EDUKAR SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

A Thesis
Presented to the Faculty of the College of Engineering and Technology
Education
HOLY TRINITY COLLEGE OF GENERAL SANTOS CITY
General Santos City

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preliminary Pages Page

Title Page i
Approval Sheet ii
Abstract iii
Acknowledgment iv
Table of Contents v
List of Figures vi

CHAPTER

I INTRODUCTION

Project Context………..………………………………………….…….......…..
Purpose and Description………………………………..………………..…….
Statement of the Problem……………………………………………………...
Objective of the Study……………………………………………………….....
Significance of the Study………………………………………………………
Scope and Limitations of the Study.………………………………………….

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 Level 0 Data Flow Diagram
V RECOMMENDATIONS

REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………….
Appendix A: Relevant Codes ……………………………………………………..
Appendix B: Gantt Chart ……………………………………………………………
Appendix C: Evaluation Tool……………………………………………………….
CURRICULUM VITAE…………………………………………………………………

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Waterfall Model ……………………………………………………………

Figure 2: System Architecture ……………………………………………………….
Figure 3: Use Case …………………………………………………………………..
Figure 4: Entity Relationship Diagram ……………………………………………..
Figure 5: Activity Diagram …………………………………………………………..
Figure 6: Context Diagram
Figure 7: Level 0 Data Flow Diagram

……………………………………………………….

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1
 1. Organize the application process in a way that it becomes convenient

during applying for a scholarship and prioritize the residents of General

Santos City to acquire the Edukar Scholarship Program;

2. It helps a lot for the scholarship coordinator to manage and evaluate the

huge number of applications by the use of the system. Throughout this

system, it can ease the workload of identifying if the applicant can be

qualified or not. Also, the system has a method to determine if the

applicant is eligible or not.

3. Develop a system that will notify the applicants if there are scholarship

updates and announcements to their applications, as well as notifications

given through email. Afterward system generates overall reports of the

application within a specified school year and the report would already be

downloadable.

Significance of the Study

This study will be significant for the following:

Scholarship Application. This Edukar Scholarship Application

Management System can be a helping tool for scholarship applicants for hassle-

free searching and applying for scholarships.

Parents or Guardians. This Edukar Scholarship Application Management

System will lessen the additional expenses brought by searching for scholarships

for their children. This could also help them be well-informed and guided when

applying for scholarships.

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 Scholarship Coordinator. This Edukar Scholarship Application

Management System can help them easily access and browse the system for

granting of scholarships. This could also lessen the hassle of managing and

announcing the latest update of all the documents and notifying all applicants by

using the system.

CMO-Aklat / Edukar Gensan Scholarship Program. This Edukar

Scholarship Application Management System will be beneficial to them, for it

simplifies and cut the burden of manual application of the applicants. Also cuts

the tons of paper applications submitted in the office.

Future Researchers. This study will help them in their future research.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

The Edukar Scholarship Application Management System will primarily

focus on the online application and publishing of the Edukar Gensan Scholarship

Program in General Santos City for all applicants and administrators. Those

applicants who are not residents of General Santos City can still access the

scholarship system. The Edukar Scholarship Application Management System is

designed with user-friendly and well-organized content that will present the

scholarship information. The system can determine qualified and rejected

applicants through pre-evaluation. It also lessens the work of the scholarship in

charge through its automated facilities. In addition, the system is able to facilitate

the application process effortlessly since it only retrieves the data in his profile if

he is eligible. On the Landing Page of the system, the status of the application

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was displayed whether open or close and its date allotted. It includes different

blog posts, activities, and scholars’ experiences. The said system had two kinds

of users – the applicant and the scholarship coordinator. The Scholarship

Coordinator can upload files, create posts, and view and edit previously posted

activities to enrich the Edukar Scholarship Program and put it on the Landing

Page. Additionally, the Scholarship Coordinator account had a Report Page

where users could analyze the data inflation (which included applications,

qualified applicants, and rejected applicants) and export specific data for the

specified school year as a PDF file. Moreover, applications are published on the

application page, and the total of submissions can be viewed by the Scholarship

Coordinator. When previewing the submissions, the list of applicants is shown by

specific batch. For each applicant, there is a rating feature to determine the

percentage of the applicant’s qualification based on a matching algorithm. It

releases a summary of the evaluation. Furthermore, our system includes a

function that automatically accepts eligible applicants based on the high

percentage that applications received, and it also automatically rejects

applications even during the pre-evaluation stage.

