Event Management System for

Conference & Workshop

H.S.G.A. Weerakoon
2018
 Event Management System for
Conference & Workshop

A dissertation submitted for the Degree of Master of

Information Technology

H.S.G.A. Weerakoon
University of Colombo School of Computing
2018
Declaration

The thesis is my original work and has not been submitted previously for a degree at this or any
other university/institute.

To the best of my knowledge it does not contain any material published or written by another
person, except as acknowledged in the text.

Student Name: H.S.G.A. Weerakoon

Registration Number: 2014/MIT/067

Index Number: 14550672

_____________________

Signature: Date:

This is to certify that this thesis is based on the work of

Ms. H.S.G.A. Weerakoon

under my supervision. The thesis has been prepared according to the format stipulated and is of
acceptable standard.

Certified by:

Supervisor Name: Dr. Enosha Hettiarachchi

_____________________

Signature: Date:

i
Abstract

Academic conferences are consists of event handling such as publish conference details on the
website, call for papers, submission of papers by authors, review process, the registration
process of authors and participants. Many academic conferences are held annually and the
organizing process is very time consuming and full of paperwork. When the number of
participants is high, it is very hard to handle the conference without any proper system.
Therefore, easy to use event management system is needed to cater to the need of organizers.

Event management system for conference and workshop is developed to help managing of
professionals, academic and technical conferences and events. The aim of this system is to
develop a reliable and accurate Event Management System for Conference and Workshop.
Main objective of the developed system is to automate the manual event handling process.
Unlikely manual handle conference, using a system provides lots of benefits. Benefits of the
system reduce the cost for the advertising, minimize the paperwork, improve efficiency and
effectiveness, less of human errors, and save time.

The implemented system consists of many features, which include publishing event details on
the website, authors can submit abstracts and full papers through the system, assign reviewers
to review the papers, send review papers to authors to do the modifications, send email
notifications to reviewers and authors, scheduling the event, event registration can be done by
online payments. This web-based application is easy to handle and automates the process of the
events one after the other.

To evaluate the final system better evaluation techniques required. The automated system is
tested by using several testing methods such as unit test, integration test, system test, and
acceptance test. Questionnaire is also provided to get the feedback of the system users.

The system is having Apache web server as the server environment, CodeIgniter framework
and MYSQL as the database management system to provide a low-cost effective solution for
the client. The supporting system is developed with PHP, MYSQL, Ajax and Java script
libraries.

The entire application could be run on any platform. Apart from the implementation, the
development practice included a proper Quality Assurance process, user manuals and
demonstration to improve the remunerations of the system.

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Acknowledgment

It is my great pleasure to express my affectionate and deep gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Enosha
Hettiarachchi Senior lecturer of UCSC, for supervising me and providing the useful advices,
suggestions, and engagement throughout the learning and development of the system. This
dissertation would not have been possible without her guidance, comments and constant
inspiration.

At last not least, I would like to express my gratitude to all my lecturers at UCSC, my family,
friends and colleagues for great help and guided to complete this project.

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Table of Contents
Declaration................................................................................................................................... i

Abstract .......................................................................................................................................ii

Acknowledgment .......................................................................................................................iii

List of Tables ............................................................................................................................ vii

Chapter 1 : Introduction ........................................................................................................ 1

1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1

1.2 Problem Domain and Motivation................................................................................. 2

1.3 Aims and Objectives .................................................................................................... 3

1.4 Scope ............................................................................................................................ 4

1.5 Dissertation Outline ..................................................................................................... 4

Chapter 2 : Background......................................................................................................... 6

2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 6

2.2 Requirement Analysis .................................................................................................. 6

2.3 Review of present similar systems ............................................................................... 6

2.4 Summary ...................................................................................................................... 8

Chapter 3 : Analysis .............................................................................................................. 9

3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 9

3.2 Requirements Gathering .............................................................................................. 9

3.2.1 Interviews ............................................................................................................. 9

3.2.2 Observations ....................................................................................................... 10

3.2.3 Questionnaires .................................................................................................... 10

3.3 Requirement Analysis ................................................................................................ 10

3.4 Requirements for the new system .............................................................................. 10

3.4.1 Functional Requirements .................................................................................... 11

3.4.2 Non-Functional Requirements ............................................................................ 12

3.4.3 Hardware and Software Requirements ............................................................... 13

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Chapter 4 : Design .............................................................................................................. 14

4.1 Entity Relationship Diagram (ER Diagram) .............................................................. 14

4.2 Use Case Diagram...................................................................................................... 15

4.2.1 Use Case Narratives............................................................................................ 16

4.3 Activity Diagram for Abstract Selection Process ...................................................... 18

4.4 Sequence diagram for abstract submission and registration process ......................... 19

4.5 Sequence diagram for super admin’s process ............................................................ 20

4.6 Sequence diagrams for event plan process ................................................................ 20

Chapter 5 : Implementation ................................................................................................. 21

5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 21

5.2 Technology Aspects ................................................................................................... 21

5.3 Hardware and Software Configurations..................................................................... 22

5.3.1 Development Environment ................................................................................. 22

5.3.2 Server Environment ............................................................................................ 22

5.3.3 Client Environment............................................................................................. 23

5.4 System Overview ....................................................................................................... 23

5.4.1 Login page .......................................................................................................... 23

5.4.2 Add new conference ........................................................................................... 24

5.4.3 View Conference Details .................................................................................... 24

5.4.4 Add users to the system ...................................................................................... 25

5.4.5 View users .......................................................................................................... 25

5.4.6 Abstract submission form ................................................................................... 26

Chapter 6 : User Evaluation and Testing Plan .................................................................... 27

6.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 27

6.2 Unit Testing ............................................................................................................... 27

6.3 System Testing ........................................................................................................... 27

6.4 Regression Testing ..................................................................................................... 28

6.5 Acceptance Testing .................................................................................................... 28

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 6.6 Test Automation Tools .............................................................................................. 28

6.7 Test Plan..................................................................................................................... 28

6.7.1 User Registration and Login functions ............................................................... 28

6.7.2 Submit Abstract Paper ........................................................................................ 29

6.7.3 Add Conference/Workshop Details .................................................................... 29

6.7.4 Add & Assign Reviewer ..................................................................................... 30

6.8 User Evaluation .......................................................................................................... 31

