Hi, i am intending to a database project for my final year project. I am intending to research on the usability of existing database designs for the use of capturing of students information. Such information would include the particulars of the students, their results as well as the classes they were in throughout their study course in the institution. I would be interviewing teachers and if possible principals on existing solutions storing such information. In the end, I may come out with a possible solution, depending on the time tat i have left.


I need comments/criticisms for my proposed project. Any helpful tips would also be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I'm sure that many data models for capturing student information are available on the web.

hmm.. true...but researching on them and then coming out with one tat is applicable to the local schools can be considered as a project, or am i wrong on tat part???

i would pick something totally new

students and classes has been done to death

also products and vendors and customers and orders

also rental car reservation

also hospital

also ...

if it were me -- and assuming i had enough time -- i would make something up, like aliens and technologies and star systems and prime directives, or something

One of the issues of data modeling is that it was done to death in the 1990s. Data modeling became a panacea for whatever ill an IT system had. Almost everything was data modeled.

Almost.

What may be interesting to look into is new clinical systems. For example, managing the data generated by a new radiological technique could be worthwhile. Talk to your doctor and see if he can give you a name of someone who can point you to a new system.

I'm saying pursue the student data project if you want. There is alot of information already out there. Or break some new ground by talking to someone who is doing research and offer to create a database for them.

Come to think about it, lots of people do research on campus, too.

What you'll find about managing student data is that the existing solutions suck, but they're still not as bad as the university bureaucracy. The good news: there's a reasonable chance that many of these people will be fired. The bad news: they'll probably get jobs at HMOs or some such place you can't graduate from.

If I were doing my final year project again but it was more related to usability I'd do something on source code in database (SCID). I mean, it's ridiculous that the best tools available to developers are vi, sed, grep, make and cvs or some GUI that essentially recreates those tools.

The worst thing is that when IDEs try to go beyond this toolset they are taking a backwards approach. For example, when you use a form builder, rather than put the resulting code in a database that a user can run ad hoc queries on, they put it in some lousy format like XML.

wow...i am getting alot of feedback. Thanks alot. My intention was to show that the existing solutions suck badly. With the ever changing environment in the school, it would be good to be able to capture new functional aspects which might not be touched on previously.