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International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 11, Number 20 (2016) pp. 10247-10251
© Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com
10247
USM Internship and Career Portal
Muhamad Amirul Bin Mat Hussain
School of Computer Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), 11800, Penang, Malaysia.
Ahmad Suhaimi Baharudin
School of Computer Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), 11800, Penang, Malaysia.
Kamal Karkonasasi
School of Computer Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), 11800, Penang, Malaysia.
(corresponding author)
Abstract
The use of the information technology in the people’s lives is
rapidly becoming more important every day. The development
and use of the web page or portal is also part of this information
technology and becoming more popular among people because
it makes easier for people to access the information and services
all over the world. Therefore, this paper will discuss the details
about the development of the USM Internship and Career
Portal. This portal is developed in order to overcome the
problem and limitation that arise when using the manual
system. The current system which is not efficient and effective
in the workflow is no longer reliable to use now. The proposed
system is divided into seven modules which is Profile module,
Internship module, Career module, Forum module, Evaluation
module, Report module, and Logbook module.
Keyword: Profile module, logbook module, report module,
evaluation module, career, intership portal
INTRODUCTION
A portal is a web page that provides functions and features that
is easy and user-friendly for users to access the information and
services. Moreover, it is a corporation of client side and server
side network technology [1]. As the era of Internet
communication is becoming more advanced, web and portal
development has been used rapidly nowadays either for the
government agency, Business Company, universities or school
and even personal individual. This transformation leads to easier
and effective life for various people. Therefore, the idea to
develop this USM Internship and Career Portal had appeared.
Until now, most of the school or faculty at USM still uses the
manual system for the process of sending their student for the
internship course. Consequently, by using this manual system,
there are some problems that arise. For instance, Students need
to find and arrange themselves the place for their internship.
Besides the students, the lecturer also faces some problem such
as difficulty for them to monitor the internship activities that
their students doing during the internship period. Through this
proposed portal, the students can search the company that
provides the place for internship and can contact with them in a
convenient way. Besides, the students and lecturer can use it as
a communication medium between them to discuss anything
related to the internship.
This USM Internship and Career portal involve four types of
different users; there are admin, student, lecturer and the
company. Each of the user has different availability to access
the module in this portal. Generally, the admin will control the
system, adding the student, lecturer and company as the
member, by giving them their id number and default password.
The student can access and use most of the modules in this
portal. On the other hand, the lecturer and company can only
access some of the module that are required for them. The
process development of this portal is using PHP for the main
language, mySQL for the database, adobe Dreamweaver CS3 as
the platform, and other tools.
Background of Problem
The current system which is complicated and inefficient leads
to the development of this system. Based on the recent
conditions, there are many drawbacks for using the old type of
system. The students are obliged to find the company that they
want to do their internship themselves. The students are still
using the manual logbook to write their activities during the
internship. Another problem is the feedback from the company
may be delayed because the conformation of the internship is
made by letter. For lecturers, the problem is the difficulty to
monitor the activities of internship students.
Types of Techniques Used
There are various types of techniques that can be used in
designing a portal. The first technique is the traditional
structured method which is data-flow diagram technique. Next
is contemporary technique which is a use-case diagram
technique. The third technique is technique drawn from actual
use, which is storyboarding technique. The other techniques are
class diagram technique, entity relationship diagram, system
sequence diagram and state transition diagram [2].
System Architecture of the portal
The system architecture that involves in the Figure 1 shows the
high level of the system architecture for USM Internship and
Career Portal. The portal consists of five components: a user
type, a web based application, a central database and web
service and a web administration site. Different types of user
will be using this portal like admin, students, lecturers and
company. This portal is developed as a web based application
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 11, Number 20 (2016) pp. 10247-10251
© Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com
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which can be deployed in the same server as the database. This
feature will allow the portal to be made available from any
machine through the browser.
Figure 1: System Architecture of the portal
SYSTEM COMPONENTS
The profile module is the important and the basic part of this
internship portal. It was divided into three categories which are
the student profile, the lecturer profile and the company profile.
Each of them needs to fill in their profile information in this
portal. After they finish filling in the profile information, their
information can be accessed by other authorized users.
A. Logbook Module
This module is also part of the internship portal and it is
developed to replace the manual logbook in the current system.
This module is only used by the student. In the recent system,
the students who undergo the internship must write their daily
activities during the internship period in the manual logbook.
However, this logbook only needs to be send to the lecturer that
was assigned as the supervisor at the end of the internship
period. That means after the students have finished their
internship, the logbook will be checked and examined by the
lecturer. It was obviously not efficient because the lecturers
have no idea what their students are doing during the internship.
