Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
MARJAN MANSOURVAR
MARCH 2011
Abstract
Development of the Web has affected different aspects of our lives, such as
communication, sharing knowledge, searching for jobs, social activities, etc. The web
portal as a gateway in the World Wide Web is a starting point for people who are
connecting to the internet. The web portal as the type of knowledge management system
provides a rich space to share and search information as well as communication services
like free email or content provision for the users.
This research aims to develop a web portal for students in the Faculty of Computer
Science and Information Technology (FCSIT), University of Malaya (UM). The main
aims of this portal are to provide information for the students to help them to choose the
right courses and major that are relevant to their intended future jobs or career in IT.
Two surveys were conducted to identify the students problems with the existing portal
of the faculty and to gather their requirements which can be incorporated in to the new
portal to be developed.
The portal was developed, using the Web Information System Development
Methodology (WISDM) and using the development tools that include: ASP.Net and C#
for the programming, Visual Studio 2008 and Photoshop for the interface design,
Information Internet service (IIS) for the web server and SQL Server 2005 as the
database management system.
This knowledge system connects to the industries and acts as an online recruitment to
support the students to find the right IT job after graduation. Furthermore, this system
enhances the understanding concept and importance of the web portal, uses of
knowledge management system and knowledge sharing as an essential educational tool
for students in the universities.
ii
Acknowledgements
The successful completion of this dissertation is due to the support and guidance from
many people, and I would like to thank all of them. Acknowledging everyone by name
is impossible and my apologies to those not mentioned.
First, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Norizan Mohd Yasin, for her infinite
support, expertise and patience during all stages of my research. Her advices were very
useful and encouraging in motivating me to complete my thesis.
I am indebted to my kind family for their persistent love, help and encouragement.
Last but not least, I am thankful to all my friends for their moral support and useful
suggestions in my research.
MARJAN MANSOURVAR
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology
University of Malaya
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
iii
Dedication
iv
Table of Contents
Abstract ............................................................................................................................. ii
Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................iii
Dedication ........................................................................................................................ iv
Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. v
LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... ix
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... xi
Chapter 1 ........................................................................................................................... 1
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Problem Statements ................................................................................................. 2
1.3 Research objectives ................................................................................................. 3
1.4 Research Questions ................................................................................................. 4
1.5 Scope of the Research ............................................................................................. 4
1.6 Methodology and Research Approach .................................................................... 4
1.7 Expected Research Outcomes ................................................................................. 5
1.8 Overview of the Organization of the Dissertation................................................... 6
1.9 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 7
CHAPTER 2 ..................................................................................................................... 8
LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................. 8
2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 8
2.2 Knowledge management systems ........................................................................... 8
2.2.1 Knowledge Management and Decision Support Systems .............................. 10
2.2.2 Types of Knowledge Management Systems................................................... 11
2.3 Portal as a method for Knowledge Management .................................................. 11
2.3.1 What is a portal? ............................................................................................. 11
2.3.2 History of Web Portals ................................................................................... 12
2.3.3 Web Portal Definition ..................................................................................... 13
2.3.4 Why are portals useful? .................................................................................. 15
2.3.5 Comparison between Website and Web portal ............................................... 15
2.3.6 Portal services classification ........................................................................... 16
2.3.7 Types of portals and their differences ............................................................ 17
v
viii
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1: History of web portals.................................................................................... 12
Table 2.2: Comparison between a Website and a Web portal ........................................ 16
Table 2.3: The screenshot of UM Portal ......................................................................... 31
Table 2.4: The Screenshot of Campus Cruiser ............................................................... 32
Table 2.5: The Screenshot of UT Portal ......................................................................... 33
Table 2.6: The Screenshot of University of British Portal .............................................. 34
Table 2.7: The Screenshot of MyUB Portal .................................................................... 35
Table 3.1: The type of qualitative research ..................................................................... 39
Table 3.2: Differences between quantitative and qualitative approaches ....................... 40
Table 4.1: Personal Profiles of Respondents .................................................................. 49
Table 4.2: Different reasons for visiting the faculty portal ............................................. 51
Table 4.3: Profile of Respondents ................................................................................... 54
Table 5.1: The primary requirements for designing the web portal................................ 61
Table 5.2: Lists of tables in the portal databse ................................................................ 75
xi
Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Introduction
In recent years, there has been continuing trend among youths to pursue higher
education in their quest to become better qualified and better skilled.
Acquiring knowledge and specific job skills have become the main objectives for
students in the universities. Knowledge is necessary to make informed decisions,
especially, in critical situations. Knowledge and knowledge management (KM) in any
organization are crucial to give it a competitive edge in todays challenging and
globalised environment.
New technologies, especially, the internet have made a huge impact on knowledge
management and information dissemination in education. The web portal as a
knowledge management system is very popular topics in many organizations including
universities. Universities have been at the forefront of website development, which later
led to the development of web portals to provide more compressive links to information
resources. There are various types web portals with various utilities that provide
benefits to the users. Each user can have his or her own distinctive definition of web
portals. Simply, a portal is a gateway to online network accessible resources through the
intranet, extranet or internet, thus a simple web page could adjust this definition, as
could a complex site involved of thousands of web pages. The early portals were very
simple, offering their members a static view of contents from a small number of
sources. Generally, a web portal allows the users to access information from varied
sources in an integrated way. Apart from the standard search engine, web portals
provide other services such as e-mail, news, stock prices, information, and
entertainment, depending on the nature of business of the portals host institutions.
1
Portals have different applications or services to solve various problems. One of the
main purposes of web portals is to allow information sharing over the Internet. For
example, in a university, the new students in the faculty need access to information
resources to select courses and to decide on the different majors available, in the
faculty. This need can be addressed through a knowledge portal which must contain
sufficient data and information about the requirements of the students.
The number of jobless graduates has become one of the serious problems existing both
in the developing and developed countries, today. The Internet has changed the way of
looking for jobs, through the development of job portals. A job portal is a kind of web
portal that provides an efficient ways for searching the Internet or the web for vacant
job positions available.
This research will look at various types of web portals but will, in particular look, at job
portals as a knowledge management system based on a standard framework. This
research will focus on the information on jobs available, as needed by fresh graduates of
the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology (FCSIT), University of
Malaya (UM).
Most students do not have enough basic knowledge on how to select a major
specialization available in their department.
Student expectations in terms of course contents are often different from that
of faculty.
Many new graduates, who become unemployed because they do not have the job skills
needed by the industry, pose a big challenge for any country in the world. In Malaysia,
it was reported that about 70% of graduates from institutions of higher learning were
unemployed in 2006 (Suresh Ram, 2006).
This research will address the communication gap between students and faculty, so that
the latter can help to resolve the problems mentioned, above.
II.
III.
post their job advertisements, which students can refer to, when looking for jobs.
This job portal is able to capture job requirements based on industry needs.
3
The above objectives cover the overall study of the web portals, and the significance of
the objectives is to meet the students need for a system that contains knowledge and
information relevant to their study and when they look for jobs.
Organizations / Companies
WEB PORTAL
Faculty
Student
Decision
Job
Portal
Support
Search
Management
Content
Communication
The outcome of this research will give students of FCSIT an online method of selecting
the courses they wish to take during a semester, as well as selecting their major (field of
specialization).
The researcher classified the expected outcomes as follows:
The result of this research supports the concept of knowledge management system
which is done through online recruitment portals.
5
Introduction
Literature
Review
Methodology
Data Collection
&Analysis
System
Implementation
Conclusion
Chapter 5 discusses the proposed web portal, its design and development. This chapter
explains the technology used for the software development, the tools used, the
methodology and system requirements.
Chapter 6 presents the conclusion of the whole study. It presents a short summary of the
outcomes of the research, the strength and limitation of developed system and the
recommendation for future research.
1.9 Conclusion
This chapter gives a background of the issues pertinent to the research. It presents the
problems which students are facing in the faculty regarding access to the required
information. The objectives, scope of the research and expected outcomes are also
presented in this chapter. The chapter has also covered the methodology used and the
organization of the dissertation.
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
The World Wide Web (WWW) has greatly impacted many aspects of our lives, such
as in communication, business and education, these days (Yang et al., 2005).
In the age of online communication, universities need to embrace the new information
and communication technologies as the tools to enhance the quality of education.
Universities need to update their curriculum formats, with the developments educational
information and communication technology framework. The Web portal is one of the
most important subjects of conversation, today (Pickett & Harmre, 2002). There are
many different types of web portal. This research focuses on the development of a web
portal for students of FCSIT, University of Malaya (UM). It is meant to be both a
knowledge portal as well as a job portal.
The sections below define the concept of knowledge, knowledge management and the
relationship between knowledge management systems (KMS) and decision support
systems (DSS).
10
Ultimately, KMS and DSS facilitate the decision-making and they are the integrated
part of the overall problem solving process. The knowledge objects approach to the
knowledge representation allows considering contemporary DSS as integrated parts of
the corresponding KMS (Cortes, et al., 2001).
2.2.2 Types of Knowledge Management Systems
Benbya et al. (2004) divided KMS into four categories:
1- Content management tools: These tools mix and group knowledge from
different originating sources.
2- Knowledge sharing tools: These tools provide the facility for sharing knowledge
among people or organizations.
3- Knowledge search and retrieval system: This provides the ability to search and
retrieve knowledge from the systems
4- General KMS: These types of systems provide the requirements for knowledge
management in the organizations.
Web portals are general KMS that provide the facility for organizations or companies
to share, create, exchange and reuse knowledge.
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Early phase
Growth Phase
Expansion Phase
Early phase :
This phase also witnessed the birth of some of the components of a web portal. Portals
have been defined as a door or gateway to information on the web. They were used as
an entry point to information sources. In this phase, differentiation was the main idea
was shown by most websites. It is easy to consider website differentiation as the
precursor of the portal concept, especially, in thinking of a portal as a door.
Differentiated websites are similar to a house with several doors. When a person enter a
door, he or she can only visit a certain section of a building that are reachable from that
door, but those who enter through a gateway, regardless of which door they use, can
reach every room in the house .
Growth Phase:
During the growth phase, the size of web sites had increased in terms of number of
pages. This situation caused a lack of general organization to the information, and also
weak navigability. Following this, search engines were defined for web portals. A
search service is an automatic software for scanning the web for web sites. Most search
service businesses were started during this phase, for example: AltaVista, Lycos and
Excite. The quality of search service provides a new concept to portal which becomes
12
an entry of an ad hoc nature. Thus, during a search, the content displayed is specified as
the latest, at the time of access.
Expansion Phase:
In this phase, web portals developed in terms of size (number of servers and users) and
depth (content). The World Wide Web had also progressed during this stage.
Technological advancements have made the web more accessible and robust when
compared to the other two earlier other phases. These developments in web server and
browser technology led to the existence of private virtual network. Web access to
databases is another advancement made. Hence, there was a big expansion in the
functions of portals to support various web services for different users.
