Content area
In education management, it is very important to get the information of schools fast and reliable. In Istanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education, management of 3170 schools of 39 districts is planned in. In particular; projects such as the Fatih Project where all the schools are equipped with technological infrastructure, requires correct and fast data flow during the planning and implementation processes because of the cost of a wrong action. For example, information which taken from schools in July cannot be reached and re requested in August because of the vacation of the officer who handles the data. During data gathering process, schools do not send data, they send late, and the information provided is stored in personnel computers. So, there is no continuity of the data and some information from the schools is requested repeatedly and this situation is causing the progeny in planning and implementation. The purpose of this research is to create an educational information system in which school information is effectively managed, do not need a programmer for each information request, in which the continuity and sharing of information is ensured. The program was built using the PHP programming language and the MYSQL database system. A responsive design has been used to allow access from mobile phones, tablets and desktop computers. Some sub-systems have been developed to facilitate data collection and management. One of that sub-systems is that information stored in computers in the type of office formats can be added to the system quickly and forms can be created using the titles of these data on the fly. It is considered that data mining and machine learning algorithms can be added to the system and data mining can be done on the data for future studies.
Abstract: In education management, it is very important to get the information of schools fast and reliable. In Istanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education, management of 3170 schools of 39 districts is planned in. In particular; projects such as the Fatih Project where all the schools are equipped with technological infrastructure, requires correct and fast data flow during the planning and implementation processes because of the cost of a wrong action. For example, information which taken from schools in July cannot be reached and re requested in August because of the vacation of the officer who handles the data. During data gathering process, schools do not send data, they send late, and the information provided is stored in personnel computers. So, there is no continuity of the data and some information from the schools is requested repeatedly and this situation is causing the progeny in planning and implementation. The purpose of this research is to create an educational information system in which school information is effectively managed, do not need a programmer for each information request, in which the continuity and sharing of information is ensured. The program was built using the PHP programming language and the MYSQL database system. A responsive design has been used to allow access from mobile phones, tablets and desktop computers. Some sub-systems have been developed to facilitate data collection and management. One of that sub-systems is that information stored in computers in the type of office formats can be added to the system quickly and forms can be created using the titles of these data on the fly. It is considered that data mining and machine learning algorithms can be added to the system and data mining can be done on the data for future studies.
Keywords: data management; educational management.
I.INTRODUCTION
If resource management is to make the best use of resources, then knowledge management is to make the best use of knowledge [1]. According to Alavi & Liedner, empirical studies have shown that while organizations create knowledge, they learn and also forget [2]. If the organisation cannot manage corporate information in a meaningful way; the information that people hold and manage are being forgotten in the case of unit changes or absence of people who hold the information. Data storage and organization, as well as retrieval of organizational knowledge, also referred as memory, constitute an important aspect of effective organizational knowledge management [2]. Data collection is the way to gather raw data to address important issues and the collected data is integrated and analysed to provide relevant information, for use during the decision making process [3]. Although data is an effective and important tool used for the decision-making process but the data collection, especially for large organizations, is a very complex and difficult process.
While papers, fax machines or telephones are used to collect data at times when Internet technology is not prevalent, Management Information Systems (MIS) that use Internet provide a powerful tool today for collecting and processing information. Since MIS provides powerful tools for gathering and processing information, many organizations tend to launch programs of knowledge management without due consideration of the firm's capabilities to guarantee any measure of success [4]. Such systems the Information Systems of Ministry of National Education (MEBBIS) and E School (E-Okul) which are used for educational management in Turkey are successful examples of knowledge management. Although centralized MISs offer successful solutions for many needs, they are not designed for specific needs of provincial or district directorates. For this reason, provincial and district directorates produce MISs for specific needs, but these specific information needs are changing over time so created systems become idle, which causes time and money loss. On the other hand data management and data integration tools typically require a comprehensive schema design before they can be used to store or share information and they are difficult to extend because schema evolution is heavyweight and may break backward compatibility; as a result, many small-scale data sharing tasks are more easily facilitated by non-database-oriented tools [5].
The purpose of this paper is to implement a data management system that will resolve data collection and management needs in a way that is not affected by future changes in data needs. The most important feature of the system to be developed is that there will be no need to redesign the database or add modules for each data requirement. In recent years, the improvements in database technologies and especially the NoSQL databases, where multidimensional data can be stored, have removed the solid structure which limits of the database technologies. NoSQL database schemes are typically dynamic, with some enforcing data validation rules. Applications may add new fields rapidly, and unlike SQL table rows, dissimilar data can be stored together as necessary [6]. MySQL's addition of a JSON data type makes the relational database easier to use and blurs the lines between SQL and NoSQL databases[7]. These technological developments are promising to produce programs that are flexible and do not require a programmer or database designer for every system change.
