Graduate Student Research Progress Evaluation System

The purpose of this research project is to improve and increase efficiency of the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) postgraduate assessment process. The problems that occurred in current conventional system are inappropriate criteria used for assessment and cumbersome of paper evaluation forms. These problems eventually lead to low efficiency of UTP Center for Graduate Studies business performance in long-term operation. Therefore, Graduate Student Research Progress Evaluation System is developed to improve the efficiency of postgraduate assessment process by automate the current manual process using document management system (DMS) and business process improvement (BPI) concept. Also, this research project reviewed and developed an electronic evaluation forms with appropriate assessment criteria. The project area is mainly focused on UTP postgraduate assessment process and Research Proposal Defense (RPD) evaluation form only. Several research papers were reviewed to analyse critical points of related research areas such as process automation, electronic form, DMS and BPI. Prototyping methodology is employed to develop the system prototype using Macromedia Dream Weaver, PHP programming language and MySQL. User acceptance survey, usability testing and interview are conducted to gather information and user requirements. The user acceptance survey result had shown positive feedback towards the adoption of proposed system. Majority of the users opt to have automated system and electronic forms. They hope to have a system that is high effectiveness and efficiency. In term of usability testing, the System Usability Scale (SUS) score shown 82.25% of the respondents agree that the system have met the aspects of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in term of user interface and system functionality. Furthermore, a draft version of revised Research Proposal Defense (PRD) evaluation form criteria is obtained from the interview session with programme coordinator. Based on the survey results and interview findings, the Unified Modelling Language (UML) diagrams such as system flow, activity diagram, use case diagram and system architecture is identified.