Online computer laboratory reservation system

Abstract

The Faculty of Management and Finance has the second largest student population among other faculties in Ruhuna University, Matara, Sri Lanka. Information Technology affiliated subjects or course units (i.e., Computer Applications in Accounting, Introduction to Computer Applications, etc.) were newly introduced to the bachelor of business administration degree to enhance the job opportunities ofthe management students. The Student population of the Management Faculty was over 1200 in year 2012. With the increase ofthe computer laboratory users, it generates insufficient computer distribution among the user in the computer laboratory. The computer laboratory reservation process is still handled by manual approach. To reserve the laboratory, the user has to contact the administrator for his approval. Then administrator will be given the opportunity according to the availability of laboratory. Therefore the purpose of this prototype computer laboratory reservation system links through web to solve this problem and additionally it will ease the management in updating the reservation records. A computer system must be developed to manage the reservation for the users’ request. This system will be available on multiple methods (i.e., web, mobile devices) that assist the users and the administrator to manage the laboratory reservation based a few constraints such as holiday and permanent classes. The system also tries to give alternative sessions ifthe requested session is not available. This system was empowered by Joomla and it was developed as a stand-alone system and also might make it easy to integrate with Faculty Education Management Information System (FEMIS) that already exists. The database used to develop the system is MySQL with PI-IP programming language. WampServer was used as a to run the system and Mozilla Firefoxl2 as a web browser ofthe system. The level ofthe users’ acceptance was determined in using Technology Acceptance Model where data is gathered through a set of designed questionnaire. In conclusion, this proposed prototype system has a great potency to encounter the university computer laboratory reservation problems by using multiple technologies on human behalf.