2.3.3 Web Portal Definition
There are many different definitions of a web portal. Researchers who worked on
web portal admitted that there is no unique definition of a portal until now. For
example, Bajec (2005) stated that a portal is a connection, content, commerce, and
community. Santa Barbara City College described portal as a knowledge management
implementation to provide access to personalized information. In fact, it is fascinating
that different people have different definitions of a web portal. Some researchers
described a web portal as a gateway to information such as:
Looney and Lyman (2000) indicated that, basically, web portals collect a sort of
applicable information resources into a single, "one-stop Web page; this function helps
to prevent users from feeling lost on the Web.
Aragones and Hart (2002) stated that a portal provides a starting point for users to
access and explore information on the WWW. Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) is a general
portal; a university website homepage is a specialized portal.
13
Another source had declared that portals integrate varied channels as a central point of
information. Thus, essentially, a web portal is a gateway or single access point to
resources on the internet (Wege 2002).
Some researchers consider a web portal as a usercentric-community based tool for
example consumer portals like Google! Some portals provide information for a special
group of user with specific interest. When other users with similar interests browse a
web portal, a virtual community is formed. Hence, a web portal has to provide
information and facilitate communication to community so that they can share
knowledge and experiences, hold discussion forums, etc. Dias (2001) mentioned that it
is important for portal users to be able to connect with everyone who share common
interests. It means that an efficient web portal is a communitybased system to manage
and present information and other resources.
Some researcher look at a web portal as a system that provides multiple services to the
community; they believed that web portals aggregate two types of services in to a
single interface:
-
However, web portals support other services except searching for users (Goodman and
Kleinschmidt, 2002).
This study uses the ideas of Goodman, Kleinschmidt and Powell for defining a web
portal. Therefore, a web portal should be more than a simple gateway to access
information. It must act as the search, analytical, and communication centre for its
target members.
2.3.4 Why are portals useful?
The main reason for using the portals: efficiency. A portal helps users to make more
efficient use of their time (Pickett & Harmre, 2002). Moore (2001) highlighted the
integration of applications that portals provide for users,
simple collection of contents. Devedzic (2005) believed that people are attracted to portals
because of their ease-of-use. Usually, users start their sessions on the internet by opening
a portal to retrieve information such as news, weather, bulletins, etc. Users also make
use of the free personal communication services such as email, message boards, via
portals. It is not surprising that portals are the most visited sites on the internet (Telang
& Mukhopadhyay, 2005). However, it must be borne in mind that a portal cannot fulfill
all of information needs of users.
2.3.5 Comparison between Website and Web portal
Azarbarzin (2008) highlighted the differences between the website and web portal,
as shown in table 2.2:
15
Web Site
Web Portal
Search
The need to find essential information on a certain topic or subject has made the
search function a very important component of a web portal. Web portals use
different types of strategies such as homegrown solution or outside solutions to
satisfy the members needs.
Information
Web portals provide different types of information to users, news, sports, job
vacancies, weather reports, etc. Users can get this information directly from portals,
even without any special username and password. For example, a user can access
the weather reports just by clicking on the relevant link on the web portal.
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Personal Service
These services allow the users to customize the mode of interacting with the portal.
Usually, users need to register to assign a username and password to use these
services. Emails, chat rooms, messaging services or personalized home pages are
some examples of these types of services. Each user has a different interface to use
these services. As we are aware, when a user opens the yahoo mail, she/he has a
different interface from that of other users. This reduces the time that users spend
to search for information on a special subject on the internet. This function,
however, causes traffic on the portals to slow down more than the others services.
Information and personal services have increased resulted in the number of visitors
to web portals. Rob Allan.et (2003) listed some services available on web portals as
follows:
Online shopping
Job submission
Resource scheduling
Policy-based authorization
Deployment service
Collaboration Portals: These portals connect users and provide facilities for
them to collaborate in activities, etc.
Expertise Portals: These portals allow users to communicate with each other
and share their experiences, special interests and services.
Knowledge Portals: These portals provide users a combination of all the abovementioned services.
As we have seen, these portals are different based on their functions.
Dane Phillip (2008) divided portals into 6 categories based on their contents:
-
Vertical Portals :
These portals concentrate on the industry domain or vertical portals. A vertical portal
acts as a gateway to present the products and services of a specific industry to the
users. A vertical portal, also called vortal provides all the tools, information, articles,
research findings and statistics related a domain or vertical. A good example of these
portals is cnet.com which presents computer and related information; mp3.com that
focuses on mp3, audio, production, etc.
There are 2 main types of vertical portal available:
1 - Corporate Portal: Allows personalized access to specific resources of an industry
2- Commerce Portal: Provides business-to-consumer, business-to-business, and ecommerce information.
- Horizontal Portals:
These portals are single entry point of a web surfer to provide a variety of resources and
information on different topics to the general users. Yahoo.com and msn.com are
classic examples of horizontal portals. They are considered as megaportal and they
have search engines to help users search for information on a large variety of topics
such as weather, stock or news. Horizontal portals facilitate their members with
personalized web page through different channels.
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Intranet Portals :
These portals are used by members who are in the enterprise network or intranet of
organizations, institutions, etc. Enterprise portals provide employees with updated
information such as documents for management system, applications, online training,
etc, as well as facilities to communicate using emails, messaging, or web meetings.
-
Knowledge Portals :
Enterprise Portals :
These portals have become one of the hottest topics in the new age of technology.
Enterprise portals also called corporate portals support their members by providing
accessing to suitable resources of the certain company or organization. An enterprise
portal is useful for the companys own employees as well as the companys business
partners such as suppliers and customers. With its link to public web portals, an
enterprise portal provides a virtual workplace for each user. Hence, the website of a
company is not only a corporate portal; it also provides personalization and navigation
functionalities to its users. One of the most important advantages of this portal is the
ability to access its services via mobile devices services like cell phone, PDAs or
hand-held PCs which are useful when out in the field, for decision-making and other
business or companys tasks.
-
Web Portals use a large variety of applications, as the following two examples show.
increasing rapidly since the 1970s. Dorn and Naz (2007) mentioned that one of the
reasons for this problem is the unfair distribution or lack of information on job
opportunities so people are unable to know the new job vacancies. It means that there
are some jobs available, but jobseekers do not have access to that information. An
efficient search of the internet might help to jobseekers in their job hunt. There are some
web portals that provide an efficient way to search the web for online information on
job vacancies for jobseekers (Dorn & Naz, 2007).
Today, the internet has changed many aspects of our life, such as the way we look for
jobs. If one wants to find a new job, one can submit a resume using word-processing
software like Microsoft Office Word, open a web browser to send the resume and
receive an e-mail. Online recruitment has become the standard method for employers
and jobseekers to meet their respective objectives. The employers upload in to the job
offerings in the job portals. Online recruitment has been accepted not only by most of
large companies but also the small ones. The organizations send information or jobs
vacancies for posting on the portals and communicate with the applicants via the
internet and E-mail.
Rosita and Nadianatra (2007) defined the concept of online recruitment or erecruitment as the use of the Internet to search for jobs which have been advertised
electronically. Thus, the employers advertise the job opportunities, save the resume and
curriculum vitae (CV) of applicants, contact the jobseekers who are qualified, online.
Today, the Internet has become one of the key methods for getting information relating
to job vacancies. Large institutions, like universities include information on career
prospects in their websites which are also linked to e- recruitment sites.
20
Job fairs
Management Consultants
These old job seeking methods are too slow, stressful, challenging and also lack quality
(Mauno, et al., 2007). In addition, the applicants have to consider the cost and the
amount of time to get the information they need, and other preparations they have to
make. Finding all available job vacancies is a main step at in the job-seeking process.
The Internet is now a powerful tool that jobseekers can use. Today, there are many sites
that advertise job positions to be filled by people with certain skills in various fields.
The Internet plays an important role in the area of human resource planning and
development. Most planning and development organizations are now using computer
technology and the Internet for staff recruitment. It should be noted that although the
21
Internet has facilitated the process of job-seeking, it has not replaced the traditional
methods, completely.
2.4.2 Importance of Job Portals
In the age of technology, the Internet has become the main source of information for
jobseekers. Large corporations, institutions, and universities include information on
career prospects on their websites. According to a survey, 70% of the workforce uses
websites or portals on the Internet to search for jobs in France. These websites or portals
provide a search engine to access information on job opportunities (Bsiri, et al., 2008).
Sulaiman and Burke (2009) found that most employers are keen to use online
recruitment methods of getting staff. He mentioned that online recruitment methods
have the ability to identify the best applicants. That is the reason why more developed
countries such as Malaysia have started to use online job portal as one of the important
way to recruit people to fill job vacancies. A study done in2007, found that 21% of
internet users in the EU used the web to search for jobs or to send job applications. In
2006, this had increased to 67% for unemployed people (Gangle, 2007).
Most companies publish their job vacancies on their website, or use online jobsites.
These methods result in great saving in costs.
Mochol and Nixon (2007) stated that the use of semantic web technology gives market
transparency, higher speed of procurement but reduced transaction cost.
Today, the Internet is used for a large number of business transactions. People find the
Internet to be an effective communication tool. In a report in 2005, it was found that
90% of jobseekers in Germany use the internet to look for jobs. A reason for this high
rate of Internet is that applicants are young and highly qualified and use the internet a
lot, and many companies published their job opportunities online and via their portal.
Job portals are the starting point of jobseekers when searching for jobs. Thus, some job
portals charge employers high fees to publish information on job vacancies. In spite of
22
recruitment as applicants can match their qualifications and skills to the requirements of
employers. Generally, searching for
information collecting because the jobseeker gathers information contained in the job
portals, during the search (Weber & Mahringer, 2008 ).
A good job portal shares information and experiences with its members/users. This save
time and efforts and better decisions can be made. Job openings requirements can be
matched to an applicants qualification and skills. In this way, job portals return not
only the precise matches but also return the most similar match. The members of the
European Commission (EC) stated that online job portals should have quite similar
characteristics that include: an online searchable database of positions for job searcher;
facilities to send CVs to the website; email alerts of jobs which match the users profile;
extra instruction, for example, about working in foreign countries or career guidance;
the capability to manage job applications; employers must have the ability to publish
and manage job positions, search the CV database; and have online contact with
potential jobseekers.
Bsiri et al. (2008) presented an online job system that uses local grammars to convert
unstructured pages into structured ones. The interface of this system coordinates access
to the job vacancies which are obtained using job search engines. Job search engines
have some differences from the standard search engines. They index only a part of a
document which includes the job advertisement. The pages that involve job notices are
arranged by humans for humans. The main parts in these forms like the name of
companies or identifier of job vacancy merge with a high limiting vocabulary zone then
form local grammars the tool for finding a job offer which is integrated into a relational
structure. To provide transparent access to job advertising, the platform classified the
web pages in to database, automatically. The following figure shows the architecture of
the system:
24
Local grammars and electronic lexica were used to extract data and then transformed
the text in to a semantically structured arrangement. The linguistically analysis filled the
form with values and make possible selectivity to retrieval functionally. This system
included three interaction modules for searching job and a relational database to keep
job announcements and queries.