II.CURRENT SITUATION IN DATA COLLECTION AND MANAGEMENT IN ISTANBUL PROVINCIAL DIRECTORATE OF NATIONAL EDUCATION (IstMEM)
In IstMEM, management of 3170 schools of 39 districts is planned in, because of big data sets, it is crucial to collect and manage data for educational management. In particular; projects such as the Fatih Project where all the schools are equipped with technological infrastructure, require correct and fast data flow during the planning and implementation. In Table 1, correspondences made by the Fatih Project unit with the district directorates and Fatih Project Coordinators in the interval of 2 years for the purpose of collecting data can be seen.
As shown in Table 1, 1872 correspondences made using DMS (Document Management System) and 1449 correspondence was made using e-mail in order to collect data within 2 years. In this context, correspondences are being made in order to request data, and this is done by filling in the data request forms in MS-Excel format and sending them back to IstMEM. Apart from MS-Excel forms, Google Forms, and some other systems have also been used and the filling instructions for these forms have been made via DYS and E-Mail.
Of course, there is a difficulty in collecting and managing data without a data management system. The first difficulty in this situation is that the collected data is stored on staff computers and is difficult to share within and between units. And as Thukral & Goel [3] reported; while collecting data from schools, data filled in forms are sometimes not as per instructions were given to fill the form and some default entries were not filled in properly. This situation also affects the quality of the data.
III.SELF-EVOLVING EDUCATIONAL DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Early in this paper, our focus has been understanding current situation about educational data collection and management issues. Our goal is to develop a system that will be used to collect and manage data from educational institutions and no need to redesign the database for every new data request. The following requirements motivated the implementation:
1. Forms can be created without changing the software code and can be sent to institutions for filling,
2. Institution data can be examined simply with the support of institutional data cards,
3. Old data stored in personal computers can be adapted to the system without programming knowledge,
4. Data can be exported from the system based on district and institution type,
5. It is ensured that institutional data is managed on a single platform, which makes it easier to store and share the data.
In this section we will provide information on the system architecture and functionalities of FABSIS.
3.1System Architecture
FABSIS was developed as a web application using the PHP programming language with the help of the CodeIgniter framework. CodeIgniter uses the Model-View-Controller approach, which allows great separation between logic and presentation [8]. The user interface was developed using HTML and JavaScript languages which languages that function in any web browser.
Drag and drop form production has been made available by the Form Builder [9] Javascript library. The FormBuilder Javascript library provides efficient tools for creating forms. Form rebuilds were conducted using the Codeigniter Form Builder [10] class library to fill the forms up by institutions. Transferring old data to the system was done with the PHPExcel [11] library. With the PHPExcel library, the data stored in MS-Excel files can be easily scanned and transferred to different environments.
The DataTables library, written in Javascript language, is used for visualizing data at user interface. The stated goal of DataTables is "To enhance the accessibility of data in HTML tables" [12]. DataTables library can make real-time communication with the data layer through the AJAX feature. This method is an effective method for quick and easy display of data. An API has been developed using the Ignited Datatables [13] class library to ensure the communication between the data layer and the Datatables library.
MySQL database system is used to take advantage of the features of SQL and NoSQL databases with JSON data columns. The fields of the forms created using the system and the data entered by the institutions into the forms are kept in the JSON data fields. The JSON data representation of a form and a sample form data entered by an institution can be seen in Table 2.
When examining the sample table structure in Table 2, it can be seen that the field type, title, classname and name properties can be defined when creating a form area. These attributes are important for re-creating a form for data entry. The data entered in the forms are kept in JSON format with the names of the fields. Storing form data with field names allows the forms to be rearranged (add, remove and modify) form fields after data entry is done.
3.2System Components
The basic system components consist of the form creation wizard, institution cards and data entry screen. We will describe how different actors with different roles will act and experience in the system.
Form Creation Wizard
As shown in Figure 1, data administrator(DA) role is authorized for creating forms. The wizard consists of 4 stages for construction and one stage for reviewing the form created. In screen 1.1 DA describes the name, types and districts of institutions etc. for the basic definition of the form created. At this screen DA also determines whether or not the form is shown on the main screen of the institution cards based on the degree of importance. After the basic information is entered, in screen 1.2form fields are created by the DA and saved as form definition information. If DA has old data in MS-Excel format file, uploads to system in screen 1.3. the system determines the column names and data types of the file uploaded, and provides options to associate the uploaded data with the generated fields or generate new form structure with uploaded data. Form fields can be re-created by the system at this stage. The created forms can have deadlines for filling out. DA decides to start and to end dates for filling up the form for institutions in screen 1.4. Once all the definitions have been completed, the form will be displayed once again to the DA screen for further review at 1.5.
