Project ARoSA powered by Google®

(Automated Reporting of Student Achievement)

Charyljoy C. Navarez, MT-I/SHS Coordinator
Clarin National High School
Division of Misamis Occidental

Abstract

The advancement of ICT in automation system has bring a handful of benefits in

improving present’s school management and operations. The creation of Project ARoSA
(Automated Reporting of Student Achievement powered by Google as a novel automated
streamlined and user-friendly system provides a new school practice in the preparation,
generation and archiving of school forms particularly on student achievement reports. This
study aims to determine the level of user satisfaction among the 21 users (20 teachers and 1
school principal) in the Senior High School of Clarin National High School in terms of
reliability, security, access, efficiency and ease of use of the automated system. The results
show that the users find positively high satisfaction on the use of the system compared to the
usual practice. It is recommended that the system be adopted to other senior high schools.
Further, the design of similar system for other levels in the educational system is recommended.

Keywords: Application Project, Automation, Goggle Workbook, ICT, School Form 9, School
Form 10
 RATIONALE

The Department of Education on its effort to ensure a mechanism where school systems

subscribe to the principles of accuracy and reliability of data, efficiency and accountability,

underscores the responsible use of ICT in school governance and operations. Schools are

provided several opportunities from training to provision of ICT equipment as well as funds

for ICT-initiated programs (Mateo, 2010). However, there are still school operations that are

done manually with less or no attempt made to exploit ICT as a potential resource.

In Clarin National High School, a number of ICT equipment are available for use.

Internet connectivity is given appropriation in the school’s MOOE and trainings on the use of

ICT are done regularly. ICT resources in the school are primarily evident. Like other schools,

however, there are systems that are still done manually and has become adversely affecting

effectiveness among school staff especially teachers.

Currently, the school’s practice in the preparation of SF 9 (Report Card), SF10

(Student’s Permanent Record) and other pertinent forms (Master Grading Sheet) are done

manually with less use of ICT equipment. This practice has affected the reliability and

timeliness of school reports, operational costs, and efficiency of teachers who are preparing the

forms while attending classes.

For instance, “in a class of 50 students in the Senior High School, the class adviser

asked a printed blank form of SF9 and SF10 in the office. He should fill in the form by hand

with the information required by the forms. But before doing so, the class adviser at the end of

every quarter distributed and retrieved Individual Grading Sheets to 9 subject teachers. After
retrieval of completed sheet, he encoded the grades in a Master Grading Sheet, prepared

Ranking of Honors form, printed the sheet, had the subject teachers and awards committee

members signed, and submitted the same to the Office of the Principal for review and approval.

In case, adjustments are needed, he would rectify the same in the Master Grading Sheet and re-

print it for final approval. Once approved, he will write the grades in the individual SF9 and

ready the same for distribution to parents. At the end of every semester, he would fill in the

SF10 by hand by copying the grades in the Master Grading Sheet to the form, submit himself

for checking and pass the completed forms to the office for signature and archiving”. On the

average, it would take 1 day to encode the Master Grading Sheet, 2-3 days to fill in the SF9

and another 2-3 days for SF10. The process affected teachers as it becomes additional workload

apart from their teaching duties. Many teachers also bring the work at home to ensure prompt

submission of the needed forms. The process also put certain degree of vulnerability in ensuring

error-free reporting and efficiency in costs of materials.

Aside from this actual situation on the part of the teacher, there is also a need to improve

the processing of request of student permanent record (SF10) in the office particularly in the

Senior High School. Currently, the school has designated a non-teaching personnel to act as

Records Personnel. Once there is a request of SF10, the personnel searches the record in the

archives and encode the needed information in the template. It would take 45-60 minutes to

prepare the said form.

Having this current situation, the need to streamline the process and employ the use of

automated system is an urgent call.

Related Literature Review

 Automation as defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is a technique of making an

apparatus, a process, or a system operate automatically. The International System of

Automation (ISA) further defined automation as “the creation and application of technology to

monitor and control the production and delivery of products and services.” Fundamentally,

automation encompasses all functions within various industries in today’s society such as

manufacturing and distribution of products, installation of equipment, testing of engineering

structures and maintenance of management. It involves broad range of technologies including

robotics and artificial intelligence, sensors, wireless applications, systems integration,

cybersecurity and many more. Such advancement in information technology (IT) has brought

both fear and excitement. There is a fear of losing jobs and excitement of new careers (Wha,

2017).

In schools, nowadays, a growing interest of automating school systems including

instruction and management is becoming more evident. The challenge of 21st century education

is best responded through application of automated ICT-based media and automated system.

