. Web
based applications are far more compatible across platforms than
traditional installed software like web browsers. 2) Efficiency.
Everyone hates to deal with piles of paper unless they do not
have any other alternatives. The benefit of web based solution
makes services and information available from any webfacilitated
Personal Computer(PC). 3) Security of live data. Normally in more
complex systems data is moved about separate systems and data
sources. In web-based systems, these systems and processes can

often be merged by reducing the need to move the data around.

Webbased applications also provide an additional security by
removing the need for the user to have access to the data and
back end servers.4) Cost Effective. Webbased applications can
considerably lower the costs because of reduced support and
maintenance, lower requirements on the end user system and
simplified plans.

Building and nurturing more effective school/community

relations

is

an

important

part

of

raising

schools

effectiveness at achieving its main goal raising student

achievement. Studies show that making the students, parents
and

community

feel

part

of

the

school

increases

the

effectiveness of the school and helps all parties involved.

(Zygmunt-Fillwalk, 2006) Indeed, there are school/community
relations

of

some

form

occurring

all

the

time,

whether

school staff are aware of them or not. Students talk with

their friends and families about what happened at school.
Parents talk to other parents about their childrens school.
Teachers

talk

with

each

other

about

the

students

and

parents. A gap of mistrust is created, spread and widened

because the parties talked about are not the parties being
talked to. Transparency in the education process keeps all
parties accountable and aware of where the other parties
stand. School buildings however, tend to be separated from
the rest of the community. (Black and Wiliam, 1998) Students
enter the building every day but in their lessons, there is
often a disconnection between what their perception of their
achievement

is

and

their

teachers

perception

of

their

achievement. Students turn in lessons and may or may not get

results and/or feedback from their teachers. The teacher
keeps

up

with

the

students

progress

but

does

not

necessarily share that information with the students and

certainly not with the parents until grades come out. There
just is not enough time during the term to share individual
grades

with

individual

students

and

individual

parents.

Thus, at grade time, there is normally a great deal of

surprise. Students who do not get specific feedback from
their teacher are surprised at their low grades. Parents,
who get all their information about the student from the
student, are equally surprised at the low grades. Teachers,
who have experienced the lack of effort and/or understanding
in the student and are not surprised at the students grade,
are surprised that the student and parents are surprised.

This is not a positive form of surprise. This surprise is

more

in

the

form

of

misunderstanding

and

hurt

feelings

resulting from the lack of consistent communication among

the school and the student and the parents. These hard
feelings perpetuate a sense of mistrust among all parties.
Unfortunately,
negative,

most

whether

it

school/community
be

the

negative

interaction
surprise

is

mentioned

above, a parent contact that results from a childs negative

behavior or some other misunderstanding stemming from a lack
of

consistent

communication.

While

many

teachers

do

not

believe that grades should be the allconsuming factor that

they are, the fact remains that students, parents and all
other stakeholders seem to care more about grades than about
anything

else.

Relatively

simple

Internet-based

programs

exist today that allow teachers to share not only their

grade-books
suggested

but

also

supplemental

their
reading,

attendance,
instructional

assignments,
videos

and

other text that can be used to both promote student learning

and also connect the school with the home. Grades are the
hook that gets students and parents to participate in this
communication. Students want and deserve to know how well or
how poorly they are doing in school. Their parents want to

know

also.

Giving

them

this

window

into

the

school

workings not only helps students achieve more but also draws
them and their parents into the school environment. Schools
use

variety

of

online

grading

programs

and

the

more

comprehensive SIS, or school information system. Apples

PowerSchool is an example of the latter. PowerSchool is
expensive but can serve as a schools server and can handle
school-wide attendance and other data. Several schools in
the U. S. are currently using PowerSchool. Engrade is an
example of a less-complicated and free tool for calculating
grades,

supplying

real-time

grades

and

giving

access

to

other forms of information about a students class.

A study done in 2002 (Hampton, L.F., Anderson, C., & Sigman,
D.

2002)

documented

PowerSchool.

Teachers

the

use
used

of

the

PowerSchool

online
in

SIS,
three

consecutive grading periods. In the first and third grading

periods, seventy-seven out of one-hundred and thirty-seven
grade six students were given extra access to the Internet
at school and were required to monitor their grades online.
Parents were shown how to use the system at a parent night
and were encouraged to monitor their childrens results.
Students were encouraged but not required to monitor their

progress via PowerSchool in the second quarter. Student GPAs

were found to be significantly higher after the first and
third quarters than they were after the second quarter.
Reactions from both parents and children tended to be quite
positive.