Because of that, by having this online logbook in this portal, the
lecturer can monitor the daily activities that are being done by
their students and can take a proper action if the tasks that are
given to the student are not suitable.
B. Report Module
In the current system, this module basically refers to the written
report that needed to be done by the student at the end of their
internship. In this report, they must explain the overall tasks or
works that have been done during their internship period, and
then this report must be sent to the lecturer at the school.
However, there is a drawback that arises regarding to this
matter. The flaw is for the student who are undergoing the
internship at the place that far away from school. As a result,
they need to send the report by using the postal delivery. This
method is not efficient because it will cost the student for the
delivery fees and besides, the student also is bearing the cost for
printing the report. Thus, in order to overcome this drawback,
this report module was developed in this portal. By using this
module, the student can send their report to the lecturer without
necessity to print their reports and pay for the delivery post.
They just need to upload their report into this portal, and then
the lecturer will receive it immediately.
C. Evaluation Module
Basically, the evaluation module is responsible for giving the
mark to the students during their internship training. The
lecturer can quickly and easily give the marking without
necessity to use an evaluation paper based. This module can be
viewed by students and lecturers itself. But, only the lecturer can
manage and marking in the evaluation module. The objective of
this module is to provide an easy access for lecturer for giving
the evaluation marks for the student’s internship training.
A. Career Module
The advancement of networking technologies allow people to
find a vacancy jobs online without having to search using the
newspaper. The web nowadays is not only a medium to spread
information, but also a place for people to find jobs online. By
using the career section, students that already graduated can find
their jobs in this portal. Career is the place for graduated students
to search for jobs or any vacancy that is posted by the company.
Therefore, this portal may be much more focused on the needs
of that user population. Therefore, it can meet better their users’
needs.
B. Forum Module
A forum can be used for messaging, posting announcements and
news, and providing discussion platform. The users of the forum
are able to communicate with each other. In this portal, students
and lecturers can discuss with each other to make the
appointment, to post documents and announcements. Each
sending and replying messages will be delivered to registered
users.
C. Internship Module
The internet nowadays can spread information and news fast
around the world. The Internet can also help those students who
are searching for internship. As a result, the students do not need
to search in newspapers and advertiser to find an internship. The
internship module can help them for this matter. This module
will provide the information about companies that offer an
internship for students. Moreover, the offer letter from
companies can be sent thru online. Consequently, it will provide
cost savings and time savings for companies and students.
TECHNIQUES OVERVIEW
A. Data Flow Diagram (DFD)
Data Flow Diagram (DFD) is frequently used in structured
analysis phase as it provides a clear representation of any system
[3]. DFD is an important technique in system development.
DFD allows developers to show the system’s flow [4].
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 11, Number 20 (2016) pp. 10247-10251
© Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com
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Figure 2: Data Flow Diagram (DFD)
As shown in Figure 2, there are four symbols used to represent
system requirements, which are external agents, data flows, data
stores and processes [5]. In Figure 2, the symbol used to
represent an external agent is oval that contains a unique
identifier. The external agent acts as a source for data flow.
Process are shown by rectangle symbol which is the
transformation of data in the system. Data flow shows the flow
of information from its source to destination which represented
by arrows. Data stored act as a database to store information for
the system. The advantage of using DFD is that in terms of its
strong understandability. The other advantage is its better ability
to computerization. Nevertheless, there is lack of abstract
mechanism by using DFD [6].
B. Use Case Diagram
Unified Modeling Language (UML) uses case diagram which is
a visual tool that shows the various user roles and how those
roles use the system [5], [8]. Use case gives overview of
requirements within a system. Use case is user friendly that
helps to captures users need. The other advantage is that the use
case is good at describing the static structural system [6].
Figure 3: Use Case Diagram
As shown in Figure 3, actors that represented by a stick figure
acts with different roles towards the system. Use case that
represents with the ellipse symbol acts as an activity the actors
can do within the system. The line connecting the actors and use
case plays its roles as a relationship between the actors and its
role within the system.
C. Storyboarding
The storyboard is images that are presented in a series of
sequence to help visualize the portal interactivity. Storyboarding
helps to visualize the overall system. It can start by sketching
the main page and put elements that can attract people to go
through the whole system. Simplicity and user friendly of the
system is important. Storyboard acts as the blueprint to the
system. Storyboard helps to visualize the first draft of the
content of the system’s layout. A Storyboard begins with the
main layout, which is the main navigation. Each of navigation
sub menu should be visible on each page to make it easier for
users to use. The advantage of using storyboard is that it allows
the designer to review the overall system. The disadvantage of
storyboarding is that it is time consuming.
