College Information Management System (CIMS) Application

College Information Management system (CIMS) application that effectively manages the storage and retrieval of information on the internal network of a college. In other words, it is a web application for a college.

How a College Functions?

    There are many activities that take place in a college. They are below

• Admissions: The traditional process of admission requires a student to collect the admission forms, fill them and submit them to the college.
• Student Enrollment: The student applications are screened and those found suitable are called for an interview and finally selected. 

• Planning and recording schedules: It is necessary that every college prepares its own academic timetables for:

• 1. Classes for each course.
  2. Sports and games.
  3. Extra curricular activities such as competitions and cultural activities.
  4. Meetings and seminars held to review academic schedules teaching strategies and other requirements of the college. 

• Staff recruitments: the college periodically recruits Teachers, Professors, and Non-teaching staff members. Records on their salaries leave the position, etc., need to be maintained by the college.

As listed above the CIMS application should allow performing all the activities and if possible additional activities in a more easy and efficient manner. This application should be highly scalable and customizable for different types of colleges depending on their requirements.

The application should have an interface for accessing and retrieving data about students and staff and the college itself.

1. A database management system in which data can be stored safely, while also being easy to access.
2. A website for the college where outsiders can obtain information about the college.
3. A central server that controls all the information of the college and also hosts the website of the college.
4. An internal communication system for exchanging information, scheduling meetings and conferences. 

The following list gives an overview of what CIMS may contain.

This is abstract information about a college process.

Admissions for staff and students

• Academic details – attendance, exams, marks.
• Complete fee details, course wise and student wise.
• Exams – performance.
• Library Management.
• Staff: Teaching, Non-Teaching.
• Leave: Students, Employee
• Attendance Students, Employee
• Courses – currently offering, new courses.

Miscellaneous

• Timetable
• Curriculum scheduling
• Calendar 

Reports

• Student academic report
• Student TC details
• Leave Reports
• Pay Slip
• Library Report
• Department wise report
• Full Academic report 

Planning intranet for a college Requirements   Data management between departments of a college.

Every college has staff and students and all the data related to students and staff that are maintained in college records in the form of files. Similarly, the college maintains the daily activities such as timetable, year wise curriculum, and examination schedules. Maintaining such huge data for years the college needs

• Manpower
• Space in the office to maintain shelves, cabinets, and racks
• Good administration strategy
• Perfect organization
• Ease of use
• Efficient data retrieval 

That is we need to have an environment that is organized with numbered file cabinets. In such a system every folder has its place.

But maintaining such an extensive file system is not possible manually and it is also not cost effective.

Now the question is what makes it easier to maintain such data?

The solution is computerizing the management system.

• Online website.
• Internal file management.
• Keep track of student and staff files.
• Library management system.
• Scheduling conferences, news, and announcements.

In order to develop the intranet, we need to do analysis about the requirements of the college system. After the analysis, we need to design the structure flow and model of our Intranet Project. We then need to write programs in Java and integrate to test and deploy the Intranet for a college.

What are the analysis and design, what does it include? 

Analysis:                   

This deals with an investigation of a whole product part by part. It is the abstract separation of a whole into its constituent parts for study. The analysis of any particular project is the paramount requirement before any other operation

Design:

It is a preliminary or initial sketch indicating the basic plan required to execute the project.

Think of what we need to build.

Identify the data needed to be organized in the INTRANET.

• Student data
• Staff data
• Books data

Student Data:

Students may be categorized into two types. An enrolled student and a new student to enrol. The fields that specify the students are as follows.

Admitted Students

• Personal information

• Name
• Parent
• Address
• Contact information
• Date of birth
• Gender

• Academic information

• Admission number
• Course joined
• Date of joining
• Remarks

 Application form for new students

Personal information

• Name
• Parent
• Address
• Contact information
• Date of birth
• Gender

Academic information

• Applied date
• Previous college information
• Previous degree details
• Course applied for
• Percentage of marks
• Application id
• Application mode (online/offline)
• Nationality

Official details

• Accept/Reject
• Remarks
• Application mode 

Staff data:

The staff may be categorized into two types, teaching, and non-teaching staff.

Personal and general details

• Name
• Gender
• Nationality
• Contact information (permanent/present)
• Application mode
• Professional job experience
• Income details

Book data:

Managing the data concerning books is called Library management.

Student Details

• Student identification number
• Student name
• Student address
• Date of issue of the book
• Phone number

Book Details

• Book code
• Book name
• Price
• Number of copies
• Author
• Publication
• Edition
• Course
• Transactions
• Book code
• Student identification number
• Date of issue
• Due date
• Date of return

Conferences, meetings, news

• Date
• Time
• Purpose
• Audience
• Place

 Others

• Website data
  1. College history
  2. Curriculum
  3. Courses offered
  4. Achievements
  5. Contact information

  Designing the project

    This includes

• Finalizing the flow
• Establishing relations
• Designing the GUI
• Organizing the data management

Plan for flow

• Login
• Main window
• Options to view students, staff, library, schedules
• Student
  1. Admitted
     • Select a classroom from list
     • Next, Previous, Add, Save, Modify, Home, Search.
  2. New Admissions
• Next, Previous, Home, Update Status, View all.
• Staff

1. Select a department

• Next, Previous, Add, Save, Modify, Home, Search, View all.
• Library
  1. List of the category of books.
  2. Available books.
  3. Check whether the book is available or with the student.
  4. Ability to issue books and note down the details.
• Schedules

• 1. Calendar

2. List of schedules.

• Web

1. Homepage
2. Links to admission form, course details, contact information, etc. 

WORKING MODEL OF CIMS

• Login dialogue for CIMS
• Main page
  1. Student details
  2. Employee details
  3. Library details
  4. Payroll
  5. Attendance
  6. College information
  7. Course information
  8. Latest happenings

• If we click on Student link
  1. Admission details
  2. Course information
  3. Academic details

• If we click on Employee Link

1. Personal information
2. Course responsibilities
3. Academic details

• If we click on Attendance link
  1. A screen with two options, student lists or employee lists with present or absent status appears.
• If we click on the library link

1. Books Available for Issue
2. New books to add
3. Status of books
4. Return books with fine (if any)

• If we click on college link
  1. Just shows the college details

• If we click on course information

1. Course details
2. Subject details

• Latest happenings
  1. Calendar
  2. Timetable
  3. Holidays
  4. Notice
  5. News and announcements
• Other pages

Web page: A home page with the following links

1. About us
2. Courses
3. Admissions
4. List of students
5. Staff
6. Contact us
7. Library
8. Administrator