Education Management Information System - Three-Tier Web Application Prototype for Education Workflow

Agriculture education in India is unique with a flexible course credit system. The workflow behind this unique education system needs customized education management information software for educational planning and management with a reduced process time in education workflow. This paper put forth a prototype of the Education Management Information System (EMIS) developed for Forest College and Research Institute (FCRI), Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Mettupalayam. Three-tier architecture is used for FCRI-EMIS to be an effective distributed client/server system. The development is carried out in an open-source development platform. FCRI-EMIS is developed with four modules namely: College Management Information System, Degree Management Information System, Syllabus Management Information System and Student Management Information System to access, generate a report and analyze the identified entities. The developed prototype is executed and found an effective tool for decision making towards education planning and management.


INTRODUCTION
Agricultural education in India develops human resource capabilities to meet the future challenges of the agricultural industry. The ever-increasing demand for food increases the complexity of empowering human resources (Tamboli et al., 2013). Hence, the agricultural education system in India is dynamically updated to strengthen the agricultural education. Decision making and planning process plays a vital role in educational planning and management to strengthen the education system (Hollands and Escueta, 2020). The decision-making process is data driven (Husein, 2014). Education workflow data that are collected manually are recorded either in ledgers or in excel sheet by the staff, which are (i) prone to errors (ii) lack of security (iii) duplication of data (iv) data inconsistency (v) lack of backups and (vi) time consuming process (Kelly and Casey, 2015). Providing consistent data is required for making right decision making. The data pertained to education workflow has to be collected, organized, stored, analysed and made accessible to all the functionaries involved in the education system (Vijaya et al., 2016). Education institutions aim to provide advantage for the students through the education planning and management by analyzing the data in hand. Education institutions need EMIS to propel the progress to align academic processes and deliver better student experience (Balram, 2018). As per UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Digital Library, EMIS is a system for organizing information base in a systematic way for the management of educational development (Tegegn, 2003). Prewritten EMIS software such as Open EMIS (Open Education Management Information System) launched by UNESCO are available either as paid or free software but again need to be customised by and for the educational institutes to meet specific requirement of the institute (Kurt , 2001). Education institutes having the constituent colleges spread across the state need web based EMIS to access the core elements of EMIS anywhere at any time. Hence, EMIS requires effective distributed client/server design (Duan andZhang, 2007 &Dissanayake andDias, 2017).
This work is carried out to develop the prototype of web based EMIS for Forest College and Research Institute (FCRI) of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore with objectives: • To develop a prototype of management information system that collects, stores, processes, analyses and disseminates FCRI education workflow information for educational planning and management • To develop centralized integrated repository of education management information and • To reduce the process time in education workflow.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The prototype developed to provide error free, consistent, non-redundant and updated data anywhere at any time; centralized integrated repository of education management information; to analyse and report demanded information by the decision makers and planners. Learning management System (LMS) is an application software to enhance the learning process. LMS facilitates the teachers to create and deliver eLearning content. The proposed development is not used to deliver course content for e-learning as Learning Management System (LMS) (Steve, 2017).

Pre-Design Phase
In the pre-design phase Software Requirement Specification (SRS) document is developed describing functional and non-functional requirements of the proposed prototype (Ashima and Gaurav, 2019).

Requirement Engineering
Requirement engineering for web app development is similar to the system analysis of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) (José and Nora, 2004). System analysis is carried out to identify and document the requirements for FCRIEMIS to support organizational activities (Steven and Glenn, 2005). Preliminary analysis revealed development of education management system is in need to have centralised education information repository and to ensure information availability even if the course teacher or coordinator gets transferred. An extensive system study is carried out to identify the entities; add attributes for entities and give meaningful attribute names; identify the relationship between entities; and to acquire full knowledge of problems and errors (Orawit and Khanithep, 2016) Logical Design is carried out to list and figure out the relationship between entities. The identified entities and their attributes are:

Attributes of College
College name, objective, vision, address, degree programmes offered, contact details: mailed, phone, mobile, and fax, list of departments etc.

Attributes of Department
Department name, Head of the Department, vision, action plan of the department, courses offered by the department, total credit load of the department offered to UG, PG & Ph.D., List of the Faculties, UG coordinator, PG coordinator, research coordinator, research schemes: PIs, Co-PIs, funding agency, budget, duration, status, contact details etc.

Attributes of Degree
Name of the degree programmes offered for UG, PG and Ph.D., Pattern (Semester/Trimester) Number of students permitted to admit quota wise (ICAR, NRI, Industrial), Duration, Fees details for UG, PG and Ph.D. quota wise (ICAR, Industrial, NRI) , Penalty for late fee payment etc..

Attributes of Syllabus
Name of the syllabus for UG, PG, and Ph.D., period in which the syllabus offered, number of years offered, structure of the syllabus, Courses offered semester wise, Flaws in the syllabus, Feedback on the syllabus from administrators, staffs, experts and students, Experiential Learning, RAWE, Project, Tour, Optional courses, MOOC courses, Certification courses etc.

Attributes of Staff
UPF/CPF number, Name of the staf f, qualification, designation, gender, date of birth, photo, experience in years, specialization, courses handled, publications, awards, UG project guide, PG/Ph.D. guided, additional role, university sub projects, externally funded projects, venture capital scheme, training/workshop/ conference organised and attended, extension activities involved, e-content developed, teaching aids used, practical manuals prepared, text books/ books published, question banks prepared, tour programme executed, experiential learning course offered, year coordinator, academic counsilor, RAWE programme coordinated, warden/deputy warden, student club/symposium organised, participation in student related activities, education cell activities, contact details etc.