In accordance with the previously mentioned system, it has a system-

generated notification to inform system users, particularly the applicants, of the

updates to their submitted applications.

Lastly, the system provides a timely generation of scholarship reports.

However, the system is inaccessible without an internet connection.

Technology Background
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 This chapter presents the preferred front-end and the back-end of the

system used by the researchers to develop this study.

Visual Studio Code. This software application is an Integrated

Development Environment (IDE) that provided an editor for PHP, HTML, CSS, etc.

Visual Studio Code features a lightning-fast source code editor, perfect for day-

to-day use. With support for hundreds of languages, VS Code helps us be

instantly productive with syntax highlighting, bracket-matching, auto-indentation,

box selection, snippets, and more. Intuitive keyboard shortcuts, easy

customization, and, community-contributed keyboard shortcut mappings let us

navigate the code with ease. It is where the codes were written to easily find

errors and helped the system efficiently and create new files to develop the

Edukar Scholarship Management System.

XAMPP. This software application played a very important role in the

study.

XAMPP is an abbreviation for cross-platform, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl,

and it allows you to build a WordPress site offline, on a local web server on your

computer.

HTML. Without HTML, a browser would not be able to load pictures and

elements or show the text as an element. Along with the Cascading Style Sheets

(CSS) overlay to alter the page's look, HTML also provides the page's

fundamental structure. You may think of HTML as a website's "bone structure"

and CSS as its "skin appearance."

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 LARAVEL. The researchers used Laravel for their framework. We may

construct tables for the system's database with the assistance of Laravel.

Because Laravel separates the application into three parts Model, View, and

Controller (MVC) we choose Laravel to help us upgrade our system since it was

convenient for us to do so. The Model will provide an extra layer to interact with

their table through the model, we can insert a new record or update it in the

system’s database easily. The View will represent the data that we want to

display on the web controller is the one that supports our system for a request of

model and view.

BOOTSTRAP. To develop the system with a friendly User Interface,

researchers use a Bootstrap framework that is used to create modern websites

and web apps. Bootstrap is great for creating layouts, as its responsive CSS is

designed to conform to different devices. It can be employed to ensure

consistency, and eliminate cross-browser issues.

Definition of Terms

The following terms are defined operationally to help the readers fully

understand this.

Edukar Scholarship Application Management System . It refers to an

application that offers an available scholarship in a form of an online system. A

tool for scholarship applicants to allow them for hassle-free applying scholarships

online.

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 Edukar Gensan Scholarship Program. The Edukasyon Alang sa Kabus

nga Residente sa General Santos Scholarship Program, called “Edukar Gensan”,

provides opportunities to achieve quality education and financial support to

college students.

CMO-AKLAT. It is a Local Government Unit of General Santos City,

known as Alay sa Kabataang Generals Lahat ng Alaga at Talino (AKLAT)

Program to further its commitment to advocating education development as a

means to improve our city and the welfare of its people.

Scholarship. Financial support awarded to a student, based on academic

achievement or other criteria that may include financial need, for the purpose of

schooling.

Data. Information that has been converted into a format that is useful for

transfer or processing is known as data.

Data Security. The technique of preventing digital data from being

accessed by unauthorized parties, being corrupted, or being stolen at any point

in its lifespan.

Database Integration. Data integration is the process of combining data

from multiple source systems to create unified sets of information for both

operational and analytical uses.