Mochol et al. (2007) presented a prototype job portal that worked with Semantic Web
technology. This technique joins annotations with information that is related to an
application domain. They used this system to improve market transparency and speed
the process and decrease the cost of transactions. They believed that search engines
such Google or Yahoo or worldwidejobs are necessary for job portals. The quality of
search in the portals is influenced by four factors: search, index method, web
technologies, and the automatic interpretation of the company. In a Semantic Web-based
system, the information that is changed among employers, jobseekers and job portal
such as job skills, salary, and profession is based on a set of vocabularies. The first
stage of processing in the system was making human resources ontology (HRontology). The ontology uses vocabularies to provide the uniform set of job advertising
and members information with a semantic matching in the portal. This system can be
25
improved based on users requirements. The system concentrates on the process that
vocabularies are derived from standards recruitment area and the stages of merging data
infrastructure with non-RDF human resources systems. Figure 2.2 shows the
architecture of a job portal that uses HR-ontology.
Information
Customers
Information
Aggregator
Information
Provider
Figure 2.2: Web-based job portal architecture (Source: Mochol et al. (2007))
Information providers play the employers role. They upload the job vacancies and
manage information using controlled vocabularies and in the RDF format. Information
Aggregators crawl the published data and display it in the standard format to the
members. This part uses semantic matching services. Information Consumers are users
of the job portal and use the information related to the job positions, and the employers.
In conclusion, the number of job sites and job portals continues to increase. These
portals provide online information zone for jobseekers to obtain information on the
relevant job vacancies, easier.
users. These portals model, structure and interlink knowledge to support flexible
integration and personalized presentation of knowledge to the members (Chau et al.,
2006).
Knowledge portals manage knowledge and use on integrated interface for users to
access vast amount of information. Most students, especially international students in
universities, usually encounter problems when searching for the required information
through the vast amount of data on the Internet. Knowledge portals facilitate users to
obtain relevant and even specific information and resources (Gavrilova & Jin, 2008).
Figure 2.3 presents the conceptual framework with the basic knowledge management
system that includes some main components of a portal administration, decision
support, document management, Web management, content communication, and
programs.
27
User Interface
Portal Core
Collection of Meaningful Content, Services, and Tools
Administration
Example:
Configuration
Users and roles
Decision
Support
Document
Management
Example:
Example:
Standards Report
Registration and Login
Web
Management
Content
Communication
Programs
Example:
Example:
Example:
Supplemental Resources
On-line Subjects
Protocols,
Training
Departmental Pages
to learning resources for experts, teachers or researcher, and also allow interactive
access to online information, and to other students (Maedche et al., 2003) .
Over the last few decades, there had been rapid technological advances in online
services. Universities have been at the forefront of this development, and they started to
upgrade their websites to portals for online transactions. Some online transactions
include: online courses enrolment, delivery, and materials, digital library, and etc.
University websites are also acting as a web portal, today, providing a single point of
access to information and applications. A university web portal is a single point of
access to resources and information that include web mail, course information,
examination results, and tuition payments, etc., for users such as the students, faculty,
and staff.
Presently, most universities use the web portal for various educational goals such as
monitoring knowledge, controlling educational processes such as providing access to
educational resources, and etc. Some modern universities even use external educational
resources in their portals, for example, electronic catalogues, which are published
overseas.
Portals have become one of the popular facilities in higher education institutions for
various uses. Almost all universities developed their portals to provide for specific new
needs (Bajec, 2005). The portal Framework Project undertaken by the Java Special
Interest Group (JA-SIG), linking up 20 universities and colleges together, is a good
example.
Portals help the university to unlock all internally and externally forms which store
information, provide users in the university a single gateway to access the knowledge
and resources.
Arthur (2005) mentioned that universities consider three aspects pertaining to use of the
portals :
29
Systems integration
Provision for a wider use of data and services offered by existing systems
Systems Integration
By increasing the use of the internet, universities have tried to have a more
integrated IT system within their campuses. In this way, universities can transform
more effectively and offer more varied services to the campus community.
Utilization of e-business technology
Today, companies use the internet to provide better and more efficient services to
their staff, and customers. Universities and other educational institutions have done
likewise. In some countries, some important processes in e-business have been
developed by educational institutions to offer better services to the staff and
students.
Provide wider use of data and services of existing systems
The knowledge and resources in the existing information systems of universities
could be useful if the students and lecturers have easy access to them. Portals can be
used to facilitate access to the required information.
Tate et al. (2009) noted that universities, which have been at the forefront of online
service provision, have gradually changed, and are beginning to provide their online
services using the web portal. These portals act as a single point of online access to
information as well as provide utilities to perform enrolment, course delivery, course
support, library transactions, job search, etc.
Sulaiman and Alias (2005) believed that it is essential for the universities to conduct
further study on knowledge portals that will enable students to have access to much
needed data and resources that are pertinent to their studies.
30
Features
Services
Sharing information
Data Manager
Interactive applications
Strengths
Weaknesses
31
Campus Cruiser
http://www.campuscruiser.com/
Features
Services
Strengths
Weaknesses
Limited services
Seems complicated for first-time login users
Not friendly user interface
32
Features
Services
Strengths
Weaknesses
33
Features
Services
Strengths
Weaknesses
Limited service
34
Features
Services
Strengths
Good management
Vast amount of information
Useful resources for new students
Specialized knowledge for different faculties
High security
Weaknesses
35
2.9 Conclusions
This chapter provides a review of the literature pertaining knowledge management
system, Web portal as a method for supporting knowledge management, history and
definition of web portals, different types of portal, job portal, knowledge portals and the
role of web portals in the universities.
The general goal of web portals is to manage knowledge and sharing information and
resources on the internet and acts as a single point or gateway and provide 5 key
competencies for users as following:
Cognitive, technological, documentary, research and communicative.
Universities as a forefront of new technologies are placing more emphasis on web
portals for their students to access the required knowledge and to learn new skills.
However, it is important that be aware a web portal can never fulfill all the information
needs of members.
At the next chapter, the research methodology and system development methodology
will be presented.
36
Chapter 3
Research Methodology
3.1 Introduction
This chapter discusses the research methodology and system development
methodologies which are suitable for this research. The purpose of this research is to
develop a web portal for FCSIT. A web portal is a gateway to online information and
services that provide users with: a search function, community features, personal
applications, and a way for communication between the owner of the portal and the
members. This web portal to be developed is intended to share information with
students and help new students of the faculty to choose suitable courses and choose the
appropriate major, and to assist graduates in their job search by establishing links
between the faculty and related ICT organizations. This means that this knowledge
management system, should also serve as online recruitment system. Today, most
universities add career links to their portals to allow fresh graduates to obtain
information on jobs and career prospects in the industry.
The web portal can guide the students to select their major and the related job
opportunities available, and the type of skill sets needed by the industry. Thus, the
industry plays a significant role in helping the university to have the right curriculum to
equip graduates with the appropriate skills to meet the industrys needs.
different levels and sub-levels. Before the web based technology was available, old
information systems were developed using computerbased systems. The main issue at
that time was that the organizations were willing to spend large amount of money for
information system development to stay competitive. Today, web technology and the
Internet have changed the traditional way of developing information systems to become
what is called Web-based Information Systems (WBIS). A web portal can be a type of
Web-based Information Systems.
Two methodologies were used in this research. The major aim of the methodologies
used is based on an understanding of problems considered in the study- relationship
between the students and faculty and the positive effects of the web portal as
communication and information channel between them. Before explaining the research
metrologies of the current study, two research approaches-quantitative and qualitative
methods, are discussed below. Qualitative and quantitative research methods are
commonly used in information system research. They have different paradigms and
assumptions and thus, different paradigms and different hypotheses should be
formulated for information system development.
38
Case study
Phenomenology
Ethnography
Historical
39
Quantitative
Objectivity
Qualitative
Ontological Assumption
Subjectivity
Positivism
Epistemological Assumption
Phenomenology
Universality
Aims of Inquiry
Particularity
Outsider
Detachment
Insider
Role of Researcher
Involvement
Researcher-Respondent Relationship
40
3.7.2 Questionnaire
The questionnaire is a cheap way to collect data from a large sample population.
Sometimes, this method is the only way to get enough data for statistical analysis. The
questionnaire method is more convenient than telephone or face-to-face surveys
methods. The respondents can answer the questionnaire at any time and form any
place. Moser and Kalton (1971) stated that ease of data analysis and lower cost are the
key factors for using the questionnaire method. A well-structured questionnaire can
collect data about the performance of the system and also about the components of the
system. There are various stages involved when using the questionnaire approach.
Each stage should be planned carefully. The following must be considered when
designing a questionnaire.
Clarify the survey objectives
Decide on the sample population
Write the questionnaire
Administer the questionnaire
Interpretation of the results
A researcher who designs the questionnaire has no control on how the questionnaire
will be answered. The validity of the outcomes is dependent on the honesty of the
respondents. Questionnaires can be designed to collect both qualitative and quantitative
data. Answers to quantitative questions are more precise than those for qualitative
questions. Respondents prefer to answer questionnaires than to be interviewed because
they are free to decide when and how fast they answer the questionnaire (Bryman,
2001). This is the reason for using the survey questionnaire rather than interview, in
this research.
3.7.3 Design of Questionnaires
Mccoll et al. (2001) divided questionnaires into three types:
42
Mail Questionnaire
Self-completion questionnaire
Telephone survey and face-to-face interview.
This research uses the self-completion questionnaire because the response rate is
likely to be higher as the respondents have more time to read and understand the
questions and the goals of the survey. A set of the questionnaires is shown in
appendix A. Some questions require just a Yes or No answer. Some are more
complex and have multiple-choice answers. Respondents can offer their comments at
the end of the questionnaire. There are two different sets of questionnaires, one set
(Questionnaire 1) was distributed to year 1-3 students, and the other set
(Questionnaire 2) was distributed to final year students and those who have just
graduated. Questionnaire 1 has twenty-seven questions divided into four parts. Part 1
gathers personal information about the respondents, both male and females. The
second part is related to the ways that students select a major and the problems they
face. The third part introduces web portal to the participants and gathers information
on the students usage of the current portal of FCSIT when selecting courses or major.
The last part gathers information on the problems that the students face with the
current faculty portal and extracts the students requirements for the new portal.
Questionnaire 2 designed for final year students and fresh graduates contain twentynine questions in four parts. The first part gathers personal information about the
participants. The second part concerns the methods they use when looking for job
vacancies and the problems they face. The third part introduces job portals to the
participants and collects feedback on how useful are job portals in helping them to
find a suitable job. The last part elicits the participants idea about FCSIT web portal
and what new features the portal should have to help them in finding jobs.
43
The questionnaires were distributed to the different groups of students at the Faculty
of Computer Science and Information Technology. In addition, a questionnaire was
designed and distributed to ten students to evaluate the new web portal at the end of
the research.
development methodology.
44
Organization analysis
Work design
Information analysis
Technical design
Human computer
Interface design
45
Organization analysis
The first stage, organization analysis originated of building an e-commerce strategy and
conducting a market survey. The e-commerce survey is focused on aligning the
development project. The market survey concerned with customers and involved a
postal and telephone survey to identify attitudes to the Internet, e-commerce, and
confirm their research information requirements. Organization analysis, involves the
creation of values.
Work design
In work design stage, the programmer plans an approach to sociotechnical design. It is
concerned with achieving a suitable match between job satisfaction the fit of an
employees job expectations and the job requirements as defined by management and
the efficiency objectives of the organization.