6.8.1 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 33

Chapter 7 : Conclusion and Future Work............................................................................ 34

7.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 34

7.2 Lesson Learned .......................................................................................................... 34

7.3 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 34

7.4 Future Work ............................................................................................................... 35

References ................................................................................................................................ 36

Appendix A : System Documentation ..................................................................................... 37

Appendix B : User Documentation .......................................................................................... 39

Appendix C : Questionnaire ..................................................................................................... 45

Appendix D : User Evaluation.................................................................................................. 48

Appendix E : Database Design ................................................................................................ 51

vi
List of Tables

Table 2.1: Comparison of Proposed System and Existing Systems ........................................... 8

Table 3.1: Development Side Requirements ............................................................................ 13
Table 3.2 : Implementation Side Requirement ......................................................................... 13
Table 4.1: Use case description for create event ...................................................................... 16
Table 4.2: Use case description for paper submission.............................................................. 16
Table 4.3: Use case description for registration ....................................................................... 17
Table 4.4: Use case description for paper review process ........................................................ 17
Table 6.1: User Registration and Login functions .................................................................... 29
Table 6.2: Submit Abstract Form ............................................................................................. 29
Table 6.3:Add conference/event details ................................................................................... 29
Table 6.4: Add & Assign reviewer ........................................................................................... 30
Table D.1 User Feedback ......................................................................................................... 48

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List of Figures

Figure 4.1:ER Diagram............................................................................................................. 14

Figure 4.2: Use case Diagram................................................................................................... 15
Figure 4.3: Activity Diagram.................................................................................................... 18
Figure 4.4: Sequence diagram for Conference ......................................................................... 19
Figure 4.5: Sequence diagram for super admin ........................................................................ 20
Figure 4.6 : Sequence Diagram for Event Plan Process ........................................................... 20
Figure 5.1 : User Login............................................................................................................. 23
Figure 6.1: User Evaluation Form ............................................................................................ 32
Figure 6.2: User satisfaction for the system ............................................................................. 32
Figure B 1: User Login………………………………………………………………………..39
Figure B 2: Error Message for incorrect password and user name .......................................... 39
Figure B 3: Dashboard .............................................................................................................. 40
Figure B 4: User Registration ................................................................................................... 40
Figure B 5: Create Conference ................................................................................................. 41
Figure B 6: Abstract submission .............................................................................................. 41
Figure B 7: Reviewer registration form .................................................................................... 42
Figure B 8: Assign Reviewer.................................................................................................... 42
Figure B 9: Conference registration form................................................................................. 43
Figure B 10: Report of Registered Participants ........................................................................ 44
Figure D 1: Question 1………………………………………………………………………..48
Figure D 2: Question 2 ............................................................................................................. 48
Figure D 3: Question 3 ............................................................................................................. 49
Figure D 4: Question 4 ............................................................................................................. 49
Figure D 5: Question 5 ............................................................................................................. 49
Figure D 6: Question 6 ............................................................................................................. 50
Figure D 7: Question 7 ............................................................................................................. 50
Figure E 1: Database Design .................................................................................................... 51

viii
List of Abbreviations

DB - Database
CI - CodeIgniter
CSS - Cascading Style Sheet
EMSCW - Event Management System for Conference & Workshop
ER Diagram - Entity Relationship Diagram
HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language
IE - Internet Explorer
JS - JavaScript
MVC - Model View Controller
My SQL - My Structured Query Language
PHP - Hypertext Pre-Processor
RAM - Random Access Memory
SDLC - Software Development Life Cycle
UML - Unified Modeling Language
URL - Uniform Resource Locator
WWW - World Wide Web
XAMPP - Cross Platform, Apache, MariaDB, PHP, and Perl

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Chapter 1 : Introduction

1.1 Introduction

In today’s world lot of events are conducting, such as workshops, conferences and concerts.
There's no doubt that most organizations are spending their valuable time and funds to find the
right strategies. However, there are systems that focus on managing events; and also challenges
in fulfilling the interaction between authors, reviewers, and organizers. Some systems are very
expensive.
Many academic conferences are held annually and the organizing process is very time
consuming and full of paperwork. When the number of participants is high, it is very hard to
handle the conference without any proper system. To overcome this problem proper event
management system is needed.
The developed system is a web-based Event Management System for Conferences and
Workshops (EMSCW). Organizers, participants, authors and many more roles are involved in
a conference. Features of the developed system are mentioned as follows: Event organizers can
log in to the system and they can publish their event details. Authors can register to the system
to submit their research papers, Editor select the registered reviewers according to their subject
areas. Email send to reviewer asking are they willing to review this paper. If they say yes, editor
send the paper without revealing authors’ identification. If the reviewer is not willing to review
the paper they can nominate another reviewer or editor assign new reviewer through the system.
According to the reviewer's feedback of the paper, author can do the modifications. Author get
updates of the submitted paper’s status. Accepted authors will be informed to register for the
conference via the system. Selected authors can register and make the payments for the
conference. Payments can be done by the system via pay pal. After the registration, registered
participants will get an email reminder about event dates, venue, location map and vehicle pass.
Organizers can get various reports and data backups.
Advantages of the implemented system reduce the cost for the advertising, minimize the
paperwork, improve efficiency and effectiveness, less of human errors, and less of human
resource.
Using the system organizers can successfully complete the conference process from the initial
scoping and planning phase through to the post-event analysis in a small time period. This
system manages the event timeline and critical path to help ensure that no task is missed.