Timely Generation. The process of gathering data from many sources

including social media, IoT sensor data, data warehouses, consumer

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transactions, and more, and sharing an up-to-date, accurate version of it across

an organization is known as database integration.

Cross-checked. To check (something, such as data or reports) from

various angles or sources to determine validity or accuracy

Framework. A framework is a structure that you can build software on. It

serves as a foundation, so you're not starting entirely from scratch. Frameworks

are typically associated with a specific programming language suited to different

types of tasks.

Technology. The advanced tool and system can make users feel

comfortable.

Coordinator. A person whose job is to organize events or activities and to

negotiate with others in order to ensure they work together effectively.

Temporal limits. Refers to encountering tiredness and other physical

challenges or obstacles in the moment of manual face-to-face application for the

scholarship.

Physical hurdles. Refers to encountering physical challenges or

obstacles in the moment of pursuing a goal.

Stepping-stone. Refers to an activity or an occurrence that facilitates

one's advancement toward the achievement of a particular objective.

Helping hand. The activity of contributing to the fulfillment of a need or

furtherance of an effort or purpose

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 Ease. To lessen or release, often making something possible in the

meantime.

Burden. It is a serious or difficult responsibility, a negative feeling that

makes life difficult, or something heavy that you have to carry.

Download. It refers to the method of transferring a file or document from a

remote terminal or computer to your own.

Applicant. A person who formally requests something, especially a job, or

to study at a college or university.

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 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents a review of related literature and studies which are

found helpful to support the Edukar Scholarship Application Management

System.

The decision support system is a web-based system designed to assist

the process of scholarship granting. The system's acceptability was assessed,

and the issues that were discovered were all addressed. Through pre-

application, the system can decide who is qualified and who is not. Through its

automated facilities, it also makes the work of scholarship in-charge easier.

Through database integration and login privileges, the partnering agency can

also assure the security of its data. Scholarship reports are generated in a timely

manner by the system, (Rivera and Lagarteja 2020).

In this sense, digital scholarship encompasses not only the use of

information and communication technologies to conduct research, teach, and

collaborate, but also the adoption of open values, ideology, and the potential of

technologies derived from peer-to-peer networking and web collaboration to

benefit both the academy and society. Digital scholarship can only be important if

it indicates a significant shift in scholarship approaches as a result of

technological advancements. This gap would allow for more open research,

(Pearce, Weller, Scanlon, & Kinsley, 2010).

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 According to the study of Wen-Kai (2011), the ease with which these

users can access this web-based system during the scholarship application

process was emphasized in the project's conception and design. Applying for

multiple scholarships can be made easier with an online web-based system.

Furthermore, the system can offer different functions to different categories of

users, such as students, guidance directors, committee members, and

administrators.

Moreover, the web-based application allows staff and students to apply for

scholarships online independent of their department or major, and it includes

elements that speed up the application process. The suggested framework was

created using object-oriented analysis and design. Postgraduate colleges and

their top management can use this system to track scholarship requests and

generate reports based on the information provided. Management can use the

proposed framework to analyze proposals and determine whether to accept or

reject them based on a variety of factors. It has the potential to increase

production while lowering the time and effort required to review an applicant's

papers, Mahmoud & Osman (2019).

The Scholarship Management System is used to keep track of student

information who have applied for various college scholarships. This aids in the

identification of individuals who are eligible and have applied. On a year-by-year

basis, it is also feasible to choose qualified individuals. Individuals who are

eligible are picked based on their index-mark and administrator choice.

Administrators have the ability to create new scholarships, change current ones,

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and delete existing ones. Reports and records are also available for both eligible

and ineligible individuals, Tom, J. & Michael B. (2018)

As well as the study, created by Governance Knowledge Centre (2010 ),

Online Scholarship Management System (OSMS) intends to improve the

efficiency, transparency, and timeliness of scholarship distribution. All of the

relevant application information, such as colleges, courses, fee structure,

documents required, application method, and application status, is contained in

the management and implementation of the post-matric scholarship plan.