Attributes of Student
ID number, name, degree programme, year of admission, gender, parent/guardian name, address, community, physically challenged, mother tongue, any other languages known other than English, medium of school education, rural/urban, identification mark, admission quota, first graduate, percentage of marks scored in S.S.L.C. and HSc, courses studied in HSc, extracurricular activities, sports, awards received if any, e-mail ID, mobile number, parents' mobile number, day scholar/ Hostelite, mess bill payment, semester fee payment, Semester number, courses registered, courses not cleared, marks scored in individual subjects, reregistration details, course completion details, OGPA, grade in the each course, performance analysis, conduct details, etc.

Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)
Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) is a technique used to model the data from the field of system analysis (Malcolm and John, 2010). In this work ERD ( Figure 2) is drawn to: define terms related to entity relationship modelling; provide a preview of tables should connect, what fields are going to be on each table; describe entities, attributes, relationships; build databases quickly; act as blueprint for implementing data in application; gain a better understanding of the information to be contained in the database; communicate with the logical structure of the database to users and bring out primary keys and foreign keys. Education management information system proposed is designed with the following modules: • College Management Information System -is a centralised repository of information about the various departments, courses offered by the department, staff of the institute.
• Degree Management Information Systemis an organised collection of information for accessing and reporting degree programmes offered • Syllabus Management Information System -is providing a platform to analyse the syllabus along with the detailed information of the syllabus • Student Management Information System -is a repository of individual students' information for custom reports demanded by the end users and analysing the student performance reports to support decision making

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Prototype of the education management system for the forest college and research institute is developed with the following components.

Opening Screen and Login Form
Opening screen of the system comprises of buttons to open up login form, sign up form, introduction about the system, links for college management information system, degree management information system, syllabus management information system and student management information system (Figure 3 & Figure  4). The sign-up form allows the end users with email ID in TNAU domain for administrator and teachers and ID numbers for the students. Three different rolls are defined for the users as follows: • Administrator roll is defined with all permissions.
• Teachers are the privileged users to update and submit the information.
• Students are permitted to view the required information.

College Management Information System
College management information system is a

Degree Management Information System
Degree Program Management Information System is an organised collection of information for accessing and reporting degree programmes offered and lists names of the degree programmes offered for UG, PG and Ph.D. (Fig. 7). Upon choosing the degree programme introduction about the degree programme, starting year of degree programme, Pattern (Semester/Trimester), Number of students admitted under regular, ICAR, NRI and Industrial quota, Duration, Fee details for UG, PG and Ph.D., Volume xxx | Issue xxxx | 9 Penalty for late fee payment, admission procedure, etc. are displayed (Figure 7).

Syllabus Management Information System
Syllabus management information system is providing a platform to analyse the syllabus along with the detailed information of the syllabus and enlists the syllabus for UG, PG, and Ph.D., period in which the syllabus offered, number of years offered, structure of the syllabus, Courses offered semester wise, Weaknesses in the syllabus, Feedbacks on the syllabus from administrators, staffs, experts and students etc. (Figures 8 & 9).

Student Management Information System
Student information system is repository ID number, name, degree programme, year of admission, gender, parent/guardian name, address, community, physically challenged, mother tongue, any other languages known other than English, medium of school education, rural/urban, identification mark, admission quota, first graduate, percentage of marks scored in S.S.L.C. and H.Sc., courses studied in H.Sc, extracurricular activities, Error occurred due to undefined variables as shown in Figure 13 are corrected to display the correct results (Figure 9).  Figure 11. mysql_fetch_array() error

Data Generation and Impact Use
The study reveals the need for strengthening of EMIS at all levels especially at academic level by providing adequate resources in terms of human, financial and equipment and increase in data coverage through legal and administrative mandates for the colleges. Other education data sources should be integrated with EMIS databases at all levels to complement and support annual academic data. There should be conformity and compatibility, through standards, in data capturing and coding, database structure, data entry and storage software, and data verification procedures. EMIS should focus on collecting qualitative data about academic process and students' outcomes, as well as education finance data. The data reporting format should be made user friendly and it should contain analytical text and education indicators. The EMIS should evolve reporting and information dissemination strategy to provide information to all stakeholders in a suitable format. On the basis of data gap identified by decision makers at various levels, the provincial EMIS should collect data relating to annual examination results and students assessment, students drop-out, budget allocation and expenditure, college wise receipt of funds and utilization, additional facilities required in laboratory, students' attendance, capacity building needs of faculties, supervision by Dean, development schemes additional classrooms, and science laboratories, complete profile of teaching and non-teaching staff and number of students who need financial assistance.

CONCLUSION
EMIS data may be used at all administrative levels in various types of decisions such as situation analysis, target setting, budget preparation, formulation and appraisal of projects, textbooks purchase, construction of classrooms, staring of new programs, and provision of basic facilities. The majority of data users at all administrative levels were satisfied with the quality of EMIS data, however, level of satisfaction with quality of data varied across administrative levels. The data gaps identified by users included enrolment by age, failure, dropouts, students' performance, faculty performance and financial data.
In this paper, a prototype for education management information system has been developed. The developed prototype will serve as an alternative to the conventional system to manage the education workflow. The main intention of this prototype is to develop software which provides assistance in decision making for educational planning and manage it more effectively. EMIS ensures persistent data availability, integrity and confidentiality which plays a vital role in enhancing the quality of education system of an organization. This system allows Academic leadership to easily identify gaps and track the installation, usage and maintenance of all college facilities and infrastructure in the institute.
In short, EMIS is an excellent example of how IT has transformed the management of education despite many difficulties to success.