Thu, 10 Oct, 2024

CCMS: First Step in The Learning Curve

By Nikita Gautam

CCMS, Check In Check Out Management System is an exemplar of what DWIT really does.  It was built by a group of eight students from the batch of 2015. The principal objective of building this application was to no longer rely on traditional ways of signing on a register. Recording the attendance of teachers as well as the staff members electronically was the designed objective of the project. "Alteration in the present system according to the current time, situation and technological progress are always required", said Anil Shrestha, one of the student involved in this project.  The project began when the students of Batch 2015 were in their 3rd semester and version 1.0 was released at the start of their 4th semester.  Under the guidelines of mentor, Sweta Karna, eight students namely, Sameer Shrestha, Anil Shrestha, Arun Amatya, Shankar Khatri, Shankar Koirala, Pratibh Acharya, Bhawana Dahal and Keshav Bajgain were the people involved in this task. Talking about the application, it is a web based application built on ASP.NET framework using C# programming language with MS-SQL database. The primary thought behind this task was to provide the students with necessary techniques and confidence to cope up and operate with real time applications. According to Shankar Khatri, "It was a mesmerizing experience in-fact, because learning something new is always tough. We not only learned about building an application  but also a bunch of other things that had, has and will always make an impact on us and our lives in one direction or the other. We started believing in ourselves, our self-learning capabilities did boost up. We were able to use tools frequently used in real time application.” The most interesting part that this team brought up was that they were able to start and successfully finish the project despite having little knowledge about it. They were really helped by the college administration, their mentor and their self learning capability. Students were overwhelmed to share their experience. Shankar Koirala said, " You tend to learn more when it’s the matter of self learning. You gather more information in order to make your project not only better but the best. I guess no  IT college would offer this kind of platform to let their students explore real time tasks and really help establish them."  Arun Amatya also added, “.NET framework and C# were totally new to us. As I was assigned in design part, I was capable to explore my design capabilities more. I now realize that I have developed a creative mind mapping system inside myself. It really helped us to increase our level of confidence. Prior knowledge of Database also helped us in our academics." Theoretical knowledge when thoroughly mixes with the practical approach, something new always explodes. Talking about the features inside the CCMS, 1.0 version had a record attendance system of teachers as well as the staff members, but the next version is in the phase of its completion which offers the following additional features:

  1. Report generation of students.
  2. Group as well as Individual record generation and extraction all at a time.
  3. Teacher's report generation.
  4. Section wise, group wise record generation.
According to their mentor, Sweta Karna, it was a bigger challenge for her to teach the students develop .NET application and SDLC. She had to start right from 0 as everyone was reluctant to start as the students were unsure about how they would do it in the midst of exams. She said, "In spite of the exam pressure, they got interested and it gives me a sense of pride that they not only built an application, but also learnt team work. And yes, they are a great team. Now that we are in the second phase, the team is more mature and responsible towards their responsibility. This is a baby step in software development but definitely will have strong foothold in this area with this kind of learning." She concluded that it was a great experience to work with a great team. According to the Management of DWIT, the whole idea behind building the application was to spread message amongst everyone that being an IT college, we are able to develop software by ourselves rather than paying hefty commissions and buying commercial products developed by other companies. They were energized about the project, as they had students of third semester help build them an application. Hitesh Karki, Director of Academics said, "Even more importantly, it was good to see students’ all smiles at the sight of the campus chief using that system." He also added, "The messaging has been consistent throughout. We want people to build their own games and their own apps rather than use someone else’s. We will provide all the necessary help. Right now, there are at least more than a dozen projects in the pipeline. So we expect students to acknowledge the fact that its people like them who build things that they play with. So we want them to make the most out of these four years while they are here and be fully equipped to take on the world by the time they graduate." The latest version of the application is in the phase of release now. Everyone involved in building the application is excited. All of them agreed that it might be a small step to success in the giant software world, but, small droplets come together to become a giant ocean. There is never a shortcut to success. Dedication is always expensive and fruitful in the end. It's only perspiration that matters, which ultimately leads you towards the course of growing more and more each day. For additional information, contact: Shankar Khatri, President - The Software Club; Email: [email protected]; Phone: 4-485424.