A Comprehensive Study and Development of Unified Mobile-Based Admission System for GCC Universities

Authors

  • Ehab Juma Adwan University of Bahrain
  • Yunes Al-Aradi University of Bahrain
  • Muneera Essa University of Bahrain
  • Hadeel Malabari University of Bahrain

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62411/jcta.9793

Keywords:

Development, Evaluation, GCC, Mobile application, Unified university admission

Abstract

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region has experienced tremendous growth in the higher education sector with many public but internationally recognized universities, colleges, and programs. Annually, within and outside of the GCC zone, high school students and guardians undergo repeatable and time-consuming experiences for inhomogeneous university, college, and program admission and tracking processes. This research project aims to provide a unified management tool to manage the admission and tracking process to multiple accredited GCC universities, colleges, and programs through one unified central mobile-based application. The research project aimed to achieve two objectives: exploring the GCC university admission process phenomena and developing and evaluating a unified mobile-based university admission application (denoted by HEIM) for higher education institutes' mobile applications. An Agile-SDLC methodology was employed, entailing two phases; the Exploratory phase to the phenomena of the university admission process and the development and evaluation phase of the potential mobile application. The 1st phase was based on an interview with the Ministry of Education (MOE), employing SLR and CA techniques for articles and mobile applications collection and analysis, and 1st questionnaire to collect user requirements. The 2nd phase employed several design techniques, including DFD, ERD, etc., a 2nd questionnaire to collect system requirements and coding by .NET MAUI, C#, and XAML, and a 3rd questionnaire to evaluate the usability of HEIM based on Nielsen heuristics at which the empirical findings revealed 97.7% of usability.

Author Biography

Ehab Juma Adwan, University of Bahrain

Dr. Ehab Juma Adwan is an Assistant professor of Information Systems at the University of Bahrain. He earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science & Engineering,2016 from the University of Bahrain (UOB), with advanced PG from George Mason Uni,USA. He earned a PG.D. in computing,2008, York Uni, UK. He earned an M.Sc. in Computer Science, 2004, University of Bahrain, and earned his B.Sc. in Electronics & Computer Science in 1996,The American University in Cairo. His research is focused on Enterprise Architecture, Information Systems Architecture, Software Architecture, Systems Engineering, and Systems Analysis & Design. Currently, most of his research supervision emphasis is on ICT in Smart City,Cloud computing,ICT in Construction, and Software development applications.

References

C. M. Haj, I. M. Geanta, and D. Orr, “A Typology of Admission Systems Across Europe and Their Impact on the Equity of Access, Progression and Completion in Higher Education,” in European Higher Education Area: The Impact of Past and Future Policies, Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2018, pp. 171–187. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-77407-7_12.

Moheri. (2022). Government Higher Education institutions. Available at: https://www.moheri.gov.om/InnerPage.aspxID=4438f693-dac7-4ad5-9c06-5ab179810b88&culture=en (Accessed 17 September 2023).

KSA MOE, M. of E. (2023). , | . Available at: https://moe.gov.sa/ar/education/highereducation/Pages/joinhee.aspx (Accessed: 17 September 2023).

Moehe (State of Qatar). (2020). Higher Education in Qatar. Available at https://www.edu.gov.qa/en/pages/higheredudefault.aspxitemid=134 (Accessed 17 September 2023).

Mohe (KWT), (2021). Entities affiliated with His Excellency the Minister of Higher Education. Available at: https://www.mohe.edu.kw/site/en/custompagepageid=52 (Accessed 17 September 2023)

UAE MOE. (2022). United Arab Emirates Higher Education. [Online] Available at: https://www.moe.gov.ae/en/eservices/pages/govinstitutes.aspx.

HEAC-Oman. (2006). Main [Online]. Available at: https://www.heac.gov.om/.

HEC- BAH. (2023). | . Available at: https://moedu.gov.bh/hec/page.aspxpage_key=hec_tasks (Accessed: 30 September 2023).

Mosse, T. (2023). Applying and studying in the UK, Complete University Guide - University Rankings, Guides and Courses. Available at: https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/student-advice/where-to-study/studying-in-the-UK (Accessed: 17 September 2023).

Mobjörk, A. (2008). A Unified Process for Admissions to Higher Education in Sweden. Unpublished paper.

K. Abouchedid, “Undergraduate admissions, equity of access and quality in higher education: An international comparative perspective”, Proceedings of the Arab Regional Conference on Higher Education year, Beirut: UNESCO, 2010, pp. 137-158.

Abimbola, L. (2020) UNIFIED admission system, UNIFIED Admission system for students in Ghana. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/42041242/UNIFIED_Admission_System (Accessed: 17 September 2023).

Davies, K., 2012. Content analysis of research articles in information systems (LIS) journals. Library and Information Research, 36(112), pp.16-28.

M. Templier and G. Paré, “A Framework for Guiding and Evaluating Literature Reviews,” Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst., vol. 37, 2015, doi: 10.17705/1CAIS.03706.

M. Tate, E. Furtmueller, J. Evermann, and W. Bandara, “Introduction to the Special Issue: The Literature Review in Information Systems,” Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst., vol. 37, 2015, doi: 10.17705/1CAIS.03705.

E. J. Adwan, “Towards A Technological Reference Model of Bahraini Smart City,” in Smart Cities Symposium 2018, 2018, pp. 46 (9 pp.)-46 (9 pp.). doi: 10.1049/cp.2018.1414.

B. Lund, “The questionnaire method in systems research: an overview of sample sizes, response rates and statistical approaches utilized in studies,” VINE J. Inf. Knowl. Manag. Syst., vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 1–10, Jan. 2023, doi: 10.1108/VJIKMS-08-2020-0156.

WorldometersInfo. (2023). Population by Country 2023 [Online]. Available at: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/.

L. Chung, B. A. Nixon, E. Yu, and J. Mylopoulos, Non-Functional Requirements in Software Engineering. Boston, MA: Springer US, 2000. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4615-5269-7.

E. J. Adwan, M. Y. AlSada, J. A. Alnfaiai, J. E. Adwan, and M. S. Alkhayat, “Centralized Web portal for organ, tissue and blood donation in GCC,” in 2022 International Conference on Data Analytics for Business and Industry (ICDABI), Oct. 2022, pp. 472–478. doi: 10.1109/ICDABI56818.2022.10041461.

N. Juristo, “Impact of Usability on Software Requirements and Design,” 2009, pp. 55–77. doi: 10.1007/978-3-540-95888-8_3.

N. Juristo, A. M. Moreno, and W. Strigel, “Guest Editors’ Introduction: Software Testing Practices in Industry,” IEEE Softw., vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 19–21, Jul. 2006, doi: 10.1109/MS.2006.104..

Britch, D. et al., 2023. What is .net Maui - .net Maui, .NET MAUI | Microsoft Learn. Available at: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/what-is-maui (Accessed: 09 November 2023).

Y. Levy and T. J. Ellis, “A Systems Approach to Conduct an Effective Literature Review in Support of Information Systems Research,” Informing Sci. Int. J. an Emerg. Transdiscipl., vol. 9, pp. 181–212, 2006, doi: 10.28945/479.

S. C. Herring, “Web Content Analysis: Expanding the Paradigm,” in International Handbook of Internet Research, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2009, pp. 233–249. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4020-9789-8_14..

R. Helms, “University Admissions: Practices and Procedures Worldwide,” Int. High. Educ., no. 54, Mar. 2015, doi: 10.6017/ihe.2009.54.8410.

ETEC KSA. (2023). Individual services [Online]. Available at: https://etec.gov.sa/services/indviduals.

UAE MOE. (2023). United Arab Emirates Higher Education [online]. Available at: https://www.moe.gov.ae/en/eservices/pages/govinstitutes.aspx.

UAE University. (2014). admission policy [Online]. Available at: https://www.uaeu.ac.ae/en/docs/admisssionpolicyinternationalstudents1.pdf.

Zayed University. (2016). Admissions criteria [Online]. Available at: https://www.zu.ac.ae/main/en/fall-2022-programs/international-students (Accessed 17 September 2023). last update on May 2023.

Zayed catalog. (2023). Admission [Online]. Available at: https://www.zu.ac.ae/main/files/contents/docs/ZUCatalog-final.pdf.

Sultan Qaboos University. (2019). academic_2019 [Online]. Available at: https://www.squ.edu.om/Portals/24/academic-en-2019_1.pdf.

Interstudent. (2020). Heac [Online]. Available at: https://heac.gov.om/media/doc/InterStudentGuide20_21En.pdf.

Sultan Qaboos University. (2018). Enrolment Application [Online]. Available at: Enroll.squ.edu.om.

Alotaibi, A. (2023). Admission Guide for AASU, ASSU Admission Guide [Online]. Available at: https://portal.ku.edu.kw/manuals/admission/ar/aasu_admission_rules.pdf.

Kuwait University. (2023). Kuwait University Admission Rules, Kuwait University [Online]. Available at: https://portal.ku.edu.kw/manuals/admission/ar/admission_rules.pdf.

El-Chiekh, M.H. (2012). Student Admission Manual, Kuwait Unified Admission System for Governmental Universities [Online]. Available at: https://portal.ku.edu.kw/manuals/admission/en/student_admission_manual.pdf.

Qatar University. (2016). Apply to qu, Apply to QU | Qatar University [Online]. Available at: https://www.qu.edu.qa/students/admission/undergraduate/apply.text last updated on 8 July 2022.

Qatar University. (2023). Admission Application Instruction | Qatar University [Online]. Available at: http://www.qu.edu.qa/static_file/qu/students/documents/admission-application-instruction-ar.pdf.

Labarre, O., 2019. Project Management. [online] Investopedia. Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/legal-4768893#PrivacyPolicy.

Survey Monkey. (2023). Understanding Sample Sizes [Online]. Avalaible at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/sample-size-calculator/.

Q. Li and Y.-L. Chen, “Entity-Relationship Diagram,” in Modeling and Analysis of Enterprise and Information Systems, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2009, pp. 125–139. doi: 10.1007/978-3-540-89556-5_6.

S. P. Guest, “The use of software tools for dialogue design,” Int. J. Man. Mach. Stud., vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 263–285, Apr. 1982, doi: 10.1016/S0020-7373(82)80062-X..

Britch, D. et al. (2023). What is .net Maui - .net Maui, .NET MAUI | Microsoft Learn [Online]. Available at: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/what-is-maui (Accessed: 09 November 2023).

Hamilton, T. (2023) Unit testing tutorial – what is, Types & Test example, Guru99 [Online]. Available at: https://www.guru99.com/unit-testing-guide.html (Accessed: April 6, 2023).

J. Nielsen, “Enhancing the explanatory power of usability heuristics,” in Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems celebrating interdependence - CHI ’94, 1994, pp. 152–158. doi: 10.1145/191666.191729.

Downloads

Published

2023-12-30

How to Cite

Adwan, E. J., Al-Aradi, Y., Essa, M., & Malabari, H. (2023). A Comprehensive Study and Development of Unified Mobile-Based Admission System for GCC Universities. Journal of Computing Theories and Applications, 1(2), 212–230. https://doi.org/10.62411/jcta.9793

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 2 (2023): JCTA 1(2) 2023

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Ehab Juma Adwan

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.