DESIGN
AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A STUDY PLANNER FOR MOBILE DEVICES
(ANDROID
PLATFORM)
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
A study plan is an organized schedule that students create to
outline time for study and learning goals. Just like with work or school
schedules, university students should develop a study schedule where they can
synchronise their everyday life with studying. Creating a study plan not only
helps the user become more organized, but it also holds them accountable for their
own learning outcomes (Scouller, 2001). In this age where there are many
distractions e.g. video games, social networks etc. and people easily lose
track of time a study plan is even more important for success in the
university, since a student needs to have self-discipline and determination to
complete their studies without the constant reminders of a teacher.
According to (Truluck and Renne, 2002) a study plan is a
method and system for setting up and using a personal learning schedule and
path through an instructional product. Using a wizard-style interface, a study
plan is established for a user based on a session frequency, along with the
date the user wishes to finish the instructional product. Once the user has set
up a study plan, each time that user logs in, the user is taken to that day’s
list of assigned activities on a personalized home page. From there, the user
is able to check activity status for past and future lessons, and quickly
navigate to a lesson. Users can set up their own personalized learning schedule
based on their own study objectives.
A
study plan is an effective way to help students navigate through their
education in an organized way. Every student will develop a different study
plan; there is no correct study plan for everyone. In creating a personalized
study plan, the student will need to do some self-evaluation of their current
schedule, finding days when they have fewer personal commitments when they can
squeeze some study time. Each student studies differently, so the amount of
time needed for studying will differ amongst classmates. Some students find that
studying nightly for two hours is more realistic than studying a few times a
week for a longer period of time.
Students
need to identify learning goals for each study session in order to maximize
these scheduled study times, by determining why they are studying, and develop
a plan that can help them achieve those goals. The study plan takes into
consideration upcoming tests, average in certain courses, and projects/courses
that will take more time than others.
This
study is driven towards merging efficient time management and organizing
schedules with recent technological explosions in mobile computing. Aimed at
developing a study planner for android devices because, currently android
devices are the most popular in the world today, with 28% of smartphone users
with android devices, while the iPhone accounts for 25% (Pew Research Centre,
2013). Android powers hundreds of millions of devices in over 190 countries
worldwide. Also four in every ten people using android are between the ages of
18 and 34 (age range for university students) (The Smartphone Consumer, 2012).
This project takes advantage of this statistics i.e. the popularity of android
to procure a solution to the problem stated above.
Since
smartphones are now peoples companions and 94% of students own smartphones.
(Ifeanyi, Olatunji, & Enyindah, 2014).Creating an app that helps students
study, manage their time is a legitimate idea as it solves a particular need of
students and people generally.
1.2
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The
major problem with students and people in general is efficient time management,
i.e. maximize time to achieve results. Another problem is remembering things
which have been planned e.g. so many students forget what lectures they have
for the day, what assignments, quizzes, reports are due for submission. The
traditional solution has been to write down these things in diary or book of
some sort but this is faced with the challenge of loss, damage, and also forgetfulness.
Smartphones
provide a valid solution to this problem as people hardly forget their phones
information can be backed up and stored(most recently cloud storage) so even in
the case of theft information can still be recovered.
Designing
an app for a phone which helps people do what they normally would have done in
their diary, and even the phone reminding them of events forgotten is an
effective solution to this problem.
1.3
AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The
aim of the study is to develop a study planner android application for
students.
The
objectives of the study are:
(i) To
study existing study planner applications.
(ii) To
design an android application that will help students efficiently manage their
study time
(iii) To develop an android application that will provide
an effective way for students to log their lecture days and times, and
seamlessly add reminders to lectures which have tests, assignments or report
due etc.
1.4
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This
study is important because it will help students manage their time and to plan
their day, focus on their studies and still get on with their normal lives, ensuring
that they do not forget about important tests, assignments, reports, and other
activities.
1.5
SCOPE
OF THE STUDY
This
project aims at creating a study planner for android devices that will increase
student’s productivity in study, it is based on the theory that effective time
management leads to greater productivity. This is achieved by allowing them
create and manage their study plans on their phones, record their class time
tables. The database saves this information which can then be used to trigger a
reminder for the user.
1.6 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The
limitations of the study are as follows:
1) The
application developed by this study is valid or can run only on android
devices. I.e. other smartphones are not supported.
2) The
application is limited to the minimum android operating system version
specified by the developer i.e. if the developer chooses a minimum android
operating system version of 4.0, all devices with android operating system less
than 4.0 can’t use this application.