Students complete out online applications and send printouts to the appropriate

college, along with supporting documentation. Colleges must register in order for

their students to be eligible for scheme benefits. Both universities and students

are given a unique ID to track the status of their scholarships and keep track of

the entire process. Officials visit the schools once the college submits the

applications to verify the status of the applicants. They next remove duplicate

and fake cases before submitting an online request for payment transfers to

banks. It guarantees that the scholarship disbursement system is accurate and

effective. It builds a master database of colleges, courses, and students, lowering

the high administrative costs of a manual approach. The website contains all

scholarship information, which saves time at each stage of the application

procedure. The rising number of students and delays in the government's

transfer of funding are potential roadblocks to the system's effective operation,

but they have been recognized and will be remedied soon.

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 In addition, Sauser, E. (2011), created a system that the main purposes

are to keep track of scholarship grants and to view information about

scholarships and applicants. You can also add, amend, and delete any saved

data, as well as generate highly configurable reports, using the system. Although

the system's primary users are the scholarship coordinator and assistants, it also

allows scholarship recipients to respond to their rewards in an interactive

manner. Despite the fact that the system is the most important deliverable, the

actual system code was only a small part of the whole project.

As stated in the book of Sowndhariyaa and Nithya (2021), every year, the

Niger State Scholarship Board receives a large number of scholarship

applications. It is always necessary to process these applications. Because of

their current paper-based processing system, it is time consuming and prone to

errors. The e-Scholarship System was created and implemented to allow

students of Niger state indigenes from across the country to apply for

scholarships with the Niger State Scholarship Board online. The system was

created. The application was created with the Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP),

AJAX, JavaScript, and Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML) as the front end

and the MySQL database as the backend. The E-scholarship system offers time-

saving online application alternatives and sends email alerts on the status of

applications in a timely and transparent manner.

In addition, Framework provides a simple interface for college

coordinators to apply for scholarships in language, master's, and doctoral

programs. They can complete the information for faculty members who work in

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their respective colleges. The proposed system assists coordinators in managing

the file of the applicant, which he can then follow. This system can also be used

by postgraduate colleges and their upper management to track scholarship

requests and generate reports based on the application. The proposed

framework is based on a number of criteria that can be used by management to

evaluate requests and decide whether to accept or reject them. It can increase

productivity while also reducing the time and effort required to review the

applicant's file (Mahmoud, & Osman, 2019).

As stated in the book of Sarikaya, Correll, Bartram, Tory, and Fisher

(2018), in today's data-driven environment, dashboards are both omnipresent

and crucial. Every day, countless businesses, non-profit organizations, and

community groups rely on dashboards to do their tasks. Dashboards' widespread

use gives an opportunity. Millions of people's lives could be changed by

visualization research that makes dashboard design, development, and use

easier.

Lastly, the domain review and dashboard design survey revealed that the

term dashboard is widely used to refer to a wide range of entities, challenging the

dashboard stereotype well-known in the visualization community. Dashboard

adoption has expanded to new domains due to the widespread availability of

data and visualization technologies. As a result, the dashboard concept has

evolved from single-view reporting screens to interactive interfaces with multiple

views and purposes, such as communication, learning, and motivation, in

addition to the traditional monitoring and decision support concepts.

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 Chapter III
METHODOLOGY, RESULTS, AND DISCUSSIONS

In developing the Edukar Scholarship Application Management System,

we’ve used the Iterative Waterfall Model development method. This model is a

systematic approach and sequence starting from the system of level

requirements and heading to the stage of requirements, system design,

implementation, testing and integration, delivery and deployment, and

maintenance. The waterfall model provides feedback paths from every phase to

its preceding phases, which is the main difference from the classical waterfall

model.