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1.2 Problem Domain and Motivation

Event Management involves planning, organizing, and execution of live events. Among that
handling conferences and workshops are crucial. Small mistake leads to entire event failure.
Manually managing a conference or workshop is a very time consuming, full of paperwork and
complicated process. It requires human resources and paperwork to a great extent. Sometimes
events’ venues and schedules are overlapping. Advertising for the event, printing brochures,
and printing posters also consume a lot of time and money. Most of the time, after the
conference, printed materials are thrown away and this leads to wastage of papers.
Papers submitted by email might not reach the conference organizers before the deadline or
organizer might miss viewing the received emails. The reviewer does not get the papers on time
to review. Reviewed papers with comments might not be resent. Selected authors might not be
informed properly on time. They might miss to do the modification and send the modified
papers on time. There are no any notifications to register for the conference. Venus might not
be able to accommodate all participants. Proceedings, bags, programme books, and abstract
books not be printed on time.
Events could end up with a failure due to poor scheduling, planning, poor means of
communication, and ineffective resource allocation. Deep diving into the problem, the most
predominant factor which leads towards to all these problems is events being manually
managed without a proper system.
Some organizations use word processing applications and spreadsheet applications to maintain
author lists and schedules. These applications are not flexible enough to store all types of data.
Most of the calendars and planner applications available today only display a schedule which a
user would’ve manually planned. There are systems to manage events but available systems do
not have all features as one system. In that case, the client should have to purchase some of the
features separately. To overcome these problems, an Event Management System for
Conference and Workshop will be of help.

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1.3 Aims and Objectives

The aim of this proposed system is to develop a reliable and accurate Event Management
System for Conference and Workshop by getting all the resources into a single place (event
registration, event scheduling, notification, reporting, admin functionalities, and payments).

The most crucial objective of the system is to automate the manual event handling process.
Using automated system authors can submit papers via the system and reviewers can give
comments on time. Unlike manual process there is no any paper misplaced and paper wastage.
Manage attendees (including online registrations), online paper submissions, send notifications
about full event and schedule participant details on the simple web interface. Without using any
word processing or spreadsheet applications, system deliver the information based on
requirement using a web browser. The system helps to minimize the failure of
miscommunication and information gaps. This System enhances the sense of collaboration
towards an end goal, with everyone understanding what needs to be done for a successful event.

Sub objectives of the system are:

 Providing access to schedule anytime and anywhere by syncing the day's schedule with
a central server.
 Providing a web interface accessible from anywhere.
 Providing easy to use and user friendly interactive web interfaces to event organizer &
event participants.
 Providing a web interface accessible from anywhere, sharing documentation.
 Online paper submission.
 Generate various reports.
 No need to print brochures, posters, or any other paper related materials. Therefore
system will help to conduct eco-friendly events.
 Providing security by adding a user account with different privilege and regular data
backup.
 System help to make an event more productive, less paperwork, efficient & cost-
effective by bringing together with one centralized, accurate information source updated
in real time.

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1.4 Scope

Event management system for conference and workshop consist of two major modules,
conference management process and workshop management process.
In workshop management process organizer can insert, update and delete workshop details
(venue, schedule, brochures, and registration fee), handle payments, and generate reports.
In conference management process organizer can create, update and edit conference details,
authors can submit papers through the system, editors send an email notification to the reviewer
to inform review new papers, reviewer submits comments of the reviewed paper. Author needs
to register to the system before submit the research paper and the login details will be informed
by email notification. Authors and participants can register and make the payments for the
conference. Payments can be done by the system via pay pal. After the registration email
notification sends to the participants with the event details and vehicle pass to avoid parking
problems. Password recovery facility also available in this system. When the user forgot
password of the user login, security code will send to the user’s email address and they can
reset the password. Organizers will be able to generate reports (weekly, monthly or annually),
view reports and print reports. Reports can be facilitated as in pdf and excel. The system
provides database backup facility. Handling a database helps to keep all the record easy
accessible and centralized.

1.5 Dissertation Outline

This dissertation is arranged as follows.

Chapter 1-Introduction
This chapter discusses why the Event Management system is needed. The problem of the
current system, scope, and objective of the system and how to overcome those problems with
the new system.

Chapter 2-Background
This chapter studies background of the system, crucial review of available existing systems and
technologies and related applications.

Chapter 3-Analysis
This chapter explains the requirement gathering techniques that have been used to identify the
requirement of the system. Functional and nonfunctional requirements need to do this project.

4
Chapter 4-Design
Provide a description of ER diagram, UML diagrams and the methodological approach that are
applied in the program designing.

Chapter 5-Implementation
During the Implementation phase, it describes the development are of the system. This deals
with the coding and implementation tools and techniques to develop the entire system.

Chapter 6-Evaluation
The built system is tested by using sample data and its result will be discussed. Actual data from
the client’s environment is used. The chapter also includes aspects such as test plan, test cases,
use of test automation tools and testing frameworks.

Chapter 7-Conclusion
This chapter summarizes the work; discusses its findings and contributions; points out
limitations of the current work and further implementation.

5
Chapter 2 : Background

2.1 Introduction

The background analysis will primarily focus on various systems which are already available,
followed by an evaluation of those solutions to find if there is already a suitable and applicable
solution. Events could end up with a failure due to cost overruns, poor scheduling & planning,
poor means of communication and ineffective resource allocation. Deep diving into the
problem, the most predominant factor which leads towards to all these problems is events being
manually managed without a proper system. There are some systems which help to manage
events.

2.2 Requirement Analysis

Requirements analysis, also called requirements engineering, is the process of determining user
expectations for a new or modified product. These features, called requirements, must be
quantifiable, relevant and detailed. Analysis is primarily aimed at requirement gathering, fact
finding and identifying the functional and non-functional requirements in the system. In
addition analysis of available event management systems is discussed.
Frequent communication with system users to determine specific features is involved in
requirements analysis. Therefore, conflict or ambiguity in requirements can be clarified. If
failed in analyze the requirements carefully, the entire project will end up in failure, in theory
it will contradict to the real requirements. Therefore, understanding what absolute requirement
is vital. Requirement analysis is the most important stage in a Software Development Life
Cycle. Upon completion of the analysis phase, the system can proceed to the design phase.

2.3 Review of present similar systems

 EasyChair [1]
EasyChair is a conference management system designed to help conference organizers to cope
with the paper submission and review only. Some of the features of EasyChair are noted below.
The organizer can be managing and monitoring the programme committee. Sophisticated and
flexible management of the access of programme committee members and referees to papers
and conflicts of interests. Authors can submit their papers online. Paper assignment based on
the preferences of programme committee members. List of the latest events is published on the
system. After the paper submitted by the author papers send to reviewers to review.
6
Sending information to programme committee members referees and authors done via emails.
After getting comments by the reviewers, authors can respond to the reviews.
Easychair is mainly focused on conference paper submission to review process only. It does
not cover up the managing the event. EasyChair is not open source and costly product for small
organizations to use.

