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Applications of RFID in School D8

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〈Applications of RFID in School〉


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Table of Contents

Objective and Analysis---------------------------------------------------------- Page 3-7

Design-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 8-17

Implementation-------------------------------------------------------------------Page 18-34

Testing and Evaluation----------------------------------------------------------Page 35-58

Conclusion and Discussion-----------------------------------------------------Page 59-61

References------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 62

Acknowledgement----------------------------------------------------------------Page 63

Appendix---------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 64 (i) Detention List

(ii) Payment Overdue Record


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Objective

In our school, it is always a disaster when dealing with attendance-taking, fee payment for

printing materials or school activities and function room booking. They are done in a primitive and

manual way by teachers over the past years. As a result, mistakes and errors are frequently made and

have caused a lot of bottleneck problems which will be discussed below. Also, students’ whereabouts

is another big concern in school.

The method of attendance-taking is always a controversial issue in school. For years, teachers and

students have been arguing on when a student should be termed as a latecomer and when should not.

As the attendance-taking is done by teachers, the time that counted as late varies from few seconds to

few minutes according to the arrival of the teachers. In this case, if a student come to school at 8:11am

(while students should be in school before 8:10am) , he/she might not be treated as latecomer on that

day.

Also, if a class teacher is absent on one day without any notification to the school, nobody will

take the responsibility of taking attendance for his/her certain class. As a result, attendance of that

particular class cannot be properly taken.

The most frequent argument among teachers and students is that students may claim that they are

in the school campus within the school hours but only fail to come into the classroom on time due to

reasons like they go to the toilet or they are having a meeting with another teacher. As such, quarrels

and disputes will come along and the final judgment will all depend on the teacher’s preference rather

than the factual situation.

The same applies to fee payment for printing materials or school activities. Since fee payment is

done manually, money transaction is complicated when one has to deal with a bunch of cash or

cheques. As a matter of fact, loss of cash and cheques is a routine in our school. This not only affects


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the operation in dealing with fee payment, school has to make up for the losses made by school

officials.

As for the function room booking, students are often found to misuse the function rooms. Since

booking can be made simply by signing up using the student id number on a sheet of booking record

which is stapled on the activity board, some may erase the booking record of others to enable

themselves to use that particular function room on other’s timeslot. As a result, the booking cannot

satisfy the first-come-first-served basis and students might fail to hold a meeting in that function room

even if he/she has booked it before.

Recently, a vast majority of our teachers came to me, seeking for solutions of the above problems.

As an IT technician in school, I think that a new system should be introduced to our school in order to

eradicate problems that could be solved by advanced technology nowadays.

Teachers and administrators in school should have access to the attendance records. For the fee

payment, treasurers in school office should have access to the payment records for any addition or

deletion of certain fee payment, as well as creating a sound record of each student’s payment record.

The booking of function rooms should also be made using the new system which disables students

from misusing the function rooms.

If a project for a new system for solving problems mentioned above is made, this would definitely

helps to standardize the method of attendance-taking, lessen the arguments among teachers and

students. Also, teachers may have more time to focus on their teaching as well as making good use of

manpower. Fee payment can be recorded in the system automatically and payment would be made

without any contrived mistakes. Booking of function rooms at different timeslots will be recorded

clearly to avoiding the misuse of the function rooms.


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Analysis

There are a few possible ways of solving the problems. Fingerprint identification can be used for

attendance-taking on students’ own so that teachers will not be responsible towards the attendance

record. Password system can also identify students by assigning them with different passwords to key

in when entering the school gate. Barcode can be printed on each student card for identification when

taking attendance. Pinhole plotter widely used in the society can also help to take attendance of

students.

As for the fee payment, e-payment can automatically transact a certain amount of money to the

school and it can be done via the internet at different places.

Booking of function rooms can also be done through eclass system where students could book the

function rooms whenever they are available, in other words, they are not yet booked.

However, the above possible ways cannot solve the three problems at the same time. Only radio

frequency identification (RFID) could solve all three problems. RFID is the new generation of barcode

scanning. It can read the information stored in a RFID chip embedded in a student card. When a

student wears his/her student card to school, a doorway scanner in front of the school gate will record

the time in and time out of that student and make attendance record accordingly. In addition, if a

student is found to be late, the RFID system will automatically notify the school’s administrative

office of the latecomers’ name, class and class no., making the attendance-taking process more

efficient, accurate and more organized. A SMS can also be send instantly to the student’s parents in

advance for security reason if the student didn’t show up in class.

Fee payment can be easily made through swiping a student card with a RFID chip embedded in it.

Certain amount of money in the school account of the students will be deducted automatically without

handling the real money from one department to another. It causes less chaos and saves up manpower


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and a lot of time. To compare with e-payment, it is more user-friendly in a way that it is easier to use

by just swiping the student card on the card reader.

The same applies to the booking of function rooms. Students could book function rooms in

school through entering the booking system using card reader kiosks in school. After choosing the

venue and timeslot, students could swipe their student card with RFID chip on the card reader for

identification and booking is done.

When students carry their student card with RFID chip embedded in the school campus, the RFID

system could locate the students’ whereabouts.

RFID system is surely the best solution. It is relatively cheap comparing with fingerprint

identification. It saves up time when taking attendance since all the attendance record is done

automatically, students do not have to swipe the card on a card reader in front of the school gate.

Multiple scanning of students’ RFID chips can be done at the same time by using anti-collision

protocol which enables the chips’ information to take turn to send to the card reader. Students only act

as a passive role during attendance taking. It is less time-consuming when comparing with the use of

fingerprint identification, password system, barcode scanning and pinhole plotter which require every

student to identify themselves actively.

In the RFID system, there are two kinds of RFID chips, passive and active.1 Active RFID chips

require battery which limits the lifetime of the chips. However, a passive one does not require battery

from its own. The radio waves of the card reader will be activated when sensing a passive RFID chip

and then read to the chip’s antenna. It therefore does not require energy in the chips. Also, active RFID

chips are relatively expensive and larder in size when compared with passive RFID chips. Therefore,

passive RFID chips will be introduced in the system.

1 Christensen B. "Passive RFID tag (or Passive Tag)" Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™ <http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Technology-Article.asp?ArtNum=47>


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Unlike barcode which is exposed to the air and printed on a student card, RFID chip can be

embedded in a student card which protects it from rubbing and wear and tear. As a result, it has a

longer life span. Furthermore, information stored in RFID chips can be updated which outweighs

using barcode that information once stored, cannot be changed again. Also, barcode reader can only

scan one at a time whereas multiple tag can be read simultaneously using RFID reader.2

RFID chips can be sensed by a card reader easily because it can be read even at a great distance

up to 300 feet whereas a barcode can only read within the distance of 15 feet. RFID chips do not need

a direct line of sight for scanning while barcodes need a direct line of sight. This again saves up time

for identifying one’s record.

It is certainly feasible to implement the RFID system in school as it does not require a lot of

resources when buying the RFID chips and card reader kiosk in bulk as a school. Also, the system

would not use up a lot of area in the school campus. It would only require two to three card reader

kiosks in front of the school gate, around fifty card readers located in different rooms to track the

students’ whereabouts and three to four card reader kiosks around the campus for function room

booking and one for the school’s administrative office. Parents’ of students also have to deposit money

into their school account for school’s fee payment regularly to ensure the smoothness of the money

transaction process.

2 Atlas RFID Solutions, Inc. “RFID vs. Barcode: A comparison of technologies” Atlas RFID Solutions <http://www.atlasrfidsolutions.com/rfid-vs-barcode.asp>


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Design 1) STUDENT

The table includes viewing, creating, updating and deleting of student records. Each student is identified by a student ID.

Personal information included are the student ID, first name, last name, class, class number, gender, address, phone number,

date of birth, bank account number (in school account), parent ID, teacher ID and room ID. Parent ID is included so that details

of the respective students’ parents can be referred to the PARENT table. Teacher ID is the class teacher ID of the student which

their details can be referred to the TEACHER table. Lastly, there is a room ID which tracks the students’ whereabouts within

the school campus in school hours. The room ID will be updated from time to time when students move from one location to

another with scanning antennas. Details of the room ID can be referred to the ROOM table.

field name type width description

Stud_id character 7 Student ID

First_name character 11 Student first

name

Last_name character 9 Student last name

Class character 5 Class

Class_no numeric 8 Class number

Gender character 6 Gender

Address character 52 Address


Phone numeric 8 Phone number

Dob date 8 Date of birth

Bank_acc character 10 Bank account

number

Parent_id character 9 Parent ID

Teacher_id character 10 Teacher ID

Room_id character 7 Room ID

Key field: Stud_id


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2) ATTENDANCE

The attendance record for each student on each school day is identified by the student ID and the date of school day. This table

includes the student ID, date, entering school time, leaving school time and the attendance type: present (p), early leave (e),

late (l), absent (a). The entering school time is the first data recorded on each school day and the leaving school time records

the last time the student pass by the card reader in the school gate. Attendance type is derived from the entering school time

and the leaving school time. Since the attendance column will only record one character, if a student commits lateness and

early leave on the same day, the student will be counted as late (l).

field name type width Description


Date date 9 Date

Go_to_scho character 20 Entering school time

Leave_scho character 20 Leaving school time

Attendance character 17 Attendance (p, e, l, a)

Key field: Stud_id, Date

3) BOOKING

This table includes the student ID, room ID, date and time of booking. Each record is identified by the student ID and the date

of booking as one student can only book one room for one hour on one school day. The student ID indicates the student’s

identity who books the room. The room ID indicates which room is to be booked and the room name can be referred to the

FUNCTION_RM table. The date and time of booking indicates the details of booking record.



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Date date 8 Date of booking

Time character 11 Time of booking

Key field: Stud_id, Date

4) FUNCTION_RM

This table includes room ID, room name and the location of room. Each record is identified by the room ID. This table shows

the details of different function rooms in school which can be booked by students.



Room_name character 23 Room name

Area_block character 13 Location of the room

Key field: Room_id

5) PARENT

This table includes parent ID and the students’ respective parents’ name and phone number. This table shows the details of the

students’ parents. These are used to contact parents whenever in need.


Parent_id character 10 Parent ID

Dad_name character 11 Father first name

Dad_lastna character 12 Father last name

Dad_phone numeric 9 Father phone number


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Mum_name character 11 Mother first name

Mum_lastna character 12 Mother last name

Mum_phone numeric 9 Mother phone number

Key field: Parent_id

6) TEACHER

This table includes teacher ID, teacher’s name and gender. This table shows the details of all class teachers in school. Students

in the same class will have the same teacher ID in the STUDENT table as they have the same class teacher.


Teacher_id character 10 Teacher ID

First_name character 11 Teacher first name

Last_name character 9 Teacher last name

Gender character 6 Gender of the teacher

Key field: Teacher_id

7) TRANSACTION

This table includes student ID, date of transaction and payment code. It is a table for recording transaction made by students in

school. Every payment code represents one item of payment and details of the item can be referred to the PAYMENT table.

field name Type width description

Stud_id Character 7 Student ID

Date Date 12 Date of transaction

Payment_co Numeric 8 Payment code

Key field: Stud_id, Payment_co


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8) PAYMENT

This table includes payment code, item name, fee and the deadline of the payment. This shows the details of the payment items.

Fee is the amount of money students have to pay for a certain item. Deadline of payment is shown for chasing after fee

payment from students which are overdue.


Payment_co character 12 Payment code

Item character 6 Item name

Fee character 5 Fee

Deadline date 8 Deadline of the payment

Key field: Payment_co

9) ROOM

This table includes room ID, room name and the location of the room. It shows all the rooms which have card readers installed

inside. It shows the details of a particular room of what name it is and where it is located from a room ID.



Room_name character 23 Room name

Area_block character 16 Location of the room

Key field: Room_id

ER diagram


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Schema


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Network Diagram


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Description of Network Diagram


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In the network diagram, the multiple card readers (scanning antennas) around the campus are connected to a transceiver (with a

decoder) which are then linked to one of the PC and data will be stored in the database servers. There are two database servers on top.

One is for the access of teachers or school administrators and the other serves as a backup server. The two servers are linked to the

switch on the second floor with CAT5e cables which are red in color. This switch is linked to the firewall and router which then gains

the Internet access in school. The switch is further linked with the other switch on the ground floor using a fiber-optic cable which is

green in color. On the ground floor and second floor, all the desktop computers and printers are linked to the switch on their floor

using CAT5e cables. On all floors, laptops are connected to the centralized server through access point on their floor which creates a

wireless environment. The dotted lines are drawn to divide different floors.

For the security measures, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption should be implemented to secure the integrity of the data by

encrypting information and providing client/server authentication. Network is divided into different subnets, namely the subnet for

teachers (192.168.2.x) and the subnet for public users (192.168.1.x) which can control the users’ access that only teachers and

administrators are allowed to the gain access to the database server. Firewall is used to prevent unauthorized electronic access to the

networked computer system in school. Apart from firewall, antivirus software should also be installed in the computer system to

protect against a wide range of malicious software such as worms, phishing attacks and Trojan horses. For the laptop computers which

connect to the Internet using wireless network, WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) should be used to prevent wireless signal

interception. Also, a strong user authentication should be implemented on the LAN so that even the encryption is broken, data cannot

be accessed easily.

Wired and wireless networks are used in the school campus. Since most of the teachers’ computers are located on the second floor,

wired technology is use to link the computers to the database server as well as the Internet. Also, general computers on the ground

floor also use wired network but they can only gain access to the database server after logging in the system with teacher’s id and

password. A wired network is more stable and cheaper when compared with the wireless one and the rate of transmission of data is

faster than using wireless network because every CAT5e cable provides a minimum of 100Mhz of bandwidth. CAT5e cable is used


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because it performs better for the long runs of 1000MbE.when compared with CAT5 cable. As for the wireless network on all floors, it

allows a greater mobility for teachers to gain access to the database server or the Internet by their laptops with a built-in wireless

capability. Furthermore, it is relatively easy and inexpensive to install.

Fiber-optic cable is used to link the two switches because it has less attenuation which can span miles of distance. It is an ideal

cable to use across floors in a building. Also, it does not emit electromagnetic waves and therefore, signals cannot be intercepted easily.

Also, fiber-optic cable has greater bandwidth that more data can be travelled at the same time. However, it is rather expensive to

install and maintain, therefore only one of this kind is used in the whole system to save up the cost of building a network in school.

Printers are located on the ground floor and the second floor to centralize them in areas which are commonly used. This again

lowers the cost of buying hardware.


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Implementation

User Interface (Main Page):

Figure 0.1


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Using the account of teacher, Hilary Chung, to login, the webpage is shown as below:

Figure 0.2


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Reports 1. Lateness detention list

Purpose: The lateness attention list is a list of students who have committed 2 times or above lateness in one month. Notification will

be sent to their class teacher and to do follow up work.

In the tables of attendance, there are eleven tables representing different months: Sep (September, 2007), Oct (October, 2007), Nov

(November, 2007), Dec (December, 2007), Jan (January, 2008), Feb (February, 2008), Mar (March, 2008), Apr (April, 2008), May

(May, 2008), Jun (June, 08) and Jul (July, 2008)

The following is an example of how to produce a table in September, 2007:

Tables used: sep, student, teacher

Tables produced: sep_late_record , sep_detention_list


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Figure 1.1 September Lateness Detention List (for Lateness Detention List, see Appendix)


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Command:

SELECT a.stud_id, b.first_name, b.last_name, b.class, b.class_no, COUNT(*) AS no_of_late, c. first_name AS tfirst_name,

c.last_name AS tlast_name from sep a, student b, teacher c where a.stud_id=b.stud_id and b.teacher_id=c.teacher_id and

a.attendance="l" group by a.stud_id into table sep_late_record

SELECT * from sep_late_record WHERE no_of_late>=2 INTO TABLE sep_detention_list

Remarks:

The bolded words in the command should be changed according to different months. E.g. replace sep with jan when

checking for the late record in January, 2008.

Student committed no lateness in that particular month will not be shown on the late record.


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Tables produced:

Figure 1.2 September Late Record table

Figure 1.3 September Detention List table

2. Payment overdue record

Purpose: The payment overdue record is use to check the students’ overdue record in each class. Parents of those students will then be

notified via phone to pursue after the payment.

Tables used: student, payment, transaction, parent

Tables produced: payment_overdue, overdue_notification


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Figure 2.1 Payment Overdue Record (for Payment Overdue Record, see Appendix)


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Command:

SELECT a.stud_id, a.first_name, a.last_name, a.class, a.class_no, a.bank_acc, a.parent_id, b.payment_co, c.item, c.fee, b.date,

c.deadline from student a, transaction b, payment c where a.stud_id=b.stud_id and b.payment_co=c.payment_co and b.date=" "

and deadline<date() into table payment_overdue

• SELECT a.stud_id, a.first_name, a.last_name, a.class, a.class_no, a.item, a.fee, a.deadline, a.date, b.dad_name, b.dad_lastna,

b.dad_phone, b.mum_name, b.mum_lastna, b.mum_phone FROM payment_overdue a, parent b WHERE

a.parent_id=b.parent_id into table overdue_notification

Tables produced:

Figure 2.2 payment_overdue table


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Figure 2.3 overdue_notification table


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3. Monthly attendance record

Purpose: This report is used to find out the number of different attendance type of each student in each month.

The following is an example of how to produce a table of lateness for September, 2007:

Tables used: sep, student

Tables produced: sep_late_record


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Figure 3.1 Late record in September


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Command:

Select a.stud_id, COUNT(*) AS no_of_late, b.first_name, b.last_name, b.class, b.class_no from sep a, student b where

a.stud_id=b.stud_id and a.attendance="l" group by a.stud_id into table sep_late_record

Remarks:

The bolded words in the command should be changed according to different months and different attendance type. E.g. key in

jan when checking for number of lateness of each student in January, 2008, key in "e" to replace "l" that is use earlyleave to

replace late when checking for number of earlyleave of each studnt in September, 2007.

Student committed no lateness in that particular month will not be shown on the record.


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Table produced:

Figure 3.2 sep_late_record table


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4. Function room booking record

Purpose: It is use to check the booking record of different function rooms in different timeslots from students.

Tables used: Booking, Function room, Student

Tables produced: 100307_12001300_booking

Figure 4.1 function room booking record on 3rd October, 2007 at 12:00-13:00


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Command:

• select c.stud_id, c.first_name, c.last_name, c.class, c.class_no, a.date, a.time, a.room_id, b.room_name, b.area_block from

booking a, function_rm b, student c where a.room_id=b.room_id and a.stud_id =c.stud_id and a.date={^2007/10/03} and

a.time='12:00-13:00' into table 100307_12001300_booking

Remarks:

The bolded words in the command should be changed according to different dates and timeslots.

Assumption: Students in school are only allowed to book one function room for an hour on a day.

Table produced:

Figure 4.2 100307_12001300_booking table

5. Whereabouts of students

Purpose: It is used to track the whereabouts of student within school hours.

The following is an example of finding the whereabouts of student with student id ‘s0023’:

Tables used: Student, Room

Table produced: whereabout_s1B03


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Figure 5.1 current location of student of class 1B and class number 3


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Command:

• select a.first_name, a.last_name, a.class, a.class_no, a.room_id, b.room_name, b.area_block from student a, room b where

a.room_id=b.room_id and a.class=‘1B’ and a.class_no=3 into table whereabout_s1B03

Remarks:

The bolded words in the command should be changed according to different student’s class and class number. E.g. key in

‘1C’ and 4 when tracking the whereabouts of student in class 1C where class number is 4.

Table produced:

Figure 5.2 whereabouts_s1B03 table


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Testing and Evaluation

1. Functional Testing

In this part, all the components will be tested to see whether they work properly

or not.

a. Check detention list of another month and class, e.g. October, 2007 of class

1C

Figure 1.1 Detention list of class 1C in October

Testing of detention list of another month October and class 1C can be successfully

generated. The testing is passed.


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b. Check payment overdue record of another class, e.g. 6B

Figure 1.2 Payment overdue record of class 6B

Testing of payment overdue record of another class 6B can be successfully



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c. Check monthly record of another attendance type and month, e.g. early

leave on October, 2008.

Figure 1.3 Monthly record of early leave on March, 2008

Testing of monthly record of early leave on March, 2008 can be successfully



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d. Check room booking of different date and time slot, e.g. 09:00-10:00 28th

Feb, 2008

Figure 1.4 Room booking at 09:00-10:00 on 28th Feb, 2008

Testing of room booking record of another date 28th Feb, 2008 and time

09:00-10:00 can be successfully generated. The testing is passed.


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e. Check student location of another student, e.g. student of class 3A and

whose class number is 9.

Figure 1.5 Location of student of class 3A and whose class number is 9

Testing of student location of another class 3A and class number 9 can be successfully



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2. System Testing

In this part, real set of data (both valid and invalid) should be fed into the system

and see whether the expected results are outputted or not.

a. Use another account e.g. Wilifred Din’s account to login.

Figure 2.1 Wilifred Din login page

At the top left hand corner of the blue box, the welcoming sentence appears

according to different login names. In this case, it is ‘Hi Wilifred Din!’ The

function of automatically change the webpage’s welcoming sentence is

successfully tested.


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b. Check whether the ‘next page’ functions or not on each webpage.

Figure 2.2 Detention list next page

Figure 2.3 Payment overdue record next page


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Figure 2.4 Monthly record next page

After pressing the ‘next page’ key, if there is no next page, a grey box will pop

up to tell that no next page can be shown.

Otherwise, the next page will be shown. The function of turning to the next page

is successfully tested.


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c. Check whether every page can logoff.

Figure 2.5 Logoff on detention list page

Figure 2.6 Logoff on payment overdue record page


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Figure 2.7 Logoff on monthly record page

Figure 2.8 Logoff on room booking page


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Figure 2.9 Logoff on student location page

d. If a wrong login name or password is entered on the login page, check

whether it could ask you to insert again.


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Figure 2.10 After-invalid-details-are-entered page

The page does not change. The system fails the testing. The statement has been

modified and the result is as follows:

Figure 2.11 After-invalid-details-are-entered page after modification


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e. Check the page shown when invalid data is inputted on the detention list

page, e.g. a teacher only choose the month to be produced but does not

choose which class he/she is checking.

Figure 2.12 Invalid data inputted on detention list page

The grey box has popped up to tell the teacher to input again. This system is



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f. Check the page shown when invalid data is inputted on the payment

overdue record page, e.g. a teacher does not choose a class before producing

the payment overdue record.

Figure 2.13 Invalid data inputted on payment overdue record page




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g. Check the page shown when invalid data is inputted on the monthly record

page, e.g. a teacher only choose the attendance type to be produced but does

not choose which month he/she is checking.

Figure 2.14 Invalid data inputted on monthly record page




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h. Check the page shown when invalid data is inputted on the room booking

page, e.g. a teacher fails to choose all three columns, namely month, date

and time.

Figure 2.15 Invalid data inputted on room booking page




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i. Check the page shown when invalid data is inputted on the room booking

page, e.g. a teacher has chosen a wrong date like 30th Feb, 2008 which does

not exist.

Figure 2.16 Wrong data inputted on room booking page

The page does not change. The system fails the testing. The statement has been

modified and the result is as follows:


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Figure 2.17 Wrong data inputted on room booking page after modification




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j. Check the page shown when invalid data is inputted on the student location

page, e.g. a teacher only choose the class to be found but does not choose

which class number of the student he/she is checking.

Figure 2.18 Wrong data inputted on student location page


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3. Usability Testing

In this part, I would invite 4 friends to test-run the program, namely Christine, Hana,

Leslie and Tina. This testing will focus on the ease of use as well as its functionality.

The questionnaire below will be distributed to my friends to help collecting

comments:

SAMPLE QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Is the page layouts look identical to the prior version?

Answer: ________________________________

2. Are key parts of the text the same or different?

Answer: ________________________________

3. Is there any dead links found?

Answer: ________________________________ (If yes, please specify)

4. Is there any links requires a rather long response time?


5. Do all the buttons work properly?

Answer: ________________________________ (If no, please specify)

6. Is the system easy to follow?

Answer: ________________________________

7. Is there any data that cannot be generated?


8. Are there any options you would like to add in order to make the system more


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comprehensive?

Answer:

_____________________________________________________________

Please make notes on any other problems that you have encountered:

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

Other comments:

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

Response of Christine:


Answer: Yes, it looks identical.


Answer: The same.


Answer: No. (If yes, please specify)




Answer: Yes. (If no, please specify)



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Answer: Pretty easy!




comprehensive?

Answer: Maybe in the student location part, users can choose students by their

class and class number rather than their student ID number.


Nil.

Other comments:

Easy to control!

Response of Hana:


Answer: Yes.


Answer: Same.








Answer: Yes, I think.


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comprehensive?

Answer: Nil.


Nil.

Other comments:

Nil.

Response of Leslie:


Answer: Identical.


Answer: The same.








Answer: Moderate




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comprehensive?

Answer: Nil.


Nil.

Other comments:

The layouts are not fancy.

Response of Tina:


Answer: Yes.


Answer: They are the same.








Answer: Yes, very easy!




comprehensive?


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Answer: Nil.


Nil.

Other comments:

Nil.

Conclusion and Discussion

To conclude, it has been a great experience to me as I learn how to make plans

on such a big project for a school. However, there are many difficulties that I have

encountered in this project.

At the beginning, I found it very interesting to select the topic ‘Applications of

RFID in school’ because it is an extremely new term to me. After choosing this topic,

I used a few weeks to collect information on RFID of its function and use and finally

worked out my first draft of analysis and objective.

After that, I then collected data from our school of students’ attendance record,

payment record as well as room booking record. When working on the design, I had a

chance to put some of the knowledge learnt in Computer Applications into practice.

For example, the design of an ER diagram, schema and network diagram. This helps

to consolidate my learning of this subject.

During the implementation, I have to work accordingly to the ER diagram which

varies from time to time as further improvements are frequently made. This is the

toughest part in the entire project as it involves a lot of mental work instead of paper

work. I have to store a huge mind map in my mind in order to create a sound and

related program. However, this is also the most challenging part in the project. Every


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SQL command is created by myself and whenever one query is produced, I feel that

my way to success is drawing closer and closer and that sense of success is hard to

describe.