Information analysis
The information analysis level presents the needs of the users; the third stage involves
the requirement specifications with the unified modeling language, UML. UML use
cases were developed to explain the major functionality of the proposed system,
including registration and purchase, research queries, and maintenance. Given that this
is a data-intensive application that would be implemented around a relational database.
Technical design
The technical design stage involves the design of the software model. The physical
requirements of the implementation were clear; a database was needed together with
some technology to link the database to the web.
Human computer interface (HCI) design
In the human computer interface (HCI) design stage involves the development of the
user interface. HCI design is located in an area overlapping software design and work
design as it needs to draw on both. (Vidgen, 2002).
46
3.9 Conclusion
To deduct chapter 3, the researcher used questioner as the selected method for this
study. Questionnaire approach is one of the famous methods in academic research; it
provides an easy and useful way to collect data from a large sample population. This
method is an easy analyzes and inexpensive way compared to others methods such as
face-to-face interviews. Researcher prepares two series questioners and distributes
them between the students in the Faculty of Computer Science and Information
Technology (FCSIT) to solicit users requirements for developing the new portal. Web
Information Systems Development Methodology (WISDM) is selected as system
development methodology for this research. WISDM is a new information system
development that mixes the traditional methods with the web development technology.
The next chapter will be presented analysis and finding from the data which is
collected through the questioners.
47
CHAPTER 4
DATA COLLECTION, ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
4.1 Introduction
This chapter briefly discusses the way data was collected for the research. It also
presents the analysis of the data and the results of the analyses.
48
Gender
Respondents
Respondents (%)
Male
37
61.7%
Female
23
38.3%
18-23
56
93.3%
23-29
5%
Above 30
1.7%
Malaysian
46
76.7%
Other Students
14
23.3%
17
28.3%
Software Engineering
14
23.3%
15%
Artificial Intelligence
5%
Multimedia
10%
Management
11
18.3%
One
11.7%
Two
26
43.3%
Three
27
45%
Age Group
Nationality
Program Of Study
Year
students do not have authoritative sources to refer to when selecting courses or major.
67% of the students mentioned that the main problems they faced when selecting major
are: the lack of consulting sessions; and insufficient information on the faculty website.
The majority of the students (83.3%) emphasized that selection the right major can
affect their future prospective jobs. It is, therefore, very important for FCSIT to assist
the students in making the correct choice of the courses to take, and the major. Figure
4.1 shows that most of the students (39%) prefer to use online services and search the
Internet to get the information for selecting their courses and the major. This is the
main reason why the researcher developed the knowledge system to provide the
students with the online required information or related services, to help them in
selecting their courses and major.
5%
39%
28%
Search internet
Consuliting session
Discuss with others
Othes
28%
Figure 4.1: Preferred ways to get the information for selecting courses and major
50
respondents spent only between 15 and 30 minutes on the portal, each time. Table 4.2
reveals the purposes of visiting the faculty portal.
The Reasons
Respondents
Respondents (%)
Getting news
24
41.7%
25
43.3%
checking emails
11.7%
Others
3.3%
The above table shows that 43.3% of respondents visited the portal to obtain
information about courses; followed by those who want to get news (41.7%); check
emails (11.7%); and other usages (3.3%). As mentioned earlier, most of the students
are not satisfied with the services and information available in the current faculty portal.
This is evident from the answers to the question whether the portal of the faculty is
informative: 26 respondents answered as fair; 18 answered as poor; 2 respondents
answered as excellent; and 14 of respondents answered as good.
51
43.3
45
40
35
26.7
25.7
30
25
20
15
10
3.3
5
0
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
Please note that being informative include not only information, but also data,
resources and services available on the faculty portal .
4.3.4 How do you find the FCSIT web portal?
This section presents the evaluation made on the role of current faculty portal in
helping the students to choose the courses, major, and jobs. Altogether, 50
respondents (85%) stated that the current portal does not help them to choose a major,
and 95% of respondents said that there is not enough information on the portal to help
students to find any part-time or full-time job.
52
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Yes
No
Yes
50
51
Figure 4.3: Does the faculty portal help in order to choose major or job?
This survey also asked the students regarding features which they expect the faculty
portal to have for it to become a knowledge-sharing system and information portal.
Most of them indicated that the portal should be more informative, and some changes
should be made to improve the quality: update the information related to the courses
offered and the available majors in the faculty. It means the students need the
informative portal.
53
Gender
Respondents
Respondents (%)
Female
17
56.3%
Male
13
43.7%
18-23
14
46.7%
23-29
15
50%
Above 30
3.3%
Local
12
40%
International
18
60%
23.3%
Software Engineering
26.7%
26.7%
Artificial Intelligence
23.3%
Multimedia
Management
Age
Nationality
Program Of Study
reason why more than half of the students (54%) prefer to get information about job
vacancies from online websites. As mentioned in chapter two, the Internet has changed
the way of searching for data and information on job opening. The old methods of
searching for jobs through the newspapers or recruitment agencies are too slow, and
also, expensive. As J. Dorn and T. Naz (2006) stated, three quarters of jobseekers use
online methods to search for jobs.
23%
23%
job agencies
online websites
Public media
54%
55
30%
40%
Convenient Search
Save time
30%
Easy to access
The figure shows that a convenient way of searching is the key factor expressed by 40%
respondents; 30% of respondents said that it saves time; and another 30% said that it
provides easy access to information.
To answer on the question of whether the job portals contain adequate information for
finding jobs, 23 respondents expressed that they do, but 7 respondents said that they do
not. It shows that although job portals have become a standard way to advertise job
vacancies, they cannot meet all the requirements of the respondents that job portals
must have all the required information, provide easy access to information and save
time.
It is interesting to note that among the different job portals in Malaysia, jobstreet.com
is more well-known to the respondents, as 66.7% of them selected it as the job portal
they have visited more than others; 16.7% of respondents selected job.com.my; 13.3%
selected jobs2u.com.my.
4.4.4 How do you find the FCSIT web portal?
Analysis of the 30 returned questionnaires shows that 16 of respondents said that they
have visited the existing portal of FCSIT when they were looking for jobs; but 73.3%
of them claimed that there is not enough information about ICT jobs in the portal.
Hence 79.7 % of the respondents prefer to use the faculty portal as a job portal. The
respondents were allowed to suggest improvements to the FCSIT portal such as adding
56
information service, personal service, and search service. The majority of the
respondents (56.7%) prefer to have more updated information; 30% suggest adding a
search service; and 13.3% want to have facilities to add personal information. At the
end of the questionnaire the respondents were asked to give their comments to improve
the faculty portal and give suggestions for the design of the new system. Most of the
students suggested that the portal should have information to assist them to search for
job opportunities, after completing their studies; others suggested that the portal should
have links to ICT employers to help them to know of job vacancies. A few students
recommended that the portal provide online job training for job positions in the IT
companies and organizations. The suggestions from the respondents can be
summarized as follows:
-
Update job information, training contents, information about the courses and
different majors offered by the faculty.
Customized services.
4.5 Conclusions
Analysis of the data collected from the two surveys indicates that most of students
are not satisfied with the current faculty portal. The respondents said that they have
problem to get the needed information to choose courses or major, and when they are
looking for a job. Also, there is not enough information and resources related to help
them. The students in the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology
(FCSIT) want a knowledge sharing system to get such information and help them in
their decisions.
The development of the new web portal is based on the feedback from the two surveys
and the requirements of the students. In recent years, the structure of university portals
57
It is very
important for the faculty to provide the students from the first with online access to
different services and transactions such as online enrolment, course support and job
information. Nowadays, most modern universities web portals provide information and
services to achieve various goals and to improve the quality of education with these
services. This is the reason that researcher is developed the knowledge management
system that provide E-recruitment for students. This system helps the students to
discover the nature of the offering courses at the faculty base on the industry needs.
58
CHAPTER 5
SYSTEM DESIGN, IMPLEMENTATION AND DEVELOPMENT
5.1 Introduction
Based on information from the literature review, as well as the students
requirements identified from the surveys, a new portal was proposed for the Faculty of
Computer Science and Information Technology (FCSIT), University Of Malaya (UM).
This portal is a knowledge management system for the students to create a better
academic environment for their studies. This chapter also discusses other issues related
to design of the portal, including the portal requirements, interface, etc.
59
It is web application software to design the user interface (UI) very easily. Visual
Studio 2008 was used to develop the portal for this research. The web application of
ASP.Net involves the state of application, session and the use of cookies.
ASP.Net and PHP are well-known for web programming in the market. However, both
software have almost similar functions and also in their implementation, but they have
some differences, also. For example, PHP supports only C and C++ style scripting
languages with older ASP style markup as its coding language, while ASP.Net supports
more than 25 languages, and two of them C# and Visual basic.Net - are the most
commonly used. C# was selected for developing the portal in this research. PHP is
associated with most commonly-used operating systems such as Windows, Mac, Solaris
and Linux, but ASP.Net supports Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server
2003. C#, ASP.Net is selected for this system.
The database is developed using SQL Server 2005. This version of SQL Server was
released in 2005 as the successor of SQL Server 2000. It fulfills the need for data
management and it increases performance and application programmability. SQL
Server 2005 presents the SQL Native Client, which involves an updated SQL Open
Database Connectivity (ODBC) drivers and SQL OLE database (OLEDB) is provided
with the network libraries in a single dynamic-link library (DLL). It supports the
association with the Microsoft.NET framework that covers the latest ADO.NET
version. Databases are connected to the web portal with an ODBC on the web server.
The web server which is selected for this portal is Internet Information Service (IIS),
which is a collection of Internet-based services such as Hypertext transfer protocol or
file transfer protocol that is integrated with Microsoft Windows NT, and Windows
Server 2000 operating systems.
60
IIS server
Mozilla or Internet Explorer
5.3 Objectives
The main aim for designing this system is to achieve the objectives of this study.
The students requirements for the new portal were identified from the findings of the
surveys, discussed in the previous chapter. The new portal serves as a web-based tool
which caters to the needs of: Year 1-3 students as general users; final year students and
fresh graduates as the job seekers in the system, and organizations as the employers.
The Admin is considered as a different category of user that manages, controls, and
views the whole process in the system.
5.4 Scope
The main scope of this chapter concerns the selection of tools used and the
requirements to be met by the system. This research concerns the development of a
61
Web Portal
Admin
Industry
Users
Students
Current Students
Year 1
Year2
Graduated
Faculty
Students
Courses
Year3
Figure 5.1 shows the external schema of the web portal framework. The framework has
five levels; the detail, of each level will be discussed in the section, below.
5.5.1 Web Portal
The top level of the system framework includes the web portal, designed for the
research. The goal of this research is to design a web portal as a knowledge
management system for the undergraduate students in the FCSIT which will provide
them with enough information to help them in choosing the courses and major. This
selection should be based on their intended future career. It means that the portal not
only provides information about the nature of the courses but also shows how these
courses are relevant for what type of jobs in computer science. The system creates a link
between unemployed graduates and the ICT organizations and companies. This portal
also should be as online recruitment system to help fresh graduates to find jobs through
online services. This link between the faculty and the industry, with emphasis on
sharing knowledge can enhance the quality of the educational environment. The top
level of the framework, gives rise to an improved online research environment for users.