Iterative Waterfall Model

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 Figure 1. Iterative Waterfall Model of Software Development Life Cycle

Requirements

In this stage, data gathering, analysis and planning are intensified and

focused on the needs of the application to be developed. To know the nature of

the application to be made, the proponents must understand the information

domain of the software, for example, the functions needed, the user interface,

and the data to be processed. The researcher created a plan to organize the task

that serves as a guide in making this project. The research did finalizations in

deciding about the system. The researcher gathered ideas and observations, and

also conducted some research related to this system. The data gathered will then

analyze to point out the right technologies, and methods and understand the

overall process to be used in the next stages.

Based on the gathering of the requirements for the Edukar Scholarship

Application Management System, implementing the proposed architecture should

yield a system that:

1) Is user-friendly:

2) produces accurate data and real-time information,

3) has the basic functionality to:

a) conveniently browse the scholarship to apply;

b) determine the applicants if they are eligible for this scholarship;

c) the qualified applicant receives notification in the system also through

email

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System Design

The designing stage begins after a thorough study. The researchers will

establish and enforce the requirements necessary to support the findings from

the previous stage and to prepare for the next stage, which is application

development. Following the selection of preferred technologies, languages, IDEs,

and SDKs, an initial user interface for the application will be created. To prepare

for the next stage, all available material, including demos, tutorials, codes, and

articles, as well as previously produced related apps, were safeguarded.

Implementation

Setting up all needed software and hardware requirements to be used to

implement the data and design created from the previous pages are done at this

stage. The data gathered and the design created from the previous stages are

transformed into pieces of code, compiled together to form the whole application.

Knowledge gained from demos and tutorials by the researchers is also being

used here.

Testing and Integration

At this stage, data from the planning stage are cross-checked with the

application developed in the development stage. In this stage, all application

functions must be tested, so that the application is free from bugs and error, and

results should be strictly in accordance with the needs that have been defined

previously. Thorough testing and evaluation are needed to make sure the current

developed application is in line with the needs of the users and the objectives of

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the system. Feedback from the validation phase allows the researcher to rework

the errors. Changes are applied before the deployment of the application.

Deployment

This is the last stage of the process where the researcher can now deploy

the application after going through several phases and changes to meet the

requirements stated in the previous stages.

Maintenance 

There are some issues that come up in the client environment. To fix

those issues, patches are released. Also to enhance the product some better

versions are released. Maintenance is done to deliver these changes in the

customer environment.

The figure below shows the System Architecture of the Edukar

Scholarship Application Management System. The IDE used to implement and

build the application is VS Code. Laravel MVC architecture is also used to

process data, along with its own database/dataset from the system to the user.

System Architecture

Figure 2 shows the System Architecture of the said system. Laravel MVC

architecture (Model, View, and Controller) is used to efficiently relate the user

interface to underlying data models and organize the application code.

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Figure 2: System Architecture
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 CHAPTER IV
SYSTEM ANALYSIS, DESIGN, AND IMPLEMENTATION

Use Case

Figure 3 shows the Use Case Diagram that describes the high-level

function and scope of the system. This diagram also identifies the interactions

between the system and its actors, the applicant, and the scholarship

coordinator. Use case diagram describes what the system does and how the

actors use it.

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 Figure 3: Use Case Diagram

Entity Relationship Diagram

Figure 4 shows the Entity Relationship Diagram that is used to visualize

the database structure of the said system, and it is essential for modeling the

data stored in a database. Entity Relationship Diagram specifies what data we

will store: the entities and their attributes.

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 Figure 4: Entity Relationship Diagram
Activity Diagram

Figure 5 shows the Activity Diagram that visually presents a series of

actions or flow of control in a system similar to a flowchart. This diagram portrays

the control flow from a start point to a finish point showing the various decision

paths that exist while the activity is being executed.

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 Figure 5: Activity Diagram

Context Diagram

Figure 6 also referred to as the Level 0 Data Flow Diagram, this Context

Diagram is the highest level in a Data Flow Diagram. This diagram is a visual

representation of the relationship between data and business processes.