Online educational methodology and tools like Massive Open Online Course (MOOC),

Videoconferencing, Virtual Laboratories, Screencats, E-mails, search engines, wikis, blogs,

digital game/toy-based learning, and many more have been proved to be effectively engaging

in learning among students (Kulkarni, 2017). Such technological advancement emerges as an

effective tool in improving the instructional delivery and managing school operations in

schools, needless to say, its cost-cutting and error-free benefits.

One of the areas in automating school systems is automating the procedure of academic

student system. In some schools, teachers are faced with challenges of complying school

reports while attending classes. There are assignments to make, grades to tally, weighted
average to compute, attendance to check and students’ attitude and behavior to evaluate. In

many cases, teachers fill out reports by hand and manually route the documents to the school

principal for review. Manual reporting is not just stealing productive time of teachers of

attending classes but also affects administrative costs of resources, efficiency and timeliness

(Bhila, 2018). She further stressed the need of an efficient system in reporting students’

achievement by providing teachers an automated, user-friendly, streamlined student

management system that will ameliorate accurate student reports, assess the performance of

students, show the reports to school administrator and parents, and keeps a record of grades for

future easy retrieval.

In the Philippine public school system, the Department of Education remains

committed in advancing ICT in schools as it is indispensable in teaching the competencies of

the K to 12 Basic Education Program. Arayata (2017) reported the progress, plans and

programs of the Department in boosting ICT in schools including procurement of computers,

construction of computer laboratories, installation of internet connection infrastructure and

trainings on ICT and development ICT-based strategies and lesson exemplars. However,

DepEd remained challenged by the logistics and the size of DepEd as an institution.

In case studies conducted by Bonifacio (2013) and Kubota, Yamamoto, and Morioka

(2018) on the status of ICT integration in Philippine educational system, Philippines remained

challenged of providing quality ICT integration in school. These challenges were rooted in

areas of infrastructure and facilities (computers and etc.), human resource (limited training for

teachers, lack of motivation, and low technological knowledge), and lastly the need for a

technological leader that would play a pivotal role in effectively nitrating ICT in the school

system.
 In school governance and operations, automated system is recognized as a vital process

in improving functional effectiveness of school system. As a proven cost-effective technology

in administration, automation is crucial in improving efficiency. School record keeping as an

essential administrative process is all about information collection, storage, retrieval, use,

transmission, manipulation and dissemination for the purpose of enriching communication,

decision-making and problem solving ability in the school system. Using automated system in

keeping school records helps to facilitate and enhance the administration of the school towards

achieving the goals (Bethany Christian College of Teachers’ Education, 2018).

One of the leading information technology company in the world is Goggle. Founded

in 1998, the company continuously improves its services by adding more products to better

serve the drastically growing interest in the world wide web. One of its products is Google

Drive where any user can store files securely, can open or edit them from any device. A user

can also create or upload files from the computers. Further, the user can share files or folders,

so others can view, edit or comment on them (Google, Inc.).

Project ARoSA (Automated Reporting on Student Achievement) powered by Google

Through the use Google Drive app, automating the procedure of reporting student achievement

is possible. With the available productivity tools and creative imagination, a streamlined,

customized workbook is designed to efficiently managed school forms containing student

achievement with high degree of data security, reliability and accuracy. Hence, this application

project entitled Project ARoSA (Automated Reporting on Students’ Achievement) powered by

Google. This procedure utilized google application in creating workbooks, sharing them to

teachers and school administrators, generating school forms particularly School Form 9
(Report Card) and School Form 10 (Student Permanent Record), and archiving them.

Furthermore, through Project ARoSA, the releasing of School Form 10 to any requesting party

for any purposes is made efficient by cutting preparation rate by 70% from the usual practice.

Figure 1 shows the homepage of the designed workbook:

Figure 1. The homepage of the designed workbook

In the workbook, there is an interplay of identified end-users (printing personnel, class

adviser, school administrator, records personnel) in the utilization of the system. This includes:

1. Preparation of the workbook for a certain class.

2. Completion of required worksheets.

3. Monitoring of key performance indicators such as attendance, achievement by subject

area by class, failure, retention and promotion.

4. Generation and archiving of School Form 9 and School Form 10.

See Diagram 1.
 Further, Diagram 2 illustrates the process flow of requesting School Form 10 in the

Records Office by any requesting party for any purpose.

With the designed automated system, teachers enter student progress, attendance and

core values directly to the system where the principal can review and comment. The system

automatically calculates students’ rank and average mark. The system allows teachers to login,

update, upload, search, delete, and modify student’s information. Teachers can do the work

everywhere because the system is accessible online. Schools easily generate report cards to

provide information to parents on students’ academic progress, and permanent record for future

use. Currently, the facility that is fully implemented in the generation of Master Grading Sheet
and School Form 9 as the First Semester has not ended. However, School Form 10 is functional

already based on the pilot testing conducted. Hence, the study shall focus on the satisfaction of

class advisers and school principal in terms of reliability, security, access, efficiency and ease

of use of the two facilities mentioned.