D. Class Diagrams
The class diagram is a graphical model used in the object-
oriented approach to show classes of objects in the system [5].
For each class, there might be more specialized subclasses. For
instance, making complaints and votes for complaints are types
of menus under class complaints. A class diagram is helpful for
modeling and understanding the system. The class diagram
illustrates the static structure of a software system.
Figure 4: Example of Class Diagram
As shown in the Figure 4, class diagram consists of 3 parts, the
upper part consists of the class name, and the middle part
consists of each class’s attributes, while the lower part consists
of operations in each class.
E. System Sequence Diagram (SSD)
System sequence diagram (SSD) is a type of interaction
diagram. SSD is sorted by time and is used to check logic
process [5]. SSD is normally related to use case to help
document the details of a single use case or scenario within a
use case [6]. The purpose of SSD is to visualize the use case
diagram.
Figure 5: Example of System Sequence Diagram
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 11, Number 20 (2016) pp. 10247-10251
© Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com
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F. Statechart Diagram
A state chart diagram can be seen as a graph of states connected
by transitions labels. It can be simple or complex. A state chart
diagram can be used to specify behavior of entities such as
collaborations [7]. The actions of a state cannot be interrupted.
State chart diagram notation consists of rounded rectangle
which represents the states, vertical section for the name, and
lastly transitions. State chart diagram can define a state
machine to model the states of an object.
IMPLEMENTATION OF SELECTED TECHNIQUES
Based on the several techniques that have discussed earlier,
some of them have been implemented in the systematic
development of this internship portal, such as class diagrams,
state chart diagrams, use case diagrams and system sequence
diagrams.
Figure 6 represents the implementation of the class diagram
technique. This figure shows the class diagrams of the overall
classes of objects that involved in this internship system portal.
Based on this class diagram, four tables involved in the profile
module that are admin, student, lecturer and company. Before
the student, lecturer and company need to access to this portal.
Therefore, the admin will assign each of them their
identification number and default password. After that, they
can access to the portal by using that information.
Figure 6: Overall Domain Class Diagram for Internship Portal
Figure 7 and 8 shows the state chart diagrams for the student or
lecturer profile module and the logbook module. Figure 7
shows the transition state of the student login, add, display and
update profile details. The process begins when the student or
lecturer get their account info from admin. Then, they can login
to the portal and add their profile details and display it after
finishing the form. They can also update their profile. For the
figure 8, it shows the transition state of the logbook module.
The students creates the logbook, then they can add the details
and can update it constantly.
Figure 7: State chart Diagram for Student/lecture Profile
Figure 8: State chart Diagram for Logbook Module
Figure 9 represents the use case diagram for the profile module.
Based on this figure, the profile modules consist of the four main
actors which are admin, student, lecturer and the company. Each
of them has different privileges. User admin creates the account
for the student, lecturer and the company. The student, lecturer
and company can add, edit and view their own profile. The line
that connects the actors and the use case shows the relationship
between the users and the provided functions for them.
Figure 9: Use Case for Profile Module
Figure 10 shows the implementation of the system sequence
technique for the student or lecturer profile module. The figure
shows the interaction that happens between the student or
lecturer as the actors and the system. The full line indicates the
input message that come from the student or lecturer that is sent
to the system. On the other hand, the ShowMsg() that are shown
in the half line, indicates the output message from the system.
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 11, Number 20 (2016) pp. 10247-10251
© Research India Publications. http://www.ripublication.com
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Figure 10: System Sequence for Student/Lecturer Profile
CONCLUSION
As discussed earlier, web development such as portal has been
widely used because of its easiness to interact with. The
proposed internship portal is suitable for the student to be able
to search the information regarding their internship. It is also
efficient for the lecturer to monitor the activities that have been
done by their students during the internship period. Besides, it
helps companies to offer the student the place for the internship.
Techniques chosen in developing a portal are a very important
aspect that should be taken into account by developers. The
right techniques make developing the portal easier. Moreover,
it helps the users to use the system effectively. In choosing
techniques for the system development, advantages and
disadvantages of each available technique should be taken into
account. The techniques used should be flexible and
understandable by any other developer that will later continue
the development of the system.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Universiti Sains Malaysia
(USM) as this research has been supported from the Research
University Grant (RUI) [Account Number:
1001/PKOMP/811251] and from the Short Term Research
Grant [Account Number: 304/PKOMP/6312103] from the
Universiti Sains Malaysia.
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