(Hampton,

Anderson,

&

Sigman,

2002)

Further

testament to SIS success comes from an article entitled

Student Information Systems >> How Do You Spell Parental
Involvement?
superintendent

S-I-S
of

written

Westside

by

Ken

Community

Bird.
School,

Bird
a

is

school

district in the Midwest of the United States. Bird cites

evidence from the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory,
(www.nwrel.org/index.

html)

and

the

US

Department

of

Education (available at nces.ed.gov) among others to link

the value of parent involvement to the power of SIS. He
speaks glowingly of students and parents becoming Language
Testing in Asia Volume one, Issue two July 2011 95 | Page
PowerSchool Junkies and of their close relationship to
his schools as exemplified by their desire to check grades
daily. Not all feedback on the SIS is entirely positive
however. In an article in the New York Times entitled, I
Know What You Did Last Math Class, Jan Hoffman acknowledges
that many schools and districts think highly of the SIS. She
reports

that

principals

say

the

SIS

has

helped

connect

parents and students who were difficult to reach in the

past. However, she notes the downside also. She writes about
the

added

excessive

stress

and

monitoring

strain
of

on

student

the

family

grades.

caused

With

by

increased

competition for admission to colleges, parents feel they

need to monitor and control their childrens school progress
because they can check the SIS so easily and frequently.
Parents can even opt for cell-phone email alerts. Of course
some teens with a naturally growing desire to control their
own

lives

teens

resent

lives.

their

Because

parents
of

the

desires

online

to

aspect

control
of

the

grading,

parents can see students grades even before the students

can. Although online grading programs are supported as being
a mode for sharing information easily, teachers can find
them a burden. Parents come to expect up-to-date maintenance
of grades and, of course, attendance, and if a teacher falls
behind,

parents

may

get

anxious

and

push

for

current

updates. In the same vein, grading programs are not fix-alls

for grade keeping. Teachers make mistakes. There are times
when a large amount of data needs to be input in a short
amount of time. The potential for mistakes grows at such
times. Online grading programs magnify teacher mistakes. The
potential

for

harmful

situation

exists

if

teacher

accidentally records a low grade for a student. An irate

parent may punish a student for a low test mark that is a
teacher mistake and the fault of the teachers too-long day
at work and not the fault of the student. While the mistake
would almost surely be clarified the following school day,
the unjust punishment would have been carried out and the
teacher, student and parent would find themselves in an
awkward

situation.

Whether

students

agree

with

their

parents ease of access to students grades or not, it is

certain

that

the

SIS

systems

and

other

online

grading

systems open up schools to parents and the community. Not

only grades, but also homework schedules, lessons, etc. are
readily

available,

programs,

to

via

those

the

SIS

granted

Internet

permission.

availability

circumvents

some

inherent

traditional

methods

in

and

of

the
of

This

logistics

reaching

out

grading
online
problems
to

the

community. Grades written in a traditional paper grade-book

stay

isolated

in

the

classroom.

Even

grades

done

on

spreadsheet-type grade programs are not readily accessible

to parents and students. Busy teachers may have to access a
printer and make multiple copies of student grades. The
problem

of

privacy

then

comes

into

play

as

individual

student grades are required to be kept private. Having the

gradebook

posted

online,

available

only

by

individual

password, eliminates those logistics problems. Communication

other than grade reporting can be made more effective with
online grade-reporting systems also. Because parents work
schedules

often

mirror

school

schedules,

parents

cannot

normally visit the school when teachers are available. Busy

teachers resist working extra, evening hours to accommodate
busy parents. Teachers have little time during the school
day to telephone parents, who are often just as reluctant to
receive telephone calls, most of them negative, while they
are at work. When teacher/parent contact is made, it is
usually negative and it is often too late to affect real
change.

When

grades

and

attendance

data

are

available

online, the parents can know about problems as soon as they

happen and neither the parent nor the teacher need leave
their

desk.

Of

course,

parent/teacher

contact

need

not

always be negative. A parent, seeing a positive grade posted

for a quiz, project or exam will know about the grade as
soon as it is posted. Parents with children with attendance
problems will be able to track their children from work, via
the

attendance

feature.

Online

grading

programs

have

feature allowing two-way communication between teacher and

student. Students can send questions about grades, homework,

upcoming tests, etc. via the grading program. Teachers can

send reminders to forgetful students. Study-guides, texts
and even videos can be attached to the grading program.
Students can use these features to learn more and parents
can use them to see more clearly what their children are
learning.
Such

openness

and

transparency

would

certainly

seem

to

improve school/community relations and thus improve student

achievement. However, one must question exactly how much
openness is too much openness. How accessible should student
data be? How much is privacy an issue? Students are only
allowed

access

password,

are

to

their

only

own

allowed

grades.
access

Parents,
to

their

via

their

childrens

grades, not the grades of other children. The SIS systems

and

other

individual

online

grading

passwords,

are

systems,
designed

through
to

their

prevent

use

of

privacy

infringement. However, there have been occasions of glitches

in grading programs wherein unauthorized persons have gained
access to student data. Keeping track of school events can
be difficult for parents also. It is difficult for the
school itself. Caring schools want parents and students to
be aware of and plan to participate in school events. When

events such as football games, open-house, school plays,

international
schools

want

day,
to

get

sports

day,

etc.

the

message

new

after-school

offered,

the

school

tutoring

sessions,

workshop

is

out

are

to

parents.

club

wants

scheduled,

all

or

When

parent

students

and

parents to know. Schools often communicate such information

via

letters

sent

home

with

students

to

parents.