In todays academic environment, the availability of information and knowledge is an
essential component of students learning. Knowledge management (KM) is largely
used in the area of information technology. When fresh graduates who are potential
leaders for a country, cannot be absorbed for work in the industry, it becomes a major
social problem. This situation also exists in Malaysia. Suresh Ram (2006) stated that
70% of students, who finished their studies at tertiary level education, cannot find a job.
This shows how important it is to have access to the right information to find a job. It is
important for the universities that provide information to jobless graduates on the jobs
or career opportunities. Sulaimun and Alias (2005) emphasized that it is necessary for
the universities to pay more attention to their knowledge management system or web
portals to have the necessary information for the students.
63
Figure 5.2 shows the schema of the proposed web portal, in illustrating the relationship
between the students and the faculty, and the unemployed graduates and the potential
employers.
Implementation of
Knowledge sharing
Unemployed
Graduates
Web Portal
Employing
company
Figure 5.2: The conceptualization of the relationship between web portal, students and
companies
Admin
Employers
Registered users
Non-registered users
64
Users
Admin
General Users
Employers
Non-Registered
Job Seekers
Registered
A knowledge portal is a website which presents online information and services to its
users. In addition, this knowledge portal can be a suitable medium for the users to
establish a link with the faculty. Moreover, this portal which provides updated
information about the courses and other related topics is a good way to satisfy the
students requirements.
A main feature of knowledge portals is the sharing of information from authenticated
or authorized sources. This section of the portal is open for to users and will be more
helpful, especially, for the students in Year 1 who are deciding to choose the major
and the for students in year 2 and year 3 who are selecting the courses to study and
how the courses they take can affect the type of jobs, in future.
5.6.2 Functional Requirements
In designing a system, the functional requirements reflect a set of inputs, the actions
and the outputs of the system. They define the reactions of the designed system in
different situation. The developed portal which also acts as a job portal also to help
fresh graduates and final year students to search for jobs has three sections- Admin,
non-registered users and registered users. The functional requirements of the proposed
web portal are explained below:
Admin section
This involves all the management functions in order to control and manage those
aspects of the web portal. Such as employers and jobseekers management, news,
about us, settings , files upload, contact information, security, received message
settings, users and advertising .
The General Users
General users are the students who use the standard services in the portal. These users
are allowed to view the information about courses, major and the study plan in the
66
semester. They can also view information about the job categories, job
advertisements, requirements, qualification and career in computer science.
The Non-registered Users
When a user wants to be a member of the portal as a jobseeker, he or she should
register with the portal as a new jobseeker .This sub-module works in the same way for
the companies or organizations, which might wish to upload information and their job
vacancies for the students. They register in the system as a new employer.
The Registered Users
When users register themselves as a jobseeker or an employer, they can access their
personal data and the control panel. The registered users can login and log out from the
portal and can access the relevant information based on their membership type. When
a user signs in as a jobseeker and access the control panel, he can have access to
special facilities which the general users are deprived:
-
Security management: Users can change their old password and replace it
with a new one.
Profile management: The registered users are able to view their profile
information and edit it, if necessary.
Upload CV: The jobseekers can upload their CV as a text or document file to
show it to the potential employers.
Search Job: The search option is one of the important features available on the
jobseekers control panel. From the control panel, the users can search for job
vacancies which have been uploaded into the portal by the companies. Two
types of search method have been designed for the users convenience. The
67
jobseeker can search for job vacancies using keywords and also perform
advanced search by entering more detailed information for search such as the
qualifications (degree), job type, skills, level of experience, part-time or fulltime job preference.
-
Apply job: When the users find a suitable job vacancy, they can apply for it
online, and this application will be sent to the company that advertised the
vacancy.
Log out: Users can exit from the portal by using their control panel log out
page and return to the main page of the portal.
Employers who are registered with the portal also have their control panel. The
security, management profile, search and log out functions are similar to that for the
jobseekers,
Function except for the following differences:
-
Job offer management: The registered employers can create the job
advertisements for the jobseekers here and also can edit them.
Review applications: Employers can view the applications sent online by the
jobseekers and appoint them to a specific job position.
Availability: The amount of time available for some activities such as database
upgrade and backup.
68
Robustness: A robust system is able to solve errors and tolerate invalid data,
software defects, and unexpected operating conditions. The portal should be
robust enough to face expected and unexpected failures.
69
Login
Module
Web Portal
View News
Module
View Contact us
Module
View
Requirements
Module
View About us
Module
View Education
Help Module
Get Suggestion
Module
View Job
Advertising
Module
The general users can login into the portal without the need for any username and
password. They use the internet browser to login to the portal home page. There are
seven modules, as shown in Figure 5.4, which they can access. These are common
services modules for all users. Currently, any user who logins to the portal can get
standard information about the courses and major offered, their requirements as well as
view the employers advertisements.
70
Login
Module
Web Portal
Registered as
Jobseeker
Module
Search
Change
Password
Module
Module
Upload CV
Module
View the Offer
From Employer
Module
View / Edit
Profile Module
Create/View/Edit
Module
Apply for
Job Vacancy
Module
Logout
Module
Users who wish to login into the portal as jobseekers, have to register with the system,
first. Admin will confirm their registration and after 24 hours the usernames and
passwords will be active. It should be noted that the jobseekers have the same access
rights as the general users, but in addition, they have access to eight extra modules as
shown in Figure 5.5. They can create and edit the personal profile, upload CV, view
companys information, apply for a job, and search the database.
71
Login
Module
Web Portal
Register as
Employer
Module
Change
Password
Module
Create/Edit
Job Offer
Module
Upload the
Jobseeker CV
Module
View
Jobseeker Apply
Module
View / Edit
Profile Module
Logout
Module
Search Jobseeker
Information Module
View Jobseeker
Module
Appoint jobseeker
Module
When a company wants to connect to the system, it needs to register with the portal as
an employer and provide the necessary details about the company. If the admin
approves the registration, the username is activated and the company will be able to
connect to the portal and access to the relevant control panel. When an employer logins
into the portal it has access to nine modules, as shown in Figure 5.6. The company can
create the job vacancies information in the portal. It can view the information of job
seekers who have registered and applied for a job and accordingly, appoint him/her for
specific positions.
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Login
Module
Web Portal
Change password
Module
Create/Edit
User Module
Upload File
Module
Logout Module
View
Received massage
Module
View/Active/Edit
View/Active/Edit
Employers
Modules
Jobseekers Module
About Us
Contact Us
Management
Management
Module
Module
Certification
Management
Module
Job Category
Management
Module
Requirements
Management
Module
Location
Management
Module
News
Management
Module
Skills
License
Management
Management
Module
Business Type
Management
Module
Module
Advertising
Management
Module
Figure 5.7 shows that the Admin user has the highest access rights in the system. Once
the admin logins in to the portal using the special username and password he/she can
perform all functions in the portal. Admin can view, edit, control, create and manage
all functions in the system .The portal was designed in such a way that Admin can
easily make changes, add new sections any time. For example, this portal is developed
for undergraduates students of FCSIT but it can be adapted to cater to students of other
degrees, as Admin can make the change in the license management module.
73
If FCSIT decides to add a new major in the faculty, admin can easily make the change.
If companies in the Singapore want to register with the portal and upload their
information on job vacancies, admin can add Singapore to the portal as a new location
using the location management module. Hence, it is clear that one of the most
important features of this portal is that it is a dynamic portal. It means that Admin can
change, add, update, and edit all the features and functions, according to the users
requirements.
5.7.1 Database Design
Database design is one of the main tasks in the design of an information system.
Database design involves the logical design of the database which is used to store data
and manage the data for retrieval. Data integrity, data availability, efficient updating
and retrieval are the main factors which should be considered in designing the
database.
SQL Server 2005 is used as the database management system (DBMS) for the
proposed web portal. SQL Server 2005 has been one of the exciting releases of SQL
Server for many years because of new and applicable features. SQL Server 2005 has
the features which are big improvements from the earlier SQL Server 2000. Microsoft
SQL Server 2005 has been revised to meet the new data management requirements and
to improve performance programmability. Each component in SQL Server 2005 has a
unique architecture and life cycle.
SQL Server 2005 was selected for the database infrastructure because of the following
features:
-
Easy to Install and Manage: SQL Server 2005 can be downloaded very fast
and setting up the user interface (UI) is simple.
74
Rich Database functionality: SQL Server 2005 has the ability to store
procedures, extended indexes, support SQL transactions and good report the
generation facility.
The database of this portal includes 26 tables, which store information and data in the
system .Table 5.2 shows the list of tables.