 Open Conference Systems [2]

Open Conference Systems (OCS) is a free Web publishing tool that will create a complete Web
presence for the conference. This system allows to compose and send papers, call for papers,
electronically accept paper and abstract submissions, allow paper submitters to edit their work,
post conference proceedings and papers in a searchable format, according to user’s willingness
original data sets can post, register participants and integrate post-conference online
discussions.
This system also focused on conference papers submission and review tasks only. They do not
discuss how to manage the entire conference.

 Eventforce [3]
The Eventsforce abstract system is web-based software which addresses planning, marketing,
and registration to post-event analysis and event data management. This system is not open
source product this is a commercially available product. Features of the system: Custom
websites and email templates, Request for abstracts/papers, Manage abstract submissions,
Manage review processes, Build sessions and agendas, Export content for publishing and
Manage registrations.

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2.4 Summary

This section describes specific features of the above mentioned similar systems and comparison
of those features in a tabular format. Also below table 2.1 shows what are the features
introduced in the proposed system.

Features EasyChair Open Event force Proposed

Conference System
System
1. Provide event’s location No No Yes Yes
map
2. Select Food and No No Yes, but have Yes
beverage for the to purchase
participants this module.
3. Registration can be No No No Yes
done via social media
4. Send greeting cards No No No Yes
5. Issue vehicle pass No No No Yes
6. Open source No Yes No Yes

Table 2.1: Comparison of Proposed System and Existing Systems

According to Table 2.1, existing systems do not offer the above mentioned features in their
systems. There are no open source systems which provide all the requested features, therefore,
proposed system should be developed to full fill the requirements. The proposed system
combined all these features together to satisfy user requirements. Therefore, users can get
maximum benefits.

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Chapter 3 : Analysis

3.1 Introduction

The analysis is focused on requirement gathering, fact finding and identifying the functional
and non-functional requirements and requirements specification of the system. After completing
the analysis stage, the system can proceed to the design stage. In the design stage software
architecture design and Entity Relationship diagrams, UML diagrams are drawn.

3.2 Requirements Gathering

Requirement gathering or requirement eliciting is a challenging task, it is the process of

identifying the needs and conditions of any sort of system. To make requirement gathering
phase successful it is very important to gather all type of data. The success of any project is
depended upon the accuracy of available data. If failed to analyze the requirement, incorrectly
analyzed requirements leads the entire project failure. Therefore, it is very important to identify
and gather requirements correctly. There are many facts gathering techniques available for
analysis, such as Sampling, Questioners, Interviews, Background Reading, and Observations.

3.2.1 Interviews

This is one of the best methods to collect accurate information from stakeholders and system
users. Interviews can be used to collect the information from groups or individuals. This method
also helps gap the areas of misunderstandings and help to discuss the future problems.
Interviews can be carried out in two ways.
Structure interview is a formal interview with the fixed questions and unstructured interviews
is more or less like a casual conversation wherein depths areas topics are covered and apart
from the topic other information also discussed.
I used both structured and unstructured interview methods to gather information. Also
interviewed the main stakeholders such as chairperson, secretary, authors, and editors of the
previous conferences and get their feedback. (Interview questionnaire is attached in Appendix
C.1)

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3.2.2 Observations

Observed the reputed university which is manually handling the conference management
process. They have published their event details on conference website and paper submissions
are done via email. After paper submission, all processes are done by the conference committee.
There are online event management systems on the internet. Observed the demo version of that
system to understand the functionalities and behaviors of that system.

3.2.3 Questionnaires

Prepared the questionnaires according to the problems occurs when doing the sampling and
observations. Also prepared general questions regarding the conference and event management
process.
Provide questionnaires to the people who involved with event management and conference
management in reputed institutes and university. Questionnaire design for several categories of
users based on their contribution to the event management process. (Questionnaire is attached in
Appendix C.2)

3.3 Requirement Analysis

Requirement analysis plays a significant role in a software development process. Analysis can
be done by using functional and nonfunctional requirement. Gathered requirements need to be
analyzed properly. Avoidance of scope creep, erroneous and ambiguous requirement can create
chaos later, therefore, it is very important to have frequent communication with the system
users.

The requirements can be defined clearly to ensure the design and implementation successful,
system requirement should be analyzed and defined clearly. Different kinds of techniques are
being used to do the analyzing to find a solution.

3.4 Requirements for the new system

Requirements for the new system was gathered using interviews, observations, and
questionnaire. Based on that gathered and analyzed requirement can be divided into functional
requirements and nonfunctional requirements.

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3.4.1 Functional Requirements

Functional requirement of the organizer

 Create event
 Organizer can add conference and workshop details to the system.
 Organizer can update the event management system website.
 Edit and modify events.
 Add schedules, venues and speaker’s details to the system.
 Maintain authors and reviewers’ user logins.
 Get reports
 Organizer can generate various reports such as participant details, attendant
details.
 Send email when a new participant signs up.
 Organiser can view the participant details, reviewer details and submitted papers.
 Give permission to log in to the system for registered reviewers.
 Forward conference papers to review and get the feedback from the reviewer.
 Send feedback to the authors for further modifications.
 Issue vehicle passes for the event participants.

Functional requirement of administrator

 Get system backups.
 Restore backups to check the reliability of the backup.
 Modify Event Management website.

Functional requirement of authors and reviewers

 Online paper submission.

Authors can submit papers online.
 Author can view the status of the paper.
 Author can view reviewer comments.
 Online registration
Authors and participants can register the system online as well as social media.
 Review the paper send by the organizer and give the comments.
 If reviewer not willing to review the paper, inform that via email.
 Author modify the paper according to the reviewer’s feedback.
11
  Send modified paper to the organizer.
 If author forgot login details of the system, email notification will be send to the author’s
email address to recover the password.

3.4.2 Non-Functional Requirements

Non-functional requirement describes how a system should behave.