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 Figure 6: Context Diagram

Level 0 Data Flow Diagram

Figure 7 Diagram maps out the flow of information for the process of the

system. It's designed to be an abstract view. This Diagram represents the entire

system as a single process with its relationship to external entities with input and

output data indicated by incoming/outgoing arrows.

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 Figure 7: Level 0 Data Flow Diagram

Chapter V

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter deals with the summary of findings, conclusions, and

recommendations made for the study.

Summary

The study was conducted to … `

1.

2.

3.

Descriptive - correlational survey method was utilized in this study. Data

needed were obtained using a survey questionnaire. These data were

statistically treated using mean, weighted mean, percentage and chi-square.

Based on the analysis of the gathered data, the following findings were

revealed:

1.

2.

3.

Conclusions

Based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions are made:

1.

2.

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 3.

Recommendations

From the results of the study, the following recommendations were

sought:

1.

2.

3.

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References

Governance Knowledge Centre (2010). "Case Study Online Scholarship

Management System". Department of Administrative Reforms and Public
Grievances Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions,
Government of India. Retrieved from: https://dpar.
mizoram.gov.in/uploads/attachments/a4cbeee0bc2e98a7830ddaa61b949
64b/pages-185-online-scholarship-management-system.pdf
Mahmoud, A. & Osman, A. (2019). An Automated Web-Based System for Follow
up on the Scholarships of Faculty Members: A Case Study Based on
Shaqra University. International Journal of Computer Science and
Network Security, VOL.19. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/
profile/AsimOsman/publication/337334780_An_Automated_WebBased_S
ystem_for_Follow_up_on_the_Scholarships_of_Faculty_Members_A_Cas
e_Study_Based_on_Shaqra_University/links/
5dd2f399a6fdcc7e138d2432/An-Automated-Web-Based-System-for-
Follow-up-on-the-Scho-larships-of-Faculty-Members-A-Case-Study-
Based-on-Shaqra-University.pdf
Pearce, N., Weller, M., Scanlon, E., & Kinsley S. (2010). Digital Scholarship
Considered: How New Technologies Could Transform Academic Work. In
Education. Retrieved from: https://arts-websrv.arts.uregina.ca/bit
stream/handle/10294/3099/ie16%281%29_A3-Digital%20Scholarship
%20 Considered.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
Rivera, R., & Lagarteja, J. (2020). Online Students Scholarship Application with
Decision Support System Using Decision Tree Algorithm. International
Journal of Scientific & Technology Research Volume 9. Retrieved from:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/JoeLagarteja/publication/349760308
_Online_Students_Scholarship_Application_With_Decision_Support_Syst
em_Using_Decision_Tree_Algorithm/links/604079a8a6fdcc9c780f84c1/
Online-Students-Scholarship-Application-With-Decision-Support-System-
Using-Decision-Tree-Algorithm.pdf
Sarikaya, A., Correll, M., Bartram, L., Tory, M., Fisher, D. (2018). What Do We
Talk About When We Talk About Dashboards? IEEE Transactions on
Visualization and Computer Graphics (Volume: 25, Issue: 1, Jan. 2019)
Retrieved from:
https://research.tableau.com/sites/default/files/Dashboards
Conspiracy_final.pdf

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Sauser, E. (2011). Scholarship management system. UNI ScholarWorks.
Retrieved from: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=10 52&context=hpt
Sowndhariyaa, T., & Nithya, T.M. (2021) Advanced Application System for
Student Scholarship using Content Based Filtering Technique.
International Journal for Modern Trends in Science and Technology 2021,
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issue08/20.IJMTST0708041.pdf
Tom, J., Michael, B. (2018). Scholarship Management System. Marian College
Kuttikkanam. Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam. Retrieved from:
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pop_sutd=false
Wen-Kai, S. (2011). An Online Scholarship Application System. MINDS@UW.
Retrieved from: https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/52484/
WenKai%20Shen.pdf?sequence =1 &isAllowed=y

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Relevant Codes

Appendix B: Gantt chart

Appendix C: Evaluation Tool

CURRICULUM VITAE

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