Apart from that, another big challenge to me is how to make good plans on time

management since we were only given a few months to work on the whole

coursework. It is rather hard to strike a balance between doing coursework and

revising on subjects that I took. Therefore, this coursework too gives me a chance to

learn how to fight time.

This project is surely a great one for helping the school to run smoothly as all of

the data will be collected automatically; lessening the chaos that may caused using

primitive way to collect data. I believe that through the implementation of RFID in

school, teachers and students will have more time to concentrate on the school work

and academic work respectively. Therefore, implementing the RFID system in school

is worthwhile.

However, there are still some limitations on the RFID system. Firstly, the

attendance record of time-in may not be reliable sometimes because the records only

show the first data recorded in the card reader on a school day. However, if a student

enters the school at 7:20 and leaves at 8:00, then he comes back at 9:00. Then

although the student should be counted as late after 8:10am, the record still records

him as present on that day. To improve this, a more thoughtful system should be

introduced to reduce the possibility for students to get rid of school’s punishment.

Another limitation is that the room booking record can only be viewed by

teachers in school while here is no real room booking system made for the students in

the coursework. Therefore, this is not a totally comprehensive system. To improve this,

a room booking system for students should be worked out in order to create a full


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picture of the whole RFID system.

Also, since the room ID which locates the students’ whereabouts only records the

last venue the student enters where there is a card reader, if student is in somewhere

without those card readers, then the function of RFID will fail to locate record the

students’ exact location at the moment. To improve this, more card readers should be

installed in the campus so as to increase the accuracy of locating the student’s

whereabouts while this may cost a lot more expensive.

Furthermore, one of the testers found the user interface not nice-looking enough;

therefore I should spend more time on the webpage design in order to improve the

attractiveness of my work.

In the future, I believe the school could use the RFID technology to apply on

more areas. For example, all books in the school library can be embedded with RFID

chips in order to enhance the efficiency on borrowing books (all the borrowing

records will be automatically recorded in the computer as s student with his student

ID card carries along his needed books across the card reader at the front door of the

library) and checking for lost books (all books are associated with their belonging

shelf with sensor, the book ID missing on that particular book shelf can be found

immediately without manual counting). This newly introduced RFID system could be

a solid foundation for future RFID technology and I believe a school that can run in

advanced technology can benefit in both short term and long term.

All in all, this project is a practical system to be introduced to the school. With

the assistance of advanced technology, I am sure a better learning environment can be

created in school.


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References

Christensen B. "Passive RFID tag (or Passive Tag)" Technovelgy.com -

where science meets fiction™

<http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Technology-Article.asp?ArtNum=47>

Atlas RFID Solutions, Inc. “RFID vs. Barcode: A comparison of

technologies” Atlas RFID Solutions

<http://www.atlasrfidsolutions.com/rfid-vs-barcode.asp>


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Acknowledgement

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Computer Applications teacher,

xxxxx. He has put in a lot of time and effort in order to make my coursework a

successful one. He shows his willingness to spare his time in both Christmas and

Lunar New Year holidays helping us throughout the process. Also, I would also like to

thank my five classmates who study Computer Applications. I have learnt a lot form

them. After months of endurance, working together and exchanging ideas, we have

created a great platform of mutual support for each other. Apart from them, a lot of

thanks must be given to my four good friends, namely Christine, Hana, Leslie and

Tina who have helped out the complete the questionnaire in the testing and evaluation

part.

Throughout the coursework, two programs have been accompanying and they are

Microsoft Visual Foxpro and Concept Draw trial version. Microsoft Visual Foxpro is

the psyche of the whole coursework. Without this program, the whole system would

not have been made easily. This software is very user-friendly for one to produce

reports from database through SQL commands. As for the Concept Draw trial version,

it is used for drawing ER diagram and network diagram which helps to beautify the

ER diagram and network diagram and making them clearer to read and understand.

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