 Availability
System should be available and up to date. Availability can be measured by reliability
if the reliability increases availability also increases. If the system is upgrading or
maintaining it should be informed early to the users to minimize the inconvenience.

 Usability
Generally migrating from manual process to computer system are not easy to some
users. Therefore the system should be easy to learn, use, arrange inputs, interpreting
outputs, and understandable to every type of people. Especially people from a different
background such as non IT related people should be easy to learn, easy to understand,
and should be easy to use the developed system.

 User Friendliness
System should design graphically attractive and very clear. Generally, people prefer
graphical beauty than to read the text. System contains images and buttons with very
clear easy to understand language and avoid technical jargons. If the system is not user
friendly users hesitate to use the system.

 Performance
Response time is very important part of the system. When a specific task has requested
by the user, feedback of that request should appear in very fast. User cannot wait a long
time for the system to respond. If the user had to wait a long time to get the responding
user will not happy about the system and they will reject to use the system.

 Security
System should be ensuring that the user’s personal information is confidential. As well
as it should provide secure access to every user, the administrator can control the
activities of users. When the user register to the system admin should give privileges
and give access to the specific users.
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  Reliability
Reliability describes how well the system consistently performs the system functions
without failure. Details included in the system should be accurate and available. System
users should acknowledge if the system failure or downtime occurs.

3.4.3 Hardware and Software Requirements

Minimum Hardware Requirement and software Requirement categories as follows.

1. Development side requirements can be deployed as in table 3.1

2. Implementation side requirements can be deployed as in table 3.2

 Development side requirement

Hardware Requirements Software Requirements
Intel core i3 2.0GHz Processor Apache Web server
4 GB RAM Memory MySQL 5.1
10 GB Free space in Hard Disk PHP
Broadband Internet Connection
Gigabit Ethernet Interface
Table 3.1: Development Side Requirements

 Implementation Side Requirement

Hardware Requirements Software Requirements
Intel 2.0GHz Processor Apache Web server
4 GB RAM Memory MySQL 5.1
40 GB Free space in Hard Disk IE 6+, Mozilla Fire Fox, Google Chrome
Web browser
Broadband Internet Connection
100/1000 Mbps Network interface
Table 3.2 : Implementation Side Requirement

13
Chapter 4 : Design
4.1 Entity Relationship Diagram (ER Diagram)

ER diagram is a graphical representation of entities and their relationship to each other,

typically used in computing regarding the organization of data within database or information
systems. Entity is a piece of data, object or concept which described which data should store.
Relationship is how data is shared between entities. The ER diagram for the system is shown
in figure 4.1

Figure 4.1:ER Diagram

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4.2 Use Case Diagram

In this use case diagram provide brief description about six main actors in the system such as
organizer, editor, reviewer, author, participant, and administrator. Use case diagram for the
system is shown in figure 4.2.

Figure 4.2: Use case Diagram

15
4.2.1 Use Case Narratives

Use case narrative is a textual description of the business event and how the user will interact
with the system to accomplish the task. Use case diagrams for the developed system is shown
in table 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5.

Use Case Set event

Description Organizer set event details on the system
Primary Actor Organizer
Secondary Actor None
Preconditions
1. Log in to the system

Flow of events
2. View calendar
3. Update the system.
4. Call papers for the conference.

Postconditions
None

Table 4.1: Use case description for create event

Use Case Submit paper

Description Author submit paper to the conference
Primary Actor Author
Secondary Actor Editor, Reviewer
Preconditions
1. Look the event website
2. Select the preferred conference

Flow of events
1. Author write the paper
2. Author upload the paper
3. Reviewer send the feedback with minor or major modifications.
4. Author submit the paper with the modification
5. Paper selected for the conference

Postconditions
1. Author register to the conference

Table 4.2: Use case description for paper submission

16
Use Case Registration
Description Register to the event
Primary Actor Author, participant
Secondary Actor None
Preconditions
1. Log in to the system
2. Authors should get approval for their paper

Flow of events
1. Selected authors should register into the system
2. Make the registration payment
Postconditions
1. Get invitation, programme books and other materials

Table 4.3: Use case description for registration

Use Case Paper Review

Description Paper review by the reviewer or review panel
Primary Actor Reviewer
Secondary Actor Editor
Preconditions
1. Log to the system

Flow of events
1. Reviewer download the paper
2. Review the paper and accept with minor modification, major
modification or reject the paper.
3. Reviewer sends the feedback with minor or major modifications by
filling a form to editor.
4. Editor send the paper to author to do the modification

Postconditions
1. Paper selected to the conference

Table 4.4: Use case description for paper review process

17
4.3 Activity Diagram for Abstract Selection Process

Activity diagram for the abstract selection process is shown in figure 4.3

Figure 4.3: Activity Diagram

18
4.4 Sequence diagram for abstract submission and registration process

Sequence diagram for the abstract submission and registration process is shown in figure 4.4

Figure 4.4: Sequence diagram for Conference

19
4.5 Sequence diagram for super admin’s process

Sequence diagram for the super administrator’s process is shown in figure 4.5

Figure 4.5: Sequence diagram for super admin

4.6 Sequence diagrams for event plan process

Sequence diagram for the event plan process is shown in figure 4.6

Figure 4.6 : Sequence Diagram for Event Plan Process

20
Chapter 5 : Implementation

5.1 Introduction

Event Management System for Conference and Workshop is implemented using CodeIgniter;
server-side scripting PHP Framework with help of the XAMPP version 3.2.2, MySQL database
and with many JavaScript libraries. The implemented system can deploy and run on any of
windows or Unix operating systems. There is five main system user roles: Organizer, Editor,
Reviewer, Author, Participant and Administrator. Co-authors and other people who are
interested in this system

Organizer is responsible for creating, update and delete event details, assign editors and
reviewers on to the system. Reviewer views the paper and send comments to the Editor. Editors
send received abstract/full papers to the Reviewers to review and send the feedback to the author
for further modifications. Authors of the selected research papers will call for the conference.

5.2 Technology Aspects

CodeIgniter [4]
CodeIgniter is an Application Development Framework which enables to develop projects. It
provides set of libraries for the commonly needed task. CI based on Model-View-Controller
development pattern.
Model handle database and session information, View handle the user interface (HTML, CSS
style sheets) and Controller handles all the client side scripting.

