SMS Based Grade Inquiry

System

Chapter I
PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND
Introduction
Knowing the grades at the end of every semester is the most
awaited and most important part of individual student, particularly
students in college. Merely because grade is one of the essential
qualities and products of school works. All their labors and sacrifices
for the past semester will be measured and determine whether a
student passes the subject or not.
It also helps the professors and instructors to guide and facilitate
students learning development. Thus, students grades must be
carefully accumulated or stored in a database and must be well
distributed to the students.
Some universities and colleges particularly Pangasinan State
University always use the traditional procedure of releasing grades;
students need to go directly to their respective college registrar in
order to acquire their progress or report card or if not students go
directly to their respective professor and claim their class card where
their grade is written. These methods of acquiring are inconvenient,
tiresome, and some instances are time-consuming, and costly. And for

SMS Based Grade Inquiry

System

worst cases, students tend to alter or falsify in order to enroll

prerequisite subjects.
Since a mobile phone seems to be a positive feature which most
individuals possess, and take almost in all places with them, it is
therefore, an extremely effective means of transporting information to
them faster and easier. SMS or Short Message Service is one of the
most well liked service components of phone which provide simplest
way of accessing information using standardized communications
protocols that allow the exchange of short text messages between
fixed line or mobile phone devices. As a convenient and low-cost
mobile communication technology, SMS is experiencing a very rapid
growth. In fact, Philippines lead the Asia Pacific Region with the highest
number of messages sent per user. Its increasing potential integrating
it in the latest technologies has made promising results. Alerts, ticket
booking and retailing are just some of its commerce applications. The
university as an educational organization has a lot of valuable
information which can be provided to the students.
To ease these difficulties in knowing the grades, a system using
SMS or Short Message Service will be used; the SMS Based Grade
Inquiry System (SMSGIS) is proposed in order to give way for saving
time and money.

SMS Based Grade Inquiry

System

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to develop and evaluate a SMS Based Grade
Inquiry System. Particularly, the study sought to answer the following
questions:
1. What are the existing procedures in acquiring grades of students?
2. What are the encountered problems in acquisition of grades?
3. What software packages are needed to implement an SMS Based
Grade Inquiry System?
4. What is the algorithm needed to develop an SMS Based Grade
Inquiry System?
Objective of the Study
The study is intended to achieve the following objectives:
1. To know the existing procedures in acquiring grades of students.
2. To determine the problems encountered in acquisition of grades.
3. To determine the software packages needed to implement an SMS
Based Grade Inquiry System.
4. To determine the algorithm needed to develop an SMS Based Grade
Inquiry System.
Scope and Delimitation

SMS Based Grade Inquiry

System

This project focuses on developing an SMS Based Grade Inquiry

System for the Department of Computer Engineering. Students need to
be properly registered and authenticated with their Student ID, phone
number, and password which will authorize them to access their
grades via mobile phone. Invalid password or any inquiry texted by an
unregistered mobile number will make the system respond an ERROR
Message also in SMS format, or for no-keyword-typed SMS, no response
will be received.
The Registrar will not be notified from any text inquiry/service
acquired by the system. Log features and outbox or a list of SMS sent
to students are excluded in the system. Furthermore, a 1:1 ratio of
mobile number per student shall be used in the system. The utilization
of the system is also bound to the hardware constraints of the mobile
broadband. Network signal shall be one of the constraints too.
In addition, a unique 6-character password will be generated by
the Registrars Office to each student to avoid duplicates. Registrar can
add students, view student information, and delete them. For any
addition/update of users to the system, if the Registrar desired so,
direct manipulation to the database is the only means. The system
must also avail unlitext-to-all-network promos from the network
provider used.

SMS Based Grade Inquiry

System

Significance of the Study

The SMSGIS is offering the SMS service which can be used by all
mobile phones. The user only sends the SMS to the system and the
system will reply the answer back to the user as SMS also. Thus, the
researchers want to design and develop a SMS Based Grade Inquiry
System that will benefit the following:
Registrars Office. This study will be a big help to the institution
because it is automated, organized accessing of grades and they wont
be releasing class cards anymore. This design project will also help
them to lessen their tasks in preparing summary of grades of each
student.
Faculty. This study will help the Instructors ease their effort of filling
up class cards.
Students. It helps the students access the information in anytimeanywhere basis at their own convenient time. This SMSGIS is also
concerned on how to provide a service to students residing in remote
areas just by typing in at their mobile phone the keyword together with
their password sent by their authorized mobile number. Furthermore,
these systems provide a convenient way of inquiring grade with just
press and send way.

SMS Based Grade Inquiry

System

Other Researchers. This study can serve as basis for their future
research and study regarding SMS Based Systems. They can use this
study as reference material that will help formulate ideas. Other
researchers or future researchers can make use of the data and
findings of the study in preparation to conduct a study of their own.
Definition of Terms
AT Commands. AT commands are instructions used to control a
modem. AT is the abbreviation of ATtention. (Developers Home, 2012)
Clerk. Refers to the assistant of the Registrar. The Registrar can have
2-3 clerks at the office.
Database.

Defined

as

systematically

organized

or

structured

repository of indexed information (usually as a group of linked data

files) that allows easy retrieval, updating, analysis, and output of data.
(Murcko,2013)
Inquiry.

A seeking or request for truth, information, or knowledge.

(Collins, 2009)
Mobile broadband. It is the marketing term for wireless Internet
access through a portable modem, mobile phone, USB wireless
modem, or other mobile devices. (Wikipedia, 2012)
Retrieval. The process of accessing information from memory or other
storage devices. (Collins, 2009)
6

SMS Based Grade Inquiry

System

SMS.

Short

Message

Service (SMS)

is

a text

messaging service

component of phone, web, or mobile communication systems, using

standardized communications protocols that allow the exchange of
short text messages between fixed line or mobile phone devices. It is
the most widely used data application in the world, with 3.6 billion
active users, or 78% of all mobile phone subscribers. The term "SMS" is
used as an acronym for all types of short text messaging and the user
activity itself in many parts of the world. SMS is also being used as a
form of direct marketing known as SMS marketing. (Wikipedia, 2012)
SMSGIS. Short Message Service Based Grade Inquiry System.
Software packages. These are kinds of software applications e.g.
VB.Net, MYSQL, C language, etc that will be used in this study.
Table. A set of data elements (values) that is organized using a model
of vertical columns (which are identified by their name) and horizontal
rows, the cell being the unit where a row and column intersect.
(Wikipedia, 2013)

SMS Based Grade Inquiry

System

Conceptual Framework

Figure 1. System Architecture of SMS Based Grade Inquiry System

SMS Based Grade Inquiry

System

Figure 2. Research Paradigm of SMS Based Grade Inquiry System