These

letters do not always find their way to parents for many

reasons. Some students are forgetful. Some students do not
want to attend the foretold event or do not want their
parents to attend the event. Parents lose the letter after
the student gives it to them. In addition, large amounts of
paper and ink are used in this highly inefficient mode of
communication.

Information

posted

online

is

available

whenever an Internet connection is available. (JOSEPH T.

CAMERON, July 2011, The Role of Online Grading Programs in
School/Community Relations)
Local Studies
Guidance

for

(www.nee.edu.ph.com)

Government
The

National

Web
Computer

Site
Center

Issued
(NCC)

recently issued memorandum curricular 2002-01, Guidance on

Creation of the agencys official website and compliance to

the E-commerce law and stage one of the UN-ASPA stage of EGovernment. The circular further states that the computer
agency will coordinate and provide technical assistance to
national government agencies (NGAs), Local Government Units
(LGU) and state universities and collage (SUCs) to ensure
that

they

have

website

that

will

provide

basic

public

information. The basic information includes the following;

organizational aims structure and responsibilities of each
unit.
Mangulit (2001) Book Store Inc. According to Mangulit,
Website

now

number

by

the

millions.

There

are

personal

Website, corporate website, small business Website, and so

on. And the number of website just keeps on growing each
day.

Website

provides

two

real

value-adding

services.

Website allows companies to either make more money or save

money. Business can make more money by selling their product
and services through the website. The website also to save
money allow business.
According to Ducusin, Many Business School, Individual,
and

Government

agencies

at

all

levels

have

rushed

to

establish a presence on the internet. The attraction is the

ability to quick and inexpensively provides information to a

large number of people. The website can provide the public

with

information

about

government

agencies

also

provide

about agencies mission, service offered, office hour, and

email add for correspondence. Eventually users of the WWW
will be able to submit request to an agency for document or
other inquires directly though the webpage. Also provide
information about the government agencies and the service
that they offer. Many of the interactions between citizens
and government that require visit to government office could
be handling through home page in the internet. Request for
permits drivers license record, documents and forms could
all be handled through the internet.

Chapter III
MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The research design refers to the overall strategy
that you choose to integrate the different components of the
study in a coherent and logical way, thereby, ensuring you
will

effectively

address

the research problem;

it

constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement,

and analysis of data.
The developer used in Software Development was the
Waterfall

Model.

Waterfall

model

was

used

in

the

development of the Online Grades Monitoring System of the

College

Department

for

Our

Lady

of

Pillar

College

San

Manuel, Campus. The waterfall model is a sequential (noniterative)

design

process,

used

in

software

development

processes, in which progress is seen as flowing steadily

downwards
Requirement

(like

a waterfall)

Phase,

System

through

Design,

the

System

Coding, System Testing, System Implementation.

phases

of

Development,

Requirement Phase

System Design

System Development

System Testing

System Implementation

Figure 2: Waterfall Model

Requirements phase. Requirement phase involves
gathering a considerable amount of information. It is very
important

to

expectations

understand

the

so

the

that

customers
end

requirements

product

meets

and
his

specifications.
System Design. This phase focused on the data
requirements, the software construction and the interface of
the

system.

The

developers

followed

the

requirements

specified by the company and made use of the different tools

such as database schema, entity-relationship diagram (ERD),

and

data

flow

diagram

in

developing

the

design

of

the

system.
System

Development.

This

phase

involved

converting design specification into executable programs.

System
organizations

to

Testing.

complete

This

various

phase

tests

to

required
ensure

the

accuracy of the programmed code, the inclusion of expected

functionality and interoperability of application. Erroneous
codes were rewritten and tested again until desired output
is achieved.at this phase, the developer conducted system
testing method such as user acceptance test or acceptability
test

to

ensure

all

the

features

of

the

system

are

functioning as expected as well as the reliability of the

system.
System

Implementation.

The

implementation

phase involved installing the approved application into the

company.

Primary

tasks

would

include

announcing

the

implementation schedule, training end-users who used the

system

and

developers

installing
conducted

the

product.

training

with

At
the

this
end

phase,
users.

the

After

which, researchers deployed and installed the system in the

company.

Data Flow Diagram of the Proposed System

4.0
ADD SL to
Instructor

Admin

Save

System
2.0
Add Instructor

Save

System

5.0
Update Record

Save
System

Student

Student account
1.0
Register
1.0

D1

Instructor account

Record
D2

Instructor
4.0
Update Grades
Online

Student

Instructor

Record

Use Case Diagram of the Proposed System

Record
Grades

View
Student

Grades

Login
Admin
Distribute/Upload
Grades

Teacher
SecureGra
des