XAMPP [5]
XAMPP is freely available open source cross-platform web solution package which was
developed by Apache Friends. It contains Apache HTTP Server, MariaDB database, PHP, and
Perl. XAMPP works equally well on Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems. To develop
databases used MySQL which was built in XAMPP bundle.

Bootstrap [6]
System interfaces were developed by using Bootstrap. Bootstrap also is free and open source
toolkit which contains HTML, CSS, and JS. Bootstrap is frontend development library for
designing website and web application. Bootstrap contains HTML and CSS based design

21
templates for forms, buttons, navigation and data grids. This software helps to develop colorful
and responsive graphical user interfaces.

PhpStorm [7]
PhpStorm is commercially available cross-platform IDE for PHP. PhpStorm is used as code
editing software for PHP with syntax highlighting, error checking and code completion.

5.3 Hardware and Software Configurations

5.3.1 Development Environment

Hardware Configuration
 Intel Core i5 Processor
 4GB RAM
 64-Bit Operating System
 250GB Hard Disk Drive
 Monitor 1366 X 768

Software Configuration
 CodeIgniter
 XAMPP (Apache, PHP, MySQL)
 Bootstrap
 PhpStorm, Notepad ++ Text editor
 Adobe Photoshop

5.3.2 Server Environment

Hardware Configuration
 3.0GHz Intel Processor
 4GB RAM
 100GB Free Hard Disk Drive
 Monitor 1366 X 768

Software Configuration
 XAMPP (Apache, PHP, MySQL)
22
5.3.3 Client Environment

 JavaScript enable web browser

 Internet connected computer

5.4 System Overview

Event management system for conference and workshop consist of front end and back end user
interfaces. Front end consists of Event Management website and back end consists of event
management system. In all the event, conference and workshop details are published. The
homepage of the Event Management Website shows the first look of all the newest events and
conference details has posted by Organizers. The main menu lets users to access the main areas
of the site and it also includes event banners, brochures which try to grab user’s attention.

5.4.1 Login page

Organizers and Editors should register to the system before they log in to the system. Username
should be the email address of the user. Through this interface organizers, editors, reviewers
can log in to the system backend by pressing login button. After the login, they can edit and
maintain their own profile in the system. Screenshot of the login page is shown in figure 5.1.

Figure 5.1 : User Login

23
5.4.2 Add new conference

From this window, organizer can add conference details to the system. Screenshot of insert new
conference details are shown in figure 5.2

Figure 5.2: Create conference

5.4.3 View Conference Details

Organizer can edit, delete and update the conference details. Screenshot of View conference
details is shown in figure 5.3

Figure 5.3: View Conference Details

24
5.4.4 Add users to the system

Administrator can add and assign users to the system. Screenshot of user insertion page is
shown in figure 5.4

Figure 5.4: Insert user to the system

5.4.5 View users

From following, interface administrator can view who are the people registered to the system.
Organizer can edit, delete user details. Deletion can be done as individually or bulk. Screenshot
of view user page is shown in figure 5.5

Figure 5.5: View registered users

25
5.4.6 Abstract submission form

Abstract submission details will be published in Event Management Website. User can view
abstract submission guideline and submit the abstract document. Screenshot of abstract
submission form is shown in figure 5.6

Figure 5.6: Abstract submission form

26
Chapter 6 : User Evaluation and Testing Plan

6.1 Introduction

This chapter describes how the system was tested, user interface test, code tests, finding bugs,
and the solution to fix the identified bugs. Further, this chapter describes the test plan and test
process, also the expected output and behavior of the test plan.

To evaluate the final system throughout system development life-cycle, better evaluation
techniques required. System testing used to check whether system functioning appropriately
and to confirm requirements were satisfied or not.

Software testing is a process of executing a program or system for finding errors. It involves
some activity that determining system meets its required results. Software bugs will almost
always exist in any software application.

6.2 Unit Testing

Unit testing is a method by which the source code of the different units is tested to determine if
they are fit for use. When each subsystem were completed, unit testing is done by the developer.
After completion of each module of the system, unit testing was done to each module to identify
the bugs before integrating it as a whole. Unit testing is done while implementing the system.
Eg: Test login module
 Username and password provided to log in to the system.
 Inserted username and password miss matched or wrong username and
password provided error message displayed.

6.3 System Testing

Purpose of system testing is to prove that the software meets the specific user requirements and
works in the target environment. This covers both functional and non-functional requirements.

27
6.4 Regression Testing

After fixed the previously occurred errors new errors can be occurring. Therefore, it is required
to test the repeating a subset of previous tests to ensure that any change has not introduced any
new errors.

6.5 Acceptance Testing

Acceptance testing is a process where system tested for acceptability. The purpose of this test
is to evaluate the system’s compliance with the business requirements and assess whether it is
acceptable for delivery.

6.6 Test Automation Tools

Using automation tools are more important for many software projects. In order to
automatically verify key functionalities, test for regression and provide a large number of test
in a short amount of time. Using automation tools for testing web application is to ensure that
the system doesn’t introduce any bugs and regression. There are open source and commercially
available automation tools. Used Selenium framework to test the system, it is a portable
software testing framework for web applications.

6.7 Test Plan

6.7.1 User Registration and Login functions

User registration process is major processes in this system. All users should enter a valid email
address and can register with the system. Administrators should activate the account using a
token. Various test cases had been used to test the procedure and a generalized test plan is
shown in below 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4 tables.

28
No Test Case Expected Results Success
01 Click submit button without Show error message “Username / Yes
inserting any field. password field cannot be empty!”

