Proposal

Research method
Abstract

Exit Exam student preparation platform is a web application where Gambella university graduate
students able to prepare themselves for National Exit Exam. The platform allow instructor to prepare
exit-exam oriented contents such as template-based notes and exit-exam oriented questions of courses
that are targeted to exit exam with respect to their departments. After the exit-exam contents are created
if necessary the platform allow instructor to edit and delete those contents easily. Plus once the contents
are published the graduate student can prepare themselves studying the notes along with taking Mock
exam in order to check how much they understand the courses they are studying. This way this
proposed platform help students to prepare for exam. Including the Gambella university, graduate
students and Instructors are the beneficiary of this platform. It enables graduate students to pass exit
exam as well as rescue university from unnecessary resource expenditure and reduce instructor
workload as well. The technologies that will be used to build this platform are ReactJS and Django
with PostgreSQL database. Also we are going to use iterative model during project development
because this model allow us to start with minimal set of requirement and meanwhile it enable us to add
more requirements as needed. So the blended nature of the methodology and technologies we are going
to use make this proposed system more flexible as well as scalable.
Introduction to the organization
1.2 Background of the organization
The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) has implemented tremendous development
changes in the country and one of the policies designed by the government to bring about rapid and
sustainable development is the education and training policy. As it is known there were only two public
universities in Ethiopia twenty years ago. Now, the number of public learning institutes have increased
more than 45 in the country, among them is the Gambella University which is situated in Gambella
People National Regional State (GPNRS) is one of the recently established higher education
institutions in Ethiopia. Its cornerstone was laid by FDRE Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and
GPNRS president Gatluak Tut on 28th April, 2014. Gambella University is located at Gambella town,
the capital of GPNRS which is 766 km far from Addis Ababa. At the beginning the institution was
established as Gambella Agricultural,Technical, Vocational and Educational Training (GATVET)
College which was organized and managed by the former Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development and GPNRS and Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2002 to 2012 to
produce middle level Agricultural Developmental Agents. During ten years (2002-2012) more than
1,950 students were graduated on Animal Science, Natural Resource,Plant Science and Cooperative
Departments in the Diploma program / (level IV). Moreover, more than 493 General Agriculture
students were graduated within the Certificate Program.Later on, based on the agreement made
between the Ministry of Education and Regional stakeholders, it was affiliated with Mettu University
and become the College of Agriculture and Natural Resource campus from 2012 to 2013/14 with
(Animal Science, Plant Science, Natural Resource Management and
Agricultural Economics) departments.

As an independent institution Gambella University was proclaimed by the Council of Ministry under
Proclamation No. 317/2006 and assumes its institutional mandate. Right after, the establishment of
Gambella University in 2014 opened a new chapter in the history of the Gambella Region and the
people. Soon after, the University was introduced to the public and 514 students were assigned to study
in College of Agriculture and Natural Resource and Faculty of Business and Economics with thirteen
Departments and currently there are 31 undergraduate programs and two Colleges College of
Agriculture and Natural Resource, College of Engineering and School of law Faculty of Business and
Economics, Faculty of social Science and Humanity, and Faculty of Natural and Computational
science. Additionally, the university already launch Postgraduate Program in Animal Production
independently and three Postgraduate programs (Project Planning and Management, Development
Studies and Master of Business Administration) in collaboration with Green Research Development
Institute (GRDI). Even though Gambella University is at its infancy stage, the host region has potential
and gifted natural resources (Livestock, Fish, Apiculture, Park, Soil, Forest, Multi Crops and Minerals)
and internally committed academic, supporting staff and reliable stakeholders. Based on the
university’s strategic plan GMU is „envisaging to be one of the recognized academic and research
center in Africa by 2030‟ in its core four strategic pillars namely Educational Quality and
Relevance, Research and Technology Transfer, Community Service and Partnership, and Good
Governance of the university is to realize it’s given mission by HEI Proclamation No. 650/2009
Article 4.
1.2.1. Mission of Gambella University
Gambella University is intensely committed to provide high quality academic and training to produce
competent and ethical citizens and enhance modern technology and problem solving researchers that
contribute to region and country development.
2.2. Vision of Gambella University
Envisages, being one of the recognized academic and research centers in Africa by 2030.

1.2 Background of the Project

An exit examination is a test that students must pass to receive degree and graduate from Higher
education institution. In December 9, 2022, The Ministry of Science and Higher Education decided to
roll out the exit exam for all undergraduate students of private and public higher institutes. Even if the
exam has been provided for Medical and Law undergraduates to test their competency, exit
exam has been expanded to all university subjects since then. Passing this exam is mandatory to be
awarded degree and to be eligible for any form of employment. In essence, exit exam is the measure of
education quality by providing a benchmark for evaluating student learning outcomes as well as ensure
higher education institutions maintain quality standards.

As higher educational institution, In National Exit Exam enabling graduates to score high, at least 50
percent, is a number one measure to determine whether there is education quality or not in that
institution. From last year statistical data of Gambella University Exit exam experience, 84% of
Gambella University graduate students failed National Exit Exam. Only 16% of the graduate students
passed the Exam. These result combined with other things make the university feel shame and placed
under warning stage. It is known that if the university does not bring a dramatic change in coming three
years, it is going to be shutdown or downgraded. So before that happen, Gambella University has to
have its own exit exam preparation framework or platform to be able to make ready graduate students
for National Exit Exam.

Exit Exam students preparation platform is a web-based web application that host exit-exam-oriented
contents. In IT Platform is, according to techtarget.com, is any hardware or software use to host an
application or service. In our case when we say a platform we mean that a web application that host
contents. What kind of contents? Exit-exam oriented contents. And according to marria-webster,
preparation is a process of making something ready. Also according to Wikipedia, exit exam is a test
that is given to graduate students of higher education institution. So when we combine all of these, exit
exam student preparation platform is web application software that hosts exit-exam-oriented contents
which help students to get ready for the test that is given for higher education institution graduate
students to get their licensed degree. This proposed system has two main aims:
1) to enable graduates students get short, precise,and clear as well as template-based, content-full notes
of each courses that are targeted to exit exam with respect to their departments.
2) to enable graduates check their status for exit exam by taking and retaking multiple medium and
hard course level Mocks and chapter level test.

Therefore, equipped with these two main functionalities our proposed system, EESPP, will enable
graduate students pass National Exit Exam 100 percent which in turn bring dignity for the university
and rescue from being downgraded.

Besides increasing the number of exit exam passing graduates, this proposed platform resolve issue
observed in the existing system, rescue Gambella university from unnecessary resource wastage for
exit exam preparation as well as eliminate tedious and exhaustive way of exit exam preparation
process.
1.3 Statement of the Problem
According to the Ethiopian new educational reform, a graduate student has to sit for exit exam after
four or five years of stay in university and score at least 50 percent in order to be awarded a degree as
well as to be eligible for any form of employment and graduation ceremony. Otherwise if they failed to
pass, no degree, no employment, no graduation. All the four or five years student’s sweat will be
squashed with one exam. From last year exit exam experience of Gambella University, only 16% of
Gambella University graduate students able to pass the National Exit Exam. On the other hand 84% of
Gambella University graduate students failed National Exit Exam. Why this happen? This is actually
what motivate us to come up with this project? Why only 16 percent of Gambella University graduate
students able to pass and the rest are not? Main reasons for this result would be:

1) lack of preparation for National Exit Exam, in student side

2) existence of manual preparation system, in university side

this two reasