Online tertiary institutions' directory (OTID)

Abstract

In this study, an Online Tertiary Institutions Directory was implemented for the students of Uganda, to enable them to easily access detailed information about various tertiary institutions from different geographical locations of the country. This is because there is inadequate information about tertiary institutions in Uganda, especially in the Eastern region which was used as the case study because it was conveniently accessed by the researchers. This is caused by various challenges such as; limited online resources, the students are often never informed about the existing tertiary institutions’ location, programs, tuition, and the cutoff points which makes them incur traveling costs to get the above information. The study used both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data was collected using interviews and questionnaire methods and tools like self administered questionnaires and interview guides, which were used for collecting data from 112 respondents. In objective one, we collected primary data which was analyzed using excel spreadsheets and SPSS and the user requirements were determined. In objective two, the system was designed using data flow diagrams (DFDs) and enhanced entity relationship diagrams (ERDs). In objective three, the system was developed using technologies such as Bootstrap, CSS, HTML, JavaScript and MySQL among others. In objective four, the system was tested and validated. The findings of the study are a great significance to researchers, students and tertiary institution administrators. The study recommends that a mobile native application with an offline version and push notifications should be implemented in future for wider remote accessibility of tertiary institutions.