Table 5.2: Lists of tables in the portal database
Table1: About Us
Table2: Accounts
Field Name
Data type
Field Name
Data type
Id
Integer
Id
Numeric
Comment
Nvarcahr
Username
Varchar
Password
Varchar
Table 3: Advertising
Field Name
Id
Data type
Numeric
Account Type
Varchar
Account Active
Bit
Description
Varchar
Register Date
Varchar
URL
Varchar
Varchar
PhotoFileName
Varchar
Active
bit
Table 4: ApplyOffers
Field Name
Id
Data type
Numeric
Field Name
Id
Data type
Numeric
FirstOfferUserName
Varchar
FirstOfferId
LICReshteCode
Varchar
FirstOfferReadStatus
Numeric
Bit
Brand
Varchar
FisrtOfferReciveDate
Varchar
Comment
Varchar
FisrtOfferUserName
Varchar
SecondOfferId
Numeric
Table 7: CompanyInfo
Field Name
Id
Data type
Numeric
UserName
Varchar
Data type
Int
75
CompanyName
Varchar
BusinessCode
Varchar
BusinessTypeCode
Varchar
BusinessType
Varchar
NOEmployee
Varchar
Country
Varchar
State
Table 8:Contact Us
Varchar
Field Name
Id
Data type
Int
WebSite
Varchar
Comment
NVarchar
TurnOver
Varchar
NOffices
Varchar
Profile
Varchar
Data type
Numeric
CompanyName
Varchar
Field Name
Id
Data type
Int
CompanyTel
Varchar
CompanyFax
Varchar
ExperiencesName
Varchar
IdentifyPerson
Varchar
ExperiencesCode
Varchar
UserName
Varchar
Password
Varchar
Data type
Numeric
JobCategory
JobCatCode
Varchar
Field Name
Id
Data type
Int
Varchar
Comments
Varchar
Field Name
Id
Data type
Numeric
Field Name
Id
Data type
Numeric
Usename
Varchar
Usrname
Varchar
Title
Varchar
JobTitle
Varchar
FirstName
Varchar
Role
Varchar
LastName
Varchar
LicenceLevelCode
Varchar
Varchar DateOfBirth
Varchar
CertificationCode
Varchar
PasportNo
Varchar
JobcategoryCode
Varchar
Contry
Varchar
SubJobCategoryCode
Varchar
State
Varchar
MainSkillCode
Varchar
STNo
Varchar
ExperienceCode
Varchar
PhoneNo
Varchar
Salary
Varchar
HowPaySalary
Varchar
JobType
Varchar
Data type
76
Id
Numeric
JobStatus
Varchar
Username
CVFile
JobDescription
Varchar
LicnenceLevelCode
varchar
JobOfferAddedDate
Varchar
CerticationCode
varchar
ActiveStatus
Bit
FinishLicenceDate
varchar
CompletedStatus
Bit
varchar
Country
Varchar
MainSkillCode
varchar
State
Varchar
Ability
varchar
StateImportant
Bit
ExperienceCode
varchar
Requirement
Varchar
Salary
varchar
UsefulCourses
Varchar
JobStatus
varchar
CompletedEducation
Status
ResumeAddedDate
Bit
Field Name
Data type
varchar
Id
Int
ActiveStatus
Bit
LicenceLevelCode
varchar
CompletedStatus
Bit
LicenceLevelName
Varchar
ResumeDescription
varchar
Country
varchar
State
SubJoBCAtegoryCo
de
varchar
Field Name
Id
Data type
Int
StateImportant
Bit
LICReshte
varchar
CVFile
varchar
LiceReshteCode
varchar
Field Name
Id
Data type
Int
Field Name
Id
Data type
Numeric
LocationCode
varchar
Title
varchar
LocationName
varchar
En_FullName
varchar
En_Comment
varchar
Data type
Numeric
varchar
SendDate
varchar
NewsTitle
varchar
ReadStatus
Bit
Description
varchar
AddedDate
varchar
Active
Bit
Data type
Numeric
UserName
Nvarchar
77
Field Name
Id
Data type
Int
STView
Bit
StSave
Bit
Username
Nvarchar
EMView
Bit
Password
Nvarchar
EMSave
Bit
Active
Bit
EXTFull
Bit
Field Name
Id
Data type
Int
Field Name
Id
Data type
Int
EnTitle
Varchr
SkillCode
Varchr
EnMessage
Varchr
SkillName
Varchr
SiteTheme
Varchr
Sitelogo
Varchr
SiteName
Varchr
Field Name
Id
Data type
Numeric
EnLanActive
Bit
SubCategoryName
Varchr
footerInfo
Varchr
SubCatCode
Varchr
CountROwMessage
Int
JobCatCode
Varchr
ButtomPicFirstpage
Varchr
ChangeLanEnMS
Varchr
newsTitle
MailServer
Varchr
Field Name
Id
Data type
Numeric
Varchr
SubLocationCode
Varchr
SubLocationName
Varchr
LocationCode
Varchr
78
The home page will be displayed when users login into the web portal using any
browser such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. In this page, users can view the
news as last updated. When the general users login into the portal, they have access to
the common services such as information about the courses and majors, the
requirements to fulfill for future jobs, read the news, give suggestions, view the
advertisements, and contact the admin. The general users do not need any username
and password to access the knowledge section of the portal.
79
Figure 5.9 is a screenshot of the Education Help Page. In this page, users can view all
majors in the faculty together with the relevant information about each major. Once a
student selects one of the majors, he can read the study planes (Figure 5.11), which
include information on courses offered in the semester and complete explanation of
each major such as the requirements, qualifications and future jobs suitable for a major
(Figure 5.10) .
80
81
Figure 5.12 is a screenshot of the Requirement Page relating to a job. This page shows
the type of jobs in computer science and the matching courses to take to handle the
jobs.
82
Figure 5.13 is a screenshot of the suggestion page. In this page, students are able to
connect to the admin of the portal; they can fill in a form to make their suggestions and
send to the admin.
2
Figure 5.14: Job Advertising Page
Figure 5.14 is a screenshot of the Job Advertising Page. In the page students can view
the job advertisements that the registered companies had uploaded into the portal. A
big difference between this page and other pages is that the information in this page is
dynamically updated by the companies. It means that when a company uploads the job
vacancies in the portal the students are able view the job vacancies with information on
the title, role, requirements, and courses taken that are relevant to the job, job category
and main skills required. The information in the other pages are uploaded and edited by
admin. Students can also view only limited information about the job vacancies. If the
complete information in an advertisement such as company information is needed, the
students need to register with the portal as jobseekers. The advertisement in this page is
automatically removed when the company has appointed someone to fill the vacancy.
83
This page provides the students to obtain the information about their courses that are
relevant to needs of the industry.
If a user wishes to register in the portal as jobseekers and to have access to the
database, they should select the register hyperlink and fill in a form and provide their
personal information and click on the Submit button. (See Figure 5.15 and Figure 5.16)
84
This information will be sent to admin. Admin checks the information, and then
confirms the registration to activate the username and password. If the username
already exists in the database, the user will receive a message asking him to change the
username. (See the Figure 5.17).
Once Admin approves and activates the username, jobseekers can login into the portal
and access the relevant control panel (See the Figure 5.18).
When the jobseeker has login into the portal successfully, the control panel will appear,
as shown in Figure 5.19. The user can choose to perform six functions from this page86
87
Figure 5.21 is a screenshot of the Profile Management page. Users can view and edit
their personal information, here.
Figure 5.22 is a screenshot of the Create Resume page. In this page, a jobseeker can
create his resume containing information such as license level, date of graduation, the
kind of jobs being sought, part-time or full-time jobs and other abilities and skills. A
user can create more than one resume depending on the type of jobs being sought.
88
Figure 5.23 is a screenshot of the View and edit resume page. In this link the users can
upload his/her CV, here. Jobseekers can also view their resume and update it base on
new information. The file format for uploading can be a Word document, a pdf file or a
picture file. (See the Figure 5.24).
Figure 5.25 is a screenshot of the Review Apply page. In this page, jobseekers can
view the requests from the companies or potential employers. This happens when a
company wants to appoint a jobseeker for a position; the user can view the requests
here and also view the full information of the company (Figure 5.26).
90
One the main features of the portal is its search facility. Figure 5.27 is the screenshot of
the Search for jobs page. The jobseeker can search the database using keywords
(Figure 5.28) or do advanced search (Figure 5.29) based on license level, certification,
job category, skills, experiences, job title and job status .
91
The last feature is Log out. It allows users to exit from the control panel and return to
the homepage again.
If companies want to connect to the portal to upload their job vacancies, they should
register with the portal, first. The registration process for employers is the same as for
92
jobseekers. They need to fill a form and provide the relevant information, and wait for
confirmation from admin.
93
Figure 5.31 is a screenshot of the Employers Control panel. This page contains six
functions for registered companies. The Security management and Profile management
functions allow users (registered companies) to view and change the password, and
edit their profile information, respectively.
In the Job offer management, the companies can create the job vacancy postings with
information on the category, certification, and job; they can also type and edit the
posting. A company can create more than one job vacancy postings for users
depending on the requirements.
In the Review apply function; the companies can review the applications of jobseekers.
They can view the jobseekers personal information, resume and CV.
94
The search function in the Employer control panel is different from the search function
for jobseekers. Here, employers can search for information on the jobseekers, instead
of the job vacancies. If they find a registered jobseeker who is eligible to fill the
companys vacancy, they will appoint him/her for that position.
Figure 5.34 is a screenshot of the Admin Login page for the system administrator to
login. After Admin has login, the control panel, as in Figure 5.35 is displayed.
Figures 5.36 - 5.39 show the screenshots of the functions or utilities that can be initiated
from the Admin control panel.
As stated in section 5.5, Admin has the highest access rights and is permitted to view,
edit, and delete all the processes in the portal and all data created by other users in the
portal.
96
97
98
99
If a valid username and correct password are entered the system will allow the user
into login to the portal and the user can get access to their relevant control panel, as
shown in Figure 5.41 and 5.42.
101
Interface
The graphic of system such as use of colors, icons, and command buttons, is
important as well as output display in designing the interface. The researcher
had also included all these elements when designing the proposed web portal.
Most of the users agree that the design of the interface is reasonable and they
like it. The researcher has tried to make the new portal as close to the existing
web site of the faculty with regard to the color and the graphics. This could
be one reason why the users accept the system to be user-friendly.
10%
10%
Very Good
20%
60%
Good
Fair
Poor
Usability
A common technique, that can be used to evaluate a system by testing it on
the users, is usability testing. This technique focuses on measuring a humanmade products capacity to meet its intended purpose. The results indicate
that the users are satisfied with the system as 90% confirmed that the system
can help them in choosing the major according to their intended future career.
It means that users view the system as a knowledge portal.
103
Search Facility
The search facility in the knowledge system with the updated information
helps the users to save a lot of time for finding information. This portal
provides search facilities for jobseekers who have registered. The new portal
has two search methods to allow the jobseekers to retrieve information from
the database. The registered users in the portal can access the job vacancies
posted in the portal and access the information of the companies through the
keywords search or search for information like job category, full-time or parttime job through the advanced search method. Thus, the users can find the
exact data that they need and can save time, also. It is not surprising that 80
% of respondents stated that the searching facility in the system is really
helpful for finding the required job vacancies.
Performance
In the computer science, performance testing is used to determine the speed
or effectiveness of the software. This portal was designed to help the students
in choosing the major relevant to their intended future career, and also to help
the fresh graduates in finding jobs in the IT industry. Figure 5.46 shows that
70% of the users stated that the performance of the system is very good; 20%
said that it was good; and 10% said that it is fair.
104
80%
70%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
20%
10%
10%
0%
0%
Very Good
Good
Fair
Poor
Satisfaction
Users satisfaction with a system is very important. In the evaluation, only
10% of the end-users surveyed stated that they are not satisfied with the
system, while 90% of end-users said that they are satisfied.
10%
90%
105
5.9 Conclusions
In developing the portal, care was taken to incorporate all the good features
considered in the earlier chapters, and the users requirements identified from the
survey. The system, however, can be further enhanced by adding new features. It should
be noted; however, that the developed portal has addressed the following issues:
a) Achieved the research objectives.
b) It provides online recruitment through the knowledge management system for
the students in the faculty.
c) Provides enough information to help the students to choose the major and to find
jobs.
d) Promotes a new relationship between the faculty and the industry.
Although the research objectives have been achieved, the portal can be further
improved in future, by adding new features and services such as chat facility or
reporting facility.
Most of the users claimed that the new portal is very user-friendly, has high
performance, and is informative.
It provides information for new students of the faculty who need help about selecting
courses and major, and for senior students who are interested to know about the
industry requirements for jobseeker. In this way, the portal has established a link
between the fresh graduates and their potential employers.
This system has achieved the aim to be a single gateway for information sharing, as
well as a dynamic link between students, faculty and the industry.
106
CHAPTER 6
CONCLUSION
6.1 Introduction
This chapter presents the findings and conclusions of the whole research which
include the outcome, system strengths and limitations and future work to the
undertaken.
107
This portal also acts as an on-line recruitment system, with links to the industry to allow
IT companies to upload their job vacancies in to the portal. In this way, the students can
obtain enough information to make good decisions regarding their studied and their
future career. Thus, objectives four, five and six of the research have been achieved.
Beside the surveys, the researcher collected information from journal articles, books,
and Internet to support the objectives. During this study, the researcher also had visited
many university portals to analyze and compare their features.
After passing different stages from literature review, done the survey and collected the
requirements, the author developed the portal and evaluated it with ten end users.
