A school management system for Ukamba Bible College

Project overview

Ukamba Bible College needed to move its academic administration off paper. Devlan Solutions designed and built a web-based school management system covering daily administration, with a portal that gives students direct access to their information. The college's public website, also delivered by Devlan, links to that portal.

Client background

Ukamba Bible College is a theological education institution in Kenya.

Business challenge

• Records were kept manually, so routine administration took time and errors were hard to detect.
• Academic information was not held in one place, which made it hard to follow a student's progress.
• Communication between staff and students depended on people being in the same place at the right time.

Requirements

• One system of record for students and academic data.
• Replacement of manual enrolment, attendance and grading work.
• Self-service access for students.
• Room to grow as intakes increase and new tools are introduced.

Solution and functional capabilities

• Enrolment and records. Students are enrolled once and their records held centrally.
• Attendance and grading. Staff record attendance and marks in the system rather than on paper.
• Reporting. Reports are generated from recorded data instead of being compiled by hand.
• Student portal. Students sign in to reach their own information.
• Communication. Staff can publish assignments, grades and updates to students through the platform.

Technical implementation

The system is a server-rendered web application, so it works in an ordinary browser on the devices staff and students already have, with no software to install. The portal is available from the college's public website.

Deployment approach

The application runs as a hosted web system reached over the internet, which removes the need for on-campus servers.

Operational outcomes

Enrolment, attendance, grading and reporting moved into one system, and students gained a single point of access to their records through the college's public website.