Statement of the Problem

The study determines the effect on the level of client satisfaction using the automated system

on reporting student achievement. Specifically, it aimed to:

1. determine the level of satisfaction of the end users (class advisers and school principal)

in terms of:

a. reliability of the system?

b. security of the system?

c. accessibility of the system?

d. efficiency of the system?

e. ease of use of the system?

METHODS

The study was exploratory or investigative because it tried to find out whether the end-

users were satisfied with the quality of the automated system designed. The proponent used the

20 Senior High School classes, of which number of classes for Grades 11 and 12 is equal. The

20 class advisers and 1 school principal were the respondents of the survey as they were

identified as end-users of the available facilities of the system. Self-made client satisfaction

questionnaire was used to obtain level of client satisfaction in terms of reliability, security,
access, efficiency and ease of use. The proponent made use of frequency and percentage in

determining the level of satisfaction. Interview was also conducted to identify the strengths and

weaknesses of the system as basis for continuous improvement.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Level of User Satisfaction

The following tables show the results of the level of user satisfaction based on the

conducted survey. Level of satisfaction is measured in terms of reliability, security, access,

efficiency and ease of use.

Reliability
Reliability Frequency Percent
Reliable 21 100
Not Reliable 0 0
Total 21 100
Table 1. Reliability perception of the users on the use of automated system

As shown in Table 1, 100% (21 of 21) finds the automated system as reliable. Basis of

the users in rating is the consistent ability of the system to produce expected result. The users

did not encounter error in the whole process of usage. The result conforms with the study of

Asamoah, Inkum, and Manso (2014) where reliability is significantly correlated with the use

of automated service in their study on the “Effect of Automated Services on Customer

Satisfaction in Ghana”.

Security

Security Frequency Percent

Secured 21 100
Not Secured 0 0
Total 21 100
Table 2. Security perception of the users on the use of automated system
 As shown in Table 2, 100% (21 of 21) finds the automated system as secure. The

workbook can only be accessed by persons with gmail accounts that are given access by the

system. This was proven by the users. The fear of cybersecurity threat of data breach and

hacking is further prevented by securing a printed copy of the forms. Verifications are

randomly done by the users in terms of correctness and reliability.

Access

Access Frequency Percent

Accessible 14 67
Not Accessible 7 33
Total 21 100
Table 3. Accessibility perception of the users on the use of automated system

As shown in Table 3, 14 (67%) of 21 users finds the automated system accessible.

Major factor considered by the users in determining accessibility is the speed of internet

connection as the automated system is dependent on the internet. Undeniably, internet speed in

remote areas is unstable.

Efficiency

Efficiency Frequency Percent

Efficient 21 100
Not Efficient 0 0
Total 21 100
Table 4. Efficiency perception of the users on the use of automated system

As shown in Table 4, 100% (21 of 21) finds the automated system as efficient. In the

shift of school practice from manual filling out of forms to automated system, the users find

the system to be efficient as it reduces preparation rate from the usual practice. As found in

various studies involving automated systems, efficiency is one of its benefits as it streamlined

some processes.
Ease of Use

Ease of Use Frequency Percent

Easy 16 76
Not easy 5 24
Total 21 100
Table 5. Ease of use perception of the users on the use of automated system

As shown in Table 5, 76% (16 out of 21) users finds the system easy to use. Ease of use

is measured on the ease of manipulating the system. Some (24%) of the users find it difficult

to manipulate the system which requires them to ask from other class advisers. In the case study

of Bonifacio (2013), many teachers find difficulties in using ICT and the need for training is

important to capacitate them. Hence, conduct of LAC session becomes one of the prevailing

recommendations to assist them navigate the new system.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS TO PRACTICE

Conclusion

Project ARoSA (Automated Reporting on Students’ Achievement) is a viable option in

improving the procedure on reporting student achievement. With the newly adapted

technology, the clamor of teachers to de-load them of paperwork could be of help. In this study,

the users which are teachers and school principal finds the automated system a significant

importance in carrying out the task. Level of client satisfaction is significantly high on the areas

of reliability (100%), security (100%), access (67%), efficiency (100%), and ease of use (76%).
The results of this study show that the system has broadly attained user satisfaction, but they

also highlight areas in which the system must improve to attain higher level of satisfaction and

achieve greater success.

Implications to Practice

The study recommends the use of the automated system in other senior high schools.

However, the need to check its serviceability in larger scope is recommended since the scope

of the study is limited only to ten classes. Further, design of automated system for all levels

from Kindergarten to Junior High School is recommended to extend the benefits to other levels

in the educational system.

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