02 Insert password value and skip Show error message “Username / Yes
username value and click submit. password field cannot be empty!”
03 Insert username value and skip Show error message “Username / Yes
password value and click submit. password field cannot be empty!”
04 Insert correct username and Show error message “Invalid Yes
incorrect password value and Username or password!”
click submit.
05 Insert incorrect username and Show error message “Invalid Yes
correct password value and click Username or password!”
submit.
06 Try to access user account page Show error message “You are not Yes
without logged in. logged in!”
07 Reviewer should register to the Show error message Yes
system “To review the paper, you should
register”
Table 6.1: User Registration and Login functions

6.7.2 Submit Abstract Paper

No Test Case Expected Results Success

01 Press the submit button without Show error message “all the fields Yes
filling data required”
02 Press the submit button without Show error message “Please upload Yes
uploading the document the document”
03 Same person updates details one Show error message “you have Yes
or more time already submitted your paper”

Table 6.2: Submit Abstract Form

6.7.3 Add Conference/Workshop Details

No Test Case Expected Results Success

01 Add same conference/event details Avoid duplicate entry Yes
one or more time
02 Search conference/ event details Should list the matched conference/ Yes
event details
03 Saved conference/ event details Should list the saved conference/ Yes
event details

Table 6.3:Add conference/event details

29
6.7.4 Add & Assign Reviewer

No Test Case Expected Results Success

01 Add reviewer details one or Avoid duplicate entry Yes
more time

02 Search reviewer details Should list the matched reviewer details Yes
03 Saved conference/ event Should list the saved reviewer details Yes
details
04 Check assign papers to Check how many papers assign to Yes
reviewer reviewer
05 Fill reviewer details correctly Reviewer should enter all the required Yes
details
06 Assign reviewer Assign reviewer according to their Yes
Research area
07 Check registered reviewer Administrator should select and give Yes
permission to access the system to
reviewer

Table 6.4: Add & Assign reviewer

30
6.8 User Evaluation

User acceptance testing (UAT) is the most essential to get right. If the system implemented
correctly it reduces time and cost while increasing customer satisfaction. It is pointless if the
developed system does not perform according to the end user expects.

To test the user acceptance provides facility to use the system for the conference manager,
editor, authors, friends, and people who are interested in the event management system. Then
provide following questionnaire (Figure 6.1) to get their feedback about the developed system.

Event Management System for Conference and Workshop

User Evaluation Form

Name : (Not compulsory)

Designation :

In the Scale of 1 – 5, Please tick the best option for the following questions (5 =Excellent, 4 =
Good, 3=Average, 2=Poor, 1=Very Poor)

1. Do you agree that Developed System would beneficial your Conference/ Event
Management process?

Very Poor Poor Good Very Good Excellent

2. Do you agree that Developed System is user-friendly?

Very Poor Poor Good Very Good Excellent

3. Is there consistency in the theme used on this system?

Very Poor Poor Good Very Good Excellent

4. Has the system satisfied your requirements of office environment?

Very Poor Poor Good Very Good Excellent

5. Do you think this system is better than existing manual approach?

Very Poor Poor Good Very Good Excellent

31
 6. Do you agree that system can help save cost of learning?
Very Poor Poor Good Very Good Excellent

7. Did you encounter any difficulty while using the system?

Very Poor Poor Good Very Good Excellent

8. Kindly recommend any improvement(s) for this system (if applicable).

Figure 6.1: User Evaluation Form

User evaluation shows an overview of how user is satisfied with the system. According to the
above questionnaire each user provided their feedback. The questionnaire has provided to 20
people. From the statistic of the questionnaire following figure 6.2 was created.

User satisfaction of the system

Excellent
poor 8%
2%

average
11%

Good
79%

Good average poor Excellent

Figure 6.2: User satisfaction for the system

32
75% percent of the users said that the developed system is good, 10% of them said that the
system is average and 8% of them said system is excellent. All though 98% of users satisfied
with the developed system, 2% of them were not satisfied with the system. The behind reason
was 2% of them do not like to go for the new system, they are preferred to work on the manual
process.

Analysed answers for each question is attached in Appendix D

6.8.1 Conclusion

As per the user evaluation following strength and weaknesses of the system has identified.

Strengths of the system:

 Easy to access and easy to learn.
 User friendly and user interfaces are very simple.
 Ease of updating event management website.
 Ease of publishing, event and conference details.
 Email notifications.
 Have several filtering methods.
 Ability to bulk deletion.
 Ability to find previous event details.
 Event location can find via the google map.

Weakness of the system:

 Data backup and restore functionality is still not available.
 Social media plugins should be introduced to the system to get more publicity about for
the events.
 Need more reports.

33
Chapter 7 : Conclusion and Future Work

7.1 Introduction

This chapter includes the critical evaluation of the system, description of a lesson learned and
suggestions for the future enhancement.

7.2 Lesson Learned

Gained knowledge and good experience while developing the system. From the requirement
gathering phase to end phase learned everything is helped to develop a successful system.
Applying theory to practice is hard sometimes. Gained good knowledge about how to use new
programming languages (PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript), design patterns, how to use a new
framework (CI), and bootstrap templates for developing user interfaces.

Learned how to write a documentation of the thesis also really important. Therefore, lots of
self-learning was carried out throughout this process.

Managing time according to the project guidelines and given project schedule is really crucial.
With the lack of programming knowledge had to learn new programming techniques within the
given time frame. It was a challenge to complete the system development with this kind of
situation. Therefore, author had to put extra effort into developed system successfully.

7.3 Conclusion

Developed EMSCW system is easy to use user friendly system which any new person can easily
understand. Achieved objectives are:
 Website for publishing conference/event details - client side.
 Website for backend – admin side.
 Authors, reviewers can login using website.
 Authors can submit their research papers.
 Reviewers can submit their comments.
 Admin can generate reports, take backups and restore backups.
 Registered authors get map location for the conference.
 Email notifications.
 Admin can query the database.
34
7.4 Future Work

There are some functions can be introducing to the system to enrich the system functionalities,
such as,
 Module to calculate the budget of the entire event.
 Allocate people to specific tasks via the system.
 Add social media plugins to the system to get more publicity for events.
 Maintain research paper repository for each conference.
 RFID or Barcode system to identify the registered participant.