In general, hopefully this research has achieved all the objectives that were expressed
in the first chapter of this thesis.
In comparison with other job portals, the new system has the most number of
common services throughout all the modules. The researcher had taken much care to
108
standardize the contents to make the system easier to use and make it more efficient.
Furthermore, the graphics are displayed fast, even with low speed internet connection.
iii) High level management and flexibility
As it mentioned in chapter five, the admin has the highest access rights in the portal.
The manager of the system, not only can control and manage all sections and
activities in the portal, but he can also change, add more features to the system
without the need to change the code structure of the portal. For example, if the faculty
decides to generalize the system for students from other faculties or add employers
from other countries, the admin can meet this new request from the admin control
panel, easily.
Limited services
By comparing the new portal with the well-known job portals such as jobstreet.com or
jobsdb.com, the researcher believes the developed portal can be further improved with
additional services. For example, there are various tests in some job portals that can
determine the abilities of jobseekers like the test to assess the level of English
proficiency. The results of these tests can be sent to the employers directly. This service
is available in jobstreet.com. In jobstreet.com if the users want to send their resume to
the employers, they have to take this test, first. In addition, the researcher believes that
the system needs extra features to amplify the communication between the users and
the portal such as embedding an alert service into the portal. For example, Jobsdb.com
makes it possible for its users to send updated information and job vacancies to the
registered job seekers every night, based on users resume and skills.
109
110
6.6 Conclusion
This chapter presents a summary of the results from the current research. It listed
the fundamental points which make this study, briefly. As s conclusion, the objectives
of the research have been achieved. The main aim of this study is to develop a web
portal for FCSIT to share knowledge with the students to assist them in choosing
courses, major and to find jobs relevant to their qualification. The quantitative method
was used and the questionnaire forms distributed to collect the data and students
requirement. The system was developed and then evaluated by the end users
successfully.
111
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APPENDIX A
QUESTIONNAIRES
Questionnaire 1
Dear students:
Thanks for your participation in this questionnaire.
The purpose of this questionnaire is to elicit your idea about the following issue:
What are the most important factors and problems in selecting major and courses for the
students at FCSIT and how much does the FCSIT web portal can be useful for students in
providing information relating to the students majors.
Part 1: Personal Information
1-Age
18-23
23-29
30>
2-Nationality
Local
International
3-Gender
Male
Female
Year One
Year Two
Year Tree
others
8- How would you like to get information about the major or courses?
Search in the internet
Discuss with other students
consulting session
other
9-How do you currently obtain needed information about the courses that is
important for your career later?
Friends
Lecturers
Internet
No sufficient resources
10-Do you think it is important for students to know the different kinds of job
available in the industry before selecting the major?
Yes
No
11- Do you think that the selected major will affect your prospective job in the
future?
Yes
No
No
13- Have you used the Web portal of FCSIT when you want to select the courses or
major?
Yes
No
14-How long do you typically spend on the portal site of faculty each time you visit
it? (Please circle one)
15 minutes 30 minutes
1 hour less than 2 hours
30 minutes 1 hour
2 hours less than 3 hours
15-In a typical week, how many times do you use web portal of faculty?
(Please circle one)
time
2 times
3 times
4 times
116
16-On which of the following matters have you visited portal of FCSIT?
Getting the last news
Checking the emails
Good
Poor
18-Does web portal of faculty make it easier to find what you want?
Yes
No
Part 4: How do you find the FCSIT web portal?
19- Is there sufficient information about courses and majoring on the FCSIT
portal?
Yes
No
20- Is there any information about the ICT jobs available on the FCSIT portal?
Yes
No
21- Does the portal of faculty help you in regard to choosing your courses?
Yes
No
22-Doses the portals of faculty help you in order to choose your major?
Yes
No
23-Doses the portal of faculty help you in order to select a full or part time job?
Yes
No
24- If you are given the opportunity to improve the FCSIT web portal, what would you
suggest?
Information service
Personal service
Search service
26-Do you have any additional comments about web portal of faculty to be closer
as a knowledge sharing system and information portal?
27- If the FCSIT portal is going to be updated, what features would you like to
add on it?
118
Questionnaire 2
Dear students, thanks for your participation in this questionnaire.
The purpose of this questionnaire is to elicit your idea about the following issue:
What are the most important factors and problems for FCSIT students in finding a suitable
job after graduation and how much the job portal can help them to find and search related
ICT job vacancies .
Part 1: Personal Information
1-Age
18-23
23-29
30>
2-Nationality
Local
International
3-Gender
Male
Female
7-Do you think that the selected major will affect your prospective job in the
future?
Yes
NO
8-Do you think it is important for students to know the different kinds of job
available in the industry?
Yes
No
9-How would you like to get information about the job vacancies?
Public media such as newspaper
Online website
Job agencies
Email or SMS
10-How do you currently gain the abilities and knowledge about the job that is
important for your career?
Impossible to find information before starting a job
By the coursed passed during studying
No
12- Have you ever used a public job portal like jobstreet.com? (Please circle one)
Yes
No
13-Please indicate your level of experience with using job searching web sites:
No experience
some experience
Experienced
Yes
No
15-Have you had any negative experiences in any of your dealings with job
portals?
Yes
No
120
16-How can job portals help you to find a good job vacancy?
Convenient to search
Easy to access information
Save time
Others
Good
Poor
18-How often do you utilize the job sites for searching a job?
Most of the time
Seldom
Often
Not at all
www.job.com.my
www.jobs2u.com.my
21-What do you like MOST about having access to job opportunities and
information about jobs on the internet?
Easy search the job positions
Save time
22-Do you think sharing information and knowledge via web portals will be useful
source of linkage with employers?
Yes
No
23-Do you think there is adequate information for finding job with public job
portals?
Yes
No
No
121
25- Is there enough information about the ICT jobs available on the FCSIT portal?
Yes
No
26- Do you prefer that the portal of faculty acts as a job portal in order to help
the graduates for finding job?
Yes
No
27- If you are given the opportunity to improve the FCSIT web portal, what would
you suggest?
Information service
Personal service
Search service
29-If you are given the opportunity to improve the FCSIT portal as a job portal, what
would you suggest?
122
APPENDIX B
EVALUATION FORM
Dear Respondents:
This system is acting as a knowledge portal which is designing for FSKTM to support
the students in finding the suite job after graduation .This portal also helps to the
students in choosing the courses and major with getting a feedback of their future work
according the industry needs .This form includes seven questions to evaluate this portal.
Thank you for your valuable time.
Name:
Department:
b. Good
c. Fair
d. Poor
b. No
3- Is this portal helpful to select the courses and major according to your career?
a. Yes
b. Not exactly
c. Not at all
b. Not exactly
c. Not at all
5- Overall, how do you think about the performance of the web portal?
a. Very Good
b. Good
c. Fair
d. Poor
b. No
123
b. Good
c. Fair
d. Poor
Thank You
124
APPENDIX C
Responses of Questionnaire 1
Respondent/
Question
Q1
18-23
Q2
Local
Q3
Q4
Q5
Q6
Male
Year tree
friends
Year one
friends
18-23
Local
Male
18-23
Local
Male
Year tree
friends
23-29
International
Female
Artificial Intelligence
Year two
internet
18-23
International
Male
Year one
friends
23-29
Local
Male
Management
Year tree
internet
Female
Year tree
background
knowledge
18-23
International
18-23
International
Male
Year one
internet
18-23
Local
Male
Software Engineering
Year one
others
10
18-23
Local
Male
Management
Year tree
others
11
18-23
Local
Male
Year tree
friends
12
13
14
15
16
17
18-23
18-23
18-23
18-23
18-23
18-23
Local
Local
Local
Local
Local
Local
Male
Male
Male
Female
Male
Female
Year tree
Year tree
Year tree
Year tree
Year tree
Year tree
friends
others
others
18
18-23
Local
Female
Management
Year two
19
18-23
Local
Female
Software Engineering
Year tree
20
18-23
Local
Male
Software Engineering
Year tree
Year two
Year two
Year two
lectures
friends
background
knowledge
internet
background
knowledge
background
knowledge
lectures
friends
friends
Software Engineering
Year two
others
Female
Software Engineering
Year two
others
Male
Software Engineering
Year two
others
Year tree
background
knowledge
21
18-23
Local
Male
22
23
24
18-23
18-23
18-23
Local
Local
Local
Female
Male
Female
25
18-23
Local
Male
26
18-23
Local
27
18-23
Local
28
23-29
Local
knowledge
Male
Artificial Intelligence
Year two
29
18-23
Local
Male
Software Engineering
Year one
friends
30
18-23
Local
Male
Year tree
friends
Q7
Shortage information on the
web site
No system for getting
information
No system for getting
information
Lake of consulting
No system for getting
information
Shortage information on the
web site
No refer
Shortage information on the
web site
Shortage information on the
web site
No refer
Shortage information on the
web site
Other
Lake of consulting
Other
No refer
No refer
Lake of consulting
Shortage information on the
web site
Other
Shortage information on the
web site
Shortage information on the
web site
No refer
Other
Lake of consulting
No system for getting
information
No system for getting
information
No system for getting
information
Lake of consulting
No system for getting
information
No refer
Q8
Q9
Search internet
Friends
Friends
Consulting session
Lectures
Consulting session
No
resources
Consulting session
Internet
Search internet
Internet
Consulting session
Internet
Search internet
Internet
Search internet
Lectures
Lectures
Friends
Search internet
Discuss with others
Search internet
Discuss with others
Consulting session
Consulting session
Internet
Internet
Internet
Friends
Internet
Friends
Search internet
Friends
Others
Internet
Internet
Lectures
Search internet
Consulting session
Discuss with others
Lectures
Friends
Friends
No
resources
Consulting session
Search internet
Internet
Others
Internet
Search internet
Lectures
Consulting session
Lectures
Consulting session
Friends
125
Respondent
/Question
Q1
Q2
Q3
31
18-23
Local
Male
32
18-23
Local
Male
33
18-23
Local
Female
34
18-23
Local
Female
35
18-23
Local
Male
36
18-23
Local
Female
37
18-23
Local
Female
Q4
Computer System & Networking
Q5
Q6
Year tree
background
knowledge
Year two
friends
Year one
others
Year tree
Internet
Other
Consulting session
Lectures
friends
Lake of consulting
Friends
Year two
others
Lake of consulting
Consulting session
Internet
Software Engineering
Year two
friends
Search internet
No
resources
Software Engineering
Year two
Lake of consulting
Friends
Lake of consulting
Search internet
Friends
Lake of consulting
Search internet
Friends
Lake of consulting
Search internet
Friends
Internet
Consulting session
Friends
Search internet
Lectures
Search internet
Consulting session
Internet
Internet
Lectures
Search internet
Lectures
Search internet
Friends
Friends
No
resources
Internet
Lake of consulting
Search internet
Lectures
Consulting session
Friends
Lake of consulting
Search internet
Internet
Lake of consulting
Friends
No refer
Friends
Lake of consulting
Consulting session
No
resources
Search internet
Internet
Lectures
Friends
Year two
friends
Software Engineering
Year two
friends
Male
Year tree
friends
International
Male
Management
Year tree
others
18-23
18-23
International
International
Male
Female
Artificial Intelligence
Multimedia
Year tree
Year tree
internet
friends
46
18-23
International
Female
Multimedia
Year tree
friends
47
18-23
International
Female
Management
Year tree
others
48
49
18-23
18-23
International
International
Female
Female
Multimedia
Multimedia
Year two
Year two
50
18-23
International
Male
Management
Year two
51
18-23
Local
Male
Management
Year tree
52
18-23
Local
Male
Management
Year two
friends
internet
background
knowledge
others
background
knowledge
Local
Female
18-23
Local
Male
40
18-23
Local
Male
41
18-23
Local
Male
42
18-23
International
43
30<
44
45
53
18-23
International
Male
Q9
Friends
Year two
18-23
39
Q8
Others
background
knowledge
background
knowledge
lectures
38
Q7
Shortage information on the
web site
No system for getting
information
Software Engineering
Year two
Year one
friends
background
knowledge
others
background
knowledge
54
18-23
Local
Female
Multimedia
Year tree
55
18-23
Local
Female
Year two
56
18-23
Local
Male
Year two
57
18-23
Local
Female
Multimedia
Year tree
as need
58