School Cards
DA and Data Controller(DC) role users can access to institution list at screen 2.1. Institution list API provides list of the institutions by entering district, type or few characters of their name. Institution card at screen 2.2 shows some basic information about institution and provides access to forms attached to institution. Some important forms can be attached as tabs to institution cards. If a form is not attached to institution as a tab, user can search other forms in this screen.
Data Entry
DA and institutional users (IU) can view and enter new data to forms attached to institutions. Once institution card with form view opened, DA and IU can add, modify or delete information entered to forms. Form structure data stored in Form table in JSON format (Table 2) processed and ready for data entry. The data entered into the form is stored separately for each institution.
Form Data Reports
As described in Figure 4, DA and DC can search form data in different ways and view on a screen. When the requested data is reached and shown on screen, DA and DC can export them to MSExcel files. Thus, the data in the system can be transferred to different media and processed.
3.3Potential Improvements
Developers and stakeholders think that an interface should be developed, so that citizens can enter data and see the data associated with them. Thus, for example, there would be no need for an additional program to be developed for teachers who apply to schools for the needs of surrogate teachers. Now many district directorates use different web programs for surrogate teacher applications. Another desirable feature is that to integrate PHP-ML [14] machine learning libraries to the system for processing data when still in the system. System may prevent extra data entry by matching the data headers according to the previously generated data and their entry times. On the other hand, we can compare the data headers and observe the data differentiation over time.
IV.CONCLUSIONS
FABSIS data management system provides data collection and management tools for educational administration. There is no need to reprogram and change database structure for new data requests, this feature is promising that the project will have a long operating life. It provides a platform for the storing and sharing of data in one environment and for facilitating the implementation of different statistical procedures on data. At the same time, this system, which offers a card for each institution, can be used instead of the briefing files.
When we examine the literature, we have seen that there is one research [3] used to collect data that are changing during time and by needs from educational institutions. We think that our study has a different point of view about the collecting, processing and sharing data between educational institutions.
Since the system is built on the fully documented Codeigniter Framework, it will take a short time for new developers to master the program's code in developer changes. Of course we are also trying to document the code and program well. The source code would be shared when the program is fully documented and the setup script is written to use the program everywhere. FABSIS is an open source free software under MIT [15] license.
Reference Text and Citations
[1] S. Gülseçen, Bilgi ve Bilginin Yönetimi. İstanbul: Papatya Yayıncılık Eğitim, 2013.
[2] M. Alavi and D. E. Leidner, "Review: Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues,"MIS Q., vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 107-136, 2001.
[3] R. Thukral and A. Goel, "Web Service Interface for Data Collection."
[4] T. H. Davenport, D. W. De Long, and M. C. Beers, "Successful Knowledge Management Projects," Sloan Manage. Rev., vol. 39, no. 2, p. 43-.
[5] A. Y. Halevy, Z. G. Ives, J. Madhavan, P. Mork, D. Suciu, and I. Tatarinov, "The Piazza peer data management system," IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng., vol. 16, no. 7, pp. 787-798, Jul. 2004.
[6] "NoSQL Databases Explained," MongoDB. [Online]. Available: https://www.mongodb.com/nosql-explained. [Accessed: 30-Dec-2017].
[7] 15 May 2017 Dave Stokes Feed 84up 3 comments, "What you need to know about JSON in MySQL," Opensource.com. [Online]. Available: https://opensource.com/article/17/5/mysql-json. [Accessed: 30-Dec-2017].
[8] "CodeIgniter at a Glance - CodeIgniter 3.1.6 documentation." [Online]. Available: https://codeigniter.com/user_guide/overview/at_a_glance.html. [Accessed: 30-Dec-2017].
[9] K. Chappell, "Form Builder," 05-Oct-2017. [Online]. Available: https://github.com/kevinchappell/formBuilder. [Accessed: 05-Oct-2017].
[10] T. Wall, Codeigniter Form Builder. 2013.
[11] "PHPExcel," 2015. [Online]. Available: https://github.com/PHPOffice/PHPExcel.
[12] "DataTables example - Server-side processing." [Online]. Available: https://datatables.net/examples/data_sources/server_side.html. [Accessed: 31 -Dec-2017].
[13] V. Bambico and Y. Ozdemir, "Ignited Datatables," 01-Feb-2016. [Online]. Available: http://ellislab.com/forums/viewthread/160896/.
[14] A. Kondas, php-ml: PHP-ML - Machine Learning library for PHP. PHP Artificial Intelligence, 2018.
[15] "The MIT License | Open Source Initiative." [Online]. Available: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT. [Accessed: 02-Jan-2018].
Copyright "Carol I" National Defence University 2018