4th Assignment

The task at hand: Contrast and discuss the enrolment input form (PRF) with the enrolment university interface. (at least 1000 words, not to include illustrations/figures/diagrams)

Well, to start it of, let's give some little definition on the two things that I am going to tackle here, which is the PRF (Pre-Registration Form), and the SRIS (Student Information System) Form (this here is what the question is regarding to as the university enrolment interface)

The PRF is what the students get from their advisers after their corresponding adviser has advised them on what subjects to take for the coming semester. It is a small paper the size of a “one half crosswise” paper. It contains fields for information or data to be entered by the student like his/her name, address, college, scholarship, course, section, subject code, subject description, time, room and many many more. And before the adviser of the student gives the PRF, the student has to comply first some requirements, like he has to be paid from all miscellaneous fees like The Collegiate Headlight Fee (the school paper), the OCSC (Obrero Campus Student Council) fee and the Local Council fee. If he were an old student, he has to present his finished clearance and his validated ID.

After the student fills up the PRF, he goes to the adviser that gave him that particular PRF, which the latter signs. The student is now ready for encoding at this point in time. He goes to the encoder and gives his PRF, which he has already filled up. The encoder then gets the PRF and enters the data given by the student in the computer. This is where the SRIS comes in.

The SRIS is the university’s system of managing student records, which include all data from student like name, ID number, address, college, course, contact number and so much more. The data here will the basis of all his activities in the school. The data here will also be affected when he or she adds or drops a subject, fails a subject, etc. If asked where to be found, I would say that it could be found at the computers of the different encoders by each college and at the administrative offices, like the registrar and bookkeeper. And take note that before you could give the PRF to the encoder, you also have to comply some requirements. The requirement I know that the encoder needs here is your scholarship card.

For the PRF, at the topmost part, is where you write the name of college. Funny if you were from the Institute of Computing or School of Applied Economics. Why? Because what is printed there is “College of __________________”. It would sound funny if you wrote down “College of Institute of Computing, or College of School of Applied Economics”, right? Haha.

Below it, you can find the blank fields where you put your name, employer’s name (optional) and address. And again, below it, are the boxes to be filled up for the type of student (new, old, transferee), your course, major, section, scholarship, semester, school year, etc. All of these are in small boxes, with others having checkboxes and others not. Below it also are the columns for the information of the subjects that you are going to take, like subject title, subject code, subject description, time, day and room. It has I think less than fifteen rows for the student to fill up. After the student has filled up his subjects for the current semester (which the adviser has advised him to take), the adviser signs this and gives it back to him.

Below the table for the subjects are the blanks for the signatures of the adviser, the dean and the date of when it was signed.

As for the SRIS, at the top is a drop down menu. This is where the semester and school year can be found. But they are not separated, they are combined. Below it are the fields for the different information of the student, like ID number, student’s name, address, civil status, birth date and etc. Also, at the bottom, I saw something that said, “NOTE: Items in bold are required fields.”. And when I looked at the SRIS, all the items were bold. So basically, that statement would not be of use.

I think that the most noticeable difference of the two forms are the arrangements of their fields. If I were the encoder, it would be less troublesome for me if the fields of the two were at the same position, literally. That’s because with all the work I would do as an encoder, it would take up more time and effort if I would still have to analyze the two forms. For example, a student gives me a PRF, then I look at the PRF, reads the specific data, and then I turn to the system and I have to analyze first where to put it. If they were the same position, then I would not need to analyze because by only looking at it, I could tell that I would enter the specific information in the same field. But of course, all of this could be wrong, because it would just depend on the encoder if he ore she would be familiar with the two different forms. Experience would also play a part here.

I think that the one who made the PRF did not base what he or she made from the SRIS, or maybe the other way around. If the PRF was first created, then the one who created the system did not base the fields he or she made on his/her program from the PRF, which is where the encoder shall base upon what he will encode. Some of the required fields on the SRIS could not be found on the PRF, and some fields found on the PRF could not be found on the SRIS. There has to be consistency so that all resources are maximized and nothing will be wasted.