18-23
Local
Male
Management
Year two
friends
59
60
18-23
18-23
Local
Local
Female
Male
Management
Management
Year two
Year two
friends
as need
Consulting session
126
Respondent/
Question
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Q10
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Q11
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Q12
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Q13
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
Q14
15 min-30 min
30min-1hours
30min-1hours
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
30min-1hours
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
30min-1hours
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
Q15
2
2
4
1
4
1
1
2
1
1
1
4
4
1
3
2
1
2
1
2
1
3
1
1
1
3
2
2
2
4
Q16
Getting news
Obtain courses information
Getting news
Obtain courses information
Obtain courses information
checking emails
Obtain courses information
Obtain courses information
Obtain courses information
Getting news
checking emails
Obtain courses information
Getting news
Getting news
Getting news
Obtain courses information
Getting news
Obtain courses information
Getting news
checking emails
Obtain courses information
Getting news
Getting news
Obtain courses information
Getting news
Getting news
Getting news
Getting news
Getting news
Getting news
Q17
Fair
Good
Fair
Good
Good
Poor
Good
Good
Good
Good
Fair
Good
Fair
Good
Fair
Fair
Fair
Good
Fair
Poor
Fair
Good
Good
Poor
Poor
Good
Fair
Fair
Fair
Poor
Q18
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
127
Respondent/
Question
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
Q10
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Q11
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Q12
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Q13
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Q14
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
30min-1hours
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
30min-1hours
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
15 min-30 min
Q15
2
2
2
2
1
1
3
1
3
2
1
3
1
3
4
2
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
4
1
1
Q16
Obtain courses information
Obtain courses information
Obtain courses information
Obtain courses information
Obtain courses information
Obtain courses information
checking emails
Getting news
Obtain courses information
Obtain courses information
checking emails
Getting news
Others
Obtain courses information
Obtain courses information
Getting news
Getting news
Getting news
Getting news
checking emails
Obtain courses information
Getting news
Obtain courses information
Obtain courses information
Getting news
Obtain courses information
Others
Obtain courses information
checking emails
Getting news
Q17
Fair
Fair
Fair
Good
Fair
Fair
Fair
Excellent
Good
Poor
Fair
Good
Good
Good
Good
Excellent
Poor
Good
Fair
Good
Poor
Fair
Fair
Fair
Fair
Fair
Fair
Good
Good
Good
Q18
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
128
Respondent/
Question
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Q19
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Q20
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
Q21
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
Q22
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Q23
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
Q24
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Personal Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Search Service
Information Service
Search Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Search Service
Search Service
Personal Service
Personal Service
Personal Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Personal Service
Q25
find information
better services
find information
better services
better services
communicate with lectures
find information
find information
find information
better services
communicate with lectures
find information
find information
better services
communicate with lectures
find information
find information
find information
find information
find information
better services
find information
find job
better services
better services
communicate with lectures
find information
find information
better services
find information
129
Respondent/
Question
Q19
Q20
Q21
Q22
Q23
Q24
Q25
31
No
No
No
No
No
Information Service
better services
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
No
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Personal Service
Information Service
Personal Service
Search Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Personal Service
Information Service
Personal Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Information Service
Personal Service
Personal Service
Information Service
Information Service
Search Service
Information Service
Personal Service
Search Service
find information
communicate with lectures
communicate with lectures
find information
find information
find information
better services
find information
find information
find information
find job
find information
find information
communicate with lectures
find information
find information
better services
communicate with lectures
find information
better services
find information
communicate with lectures
find information
find information
better services
find job
find information
better services
find information
130
APPENDIX D
Responses of Questionnaire 2
Respondent/
Question
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Q1
18-23
30<
23-29
18-23
23-29
23-29
18-23
23-29
18-23
18-23
23-29
18-23
23-29
23-29
23-29
23-29
23-29
23-29
18-23
18-23
18-23
18-23
18-23
23-29
23-29
23-29
18-23
18-23
18-23
23-29
Q2
Local
International
International
Local
Local
International
International
Local
Local
International
International
Local
International
International
International
International
Local
Local
Local
Local
Local
Local
International
International
International
International
International
International
International
International
Q3
Female
Male
Male
Male
Male
Male
Female
Female
Male
Male
Female
Male
Male
Male
Female
Male
Female
Female
Male
Female
Male
Female
Male
Male
Female
Female
Female
Female
Male
Male
Q4
2
3
1
3
0
3
0
1
2
1
0
1
3
1
2
2
2
1
2
0
2
3
0
0
1
0
1
3
3
2
Q5
Employment agencies
Employment agencies
Employment agencies
Employment agencies
Employment agencies
Employment agencies
Advertising
Advertising
Job announcement
Job announcement
Job announcement
Job announcement
Job announcement
Online recruitment
Online recruitment
Online recruitment
Online recruitment
Online recruitment
Online recruitment
Online recruitment
Online recruitment
Online recruitment
Online recruitment
Online recruitment
Online recruitment
Online recruitment
Online recruitment
Online recruitment
Online recruitment
Online recruitment
Q6
Not enough knowledge
Not enough experience
Limited job vacancies
Impossible to find
Impossible to find
Limited job vacancies
Impossible to find
Impossible to find
Not enough knowledge
Limited job vacancies
Not enough experience
Limited job vacancies
Impossible to find
Not enough experience
Not enough knowledge
Impossible to find
Not enough experience
Not enough experience
Impossible to find
Not enough experience
Not enough experience
Impossible to find
Limited job vacancies
Not enough knowledge
Not enough experience
Limited job vacancies
Limited job vacancies
Limited job vacancies
Impossible to find
Not enough knowledge
Q7
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
Q8
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Q9
online websites
job agencies
job agencies
online websites
Email or sms
online websites
online websites
online websites
online websites
online websites
job agencies
Email or sms
job agencies
online websites
online websites
job agencies
online websites
online websites
Email or sms
Email or sms
online websites
online websites
Email or sms
online websites
Email or sms
Email or sms
online websites
job agencies
job agencies
online websites
131
Respondent/
Question
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Q10
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
Q11
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Q12
online websites
job agencies
job agencies
online websites
Email or sms
online websites
online websites
online websites
online websites
online websites
job agencies
Email or sms
job agencies
online websites
online websites
job agencies
online websites
online websites
Email or sms
Email or sms
online websites
online websites
Email or sms
online websites
Email or sms
Email or sms
online websites
job agencies
job agencies
online websites
Q13
courses
courses
courses
Impossible to find
Impossible to find
Training class
Training class
Impossible to find
Impossible to find
Training class
Others
Training class
Training class
Others
Training class
Training class
courses
courses
Training class
Training class
Training class
courses
Impossible to find
Training class
Training class
Training class
courses
Training class
Impossible to find
Training class
Q14
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Q15
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Q16
Convenient Search
Easy to access
Convenient Search
Save time
Convenient Search
Convenient Search
Convenient Search
Easy to access
Convenient Search
Convenient Search
Save time
Convenient Search
Easy to access
Convenient Search
Save time
Save time
Easy to access
Convenient Search
Convenient Search
Save time
Save time
Convenient Search
Save time
Save time
Easy to access
Easy to access
Easy to access
Save time
Easy to access
Easy to access
Q17
Good
Excellent
fair
fair
Excellent
Good
fair
Good
Excellent
Good
fair
fair
Good
Good
Excellent
Good
Excellent
Good
Good
Good
fair
Excellent
Good
Good
Good
Good
Good
Excellent
Good
Good
Q18
Seldom
Most of time
Seldom
Seldom
Most of time
Seldom
Seldom
Often
Seldom
Seldom
Seldom
Seldom
Seldom
Most of time
Seldom
Most of time
Often
Often
Often
Often
Often
Seldom
Seldom
Seldom
Often
Often
Often
Most of time
Most of time
Seldom
132
Respondent
/Question
1
www.jobstreet.com
www.jobstreet.com
Q19
Q20
Q21
Q22
Q23
Q24
Q25
Q26
Q28
Q27
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Personal Service
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Personal Service
www.jobstreet.com
save time
easy access to
information
easy search
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Search Service
better service
easier to find
information
find job
www.jobstreet.com
easy search
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Search Service
find job
www.jobstreet.com
easy search
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Information Service
better search
www.jobstreet.com
save money
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Search Service
communicate with
employers
www.job.com.my
save time
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Personal Service
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Information Service
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
Information Service
Search Service
communicate with
lectures
communicate with
lectures
better service
www.jobstreet.com
9
10
www.jobs2u.com.my
www.jobstreet.com
easy access to
information
save time
easy search
11
better search
www.jobs2u.com.my
save money
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Information Service
12
www.jobstreet.com
save time
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Personal Service
13
better search
communicate with
employers
www.jobstreet.com
easy search
easy access to
information
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Search Service
easier to find
information
better service
find job
easier to find
information
easier to find
information
better service
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Information Service
find job
15
www.jobstreet.com
easy search
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Information Service
16
www.jobstreet.com
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Information Service
17
better search
www.job.com.my
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Information Service
18
www.jobstreet.com
easy search
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Information Service
19
better search
www.job.com.my
easy search
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Information Service
www.jawatankosong.co
m.my
www.job.com.my
www.jobs2u.com.my
www.jobstreet.com
www.jobstreet.com
save time
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Information Service
21
22
23
24
communicate with
employers
providing better service
better search
better search
employers
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Information Service
Search Service
Information Service
Search Service
25
www.jobstreet.com
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Information Service
26
www.jobstreet.com
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Search Service
find job
27
www.jobstreet.com
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Information Service
28
www.jobstreet.com
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Information Service
29
30
www.jobs2u.com.my
www.jobstreet.com
easy search
easy search
save time
easy search
easy access to
information
easy access to
information
easy search
easy access to
information
easy search
easy search
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Information Service
Search Service
find job
easier to find
information
find job
better service
14
20
www.job.com.my
easy access to
information
easy access to
information
easier to find
information
easier to find
information
find job
easier to find
information
easier to find
information
easier to find
information
better service
find job
better service
with lectures
easier to find
information
133