35
References
[1] "Easy Chair," [Online]. Available: https://www.easychair.org. [Accessed: 10 May 2017]

[2] "Open Conference," [Online]. Available: https://pkp.sfu.ca/ocs. [Accessed: 10 May 2017]

[3] "Event Force," [Online]. Available: http://www.eventsforce.com. [Accessed: 10 May
2017]
[4] "CI," [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CodeIgniter. [Accessed: 18
September 2017]

[5] "XAMPP," [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XAMPP. [Accessed: 18

September 2017]
[6] "BS," [Online]. Available: https://getbootstrap.com. [Accessed: 30 September 2017]
[7] "PHP," [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhpStorm. [Accessed: 30
September 2017]

36
Appendix A : System Documentation

Title : Event Management System for Conference and Workshop

Date : 07.02.2018

Version : 1.0

System : Open source Web Application

This documentation contains technical information to configure the system and support system
administrators, developers or any other person who involve in further system enhancement.

Hardware Configuration
 Intel Core i5 Processor
 4GB RAM
 64-Bit Operating System
 250GB Hard Disk Drive
 Monitor 1366 X 768

Software Configuration
 XAMPP (Apache, PHP, MySQL)
 IE6+ or any other web browser

Configuration

XAMPP is open source freely available software bundle which contains Apache, MySQL, PHP.
Using XAMPP can configure the system locally with web server and database. XAMPP can
install on Windows, Linux or Mac Operating system.

Steps to configure the system

1. Download and install XAMPP software

2. Start the XAMPP server
3. Copy all the project files into XAMPP Server host folder located in C:/xampp/htdocs
4. Go to the web browser and type “localhost/phpmyadmin” and import the database file
to restore database.

37
5. Go to the system folder and edit configuration file.
..ems\application\config\config.php

6. Edit the database connection for the system

..ems\application\config\database.php

'hostname' => 'localhost', Host Name of the Server

'username' => 'root' Database User Name
'password' => '' Database Password
'database' => 'emsdb', Database Name
7. Type following URL on web browser to view the Event Management website
a. http://localhost/ems/index
8. Type following URL on web browser to access the back end of the event management
system
http://localhost/ems/admin/

38
Appendix B : User Documentation
Administrator can log in to the backend of the system and publish event/conference details on
the website.

Figure B 1: User Login

If the username and password wrong error message will appear. If someone forgot their
password they can reset the password using Forgot password button.

Figure B 2: Error Message for incorrect password and username

39
Dashboard of the system. After insert username and password user directed to this page. From
the left-hand side, navigation menu user can navigate the different pages.

Figure B 3: Dashboard

User registration form

Figure B 4: User Registration

40
Organizer can insert conference details from Create Conference page.

Figure B 5: Create Conference

Authors can submit research papers after filling the following form

Figure B 6: Abstract submission

41
Reviewer registration form

Figure B 7: Reviewer registration form

Assign abstract to reviewers according to the reviewer’s subject area

Figure B 8: Assign Reviewer

42
Author can register for the conference after filling the following form.

Figure B 9: Conference registration form

43
Reports for the registered participant's details for each conference. The user can sort details of
the participants according to the registered conference. The report can be taken as pdf, excel
and print versions.

Figure B 10: Report of Registered Participants

44
Appendix C : Questionnaire

C.1 Interview Questionnaire on Event Management System for Conference and

Workshop
(The data gathered through this interview would be used exclusively for the purpose of
academic research only.)

1. Do you organize an annual conference or twice a year conference?

2. Can you briefly explain conference process of your university?

3. Who are the main roles involved in this process?

4. How long will it take to complete entire conference process?

5. How do you get publicity for the conference?

6. What is the method of collecting conference papers?

7. How do you assign reviewers to review the papers? Do you give payment for reviewers?

8. How do you get feedback from the reviewers?

9. How do you send feedback to the authors?

10. How do you select papers for the conference?

11. What is the payment method you are using?

12. What are the advantages of current process?

13. What are the drawbacks of current process?

14. Do you use any system for the conference? If yes what is the system?

15. Do you wish to use a new system for the conference?

45
C.2 Questionnaire on Event Management System for Conference and Workshop
(The data gathered through this questionnaire would be used exclusively for the purpose of
academic research only.)

Please put a tick on the given boxes

1. What is your roll in conference/workshop?

Organizer/Chairperson
Secretary
Author
Reviewer
Participant

2. How do you advertise the conference/workshop?

Newspaper advertisement
TV advertisement
Website
Leaflets/ Brochures
Banners/Billboards

3. Do you use any system to handle the event process?

Yes
No

4. How do you collect research papers?

Via the system

Via email
By hand
Register post
None

5. How do you send research papers to reviewers?

Via the system
Via email
By hand
Register post
None

46
6. How do you send notifications regarding research papers to author?
Via the system
Via email
By hand
Register post
None

7. What is the event registration method?

Register on the event date

Register via email
Register via system
Register by post
None

8. Do you use any payment method for the registration?

Yes
No

9. What are the methods you are using to handle the entire event process?
Using system
Using email
Google documents
Store
None

10. How many are human resource needed to complete the event?

Less than 10 people

Less than 20 people
25 people
More than 25 people

11. Do you issue any vehicle pass for event participants?

Yes
No

47
Appendix D : User Evaluation

Once analyzed the given answers of each question, identified the following results.

Question Question Question Question Question Question Question

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Excellent 2 3 1 5 2 1 1
Very Good 10 10 8 8 6 12 6
Good 6 7 9 6 8 6 7
Poor 2 0 2 1 4 1 5
Very Poor 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Table D.1 User Feedback

1. Do you agree that Developed System would beneficial your Conference/ Event
Management process?

Excellent Very Good Good Poor Very Poor

Figure D 1: Question 1

2. Do you agree that Developed System is user-friendly?

Excellent Very Good Good Poor Very Poor

Figure D 2: Question 2

48
3. Is there consistency in the theme used on this system?

Excellent Very Good Good Poor Very Poor

Figure D 3: Question 3

4. Has the system satisfied your requirements of office environment?

Excellent Very Good Good Poor Very Poor

Figure D 4: Question 4

5. Do you think this system is better than existing manual approach?

Excellent Very Good Good Poor Very Poor

Figure D 5: Question 5

49
6. Do you agree that system can help save the cost of learning?

Excellent Very Good Good Poor Very Poor

Figure D 6: Question 6

7. Did you encounter any difficulty while using the system?

Excellent Very Good Good Poor Very Poor

Figure D 7: Question 7

50
Appendix E : Database Design

Figure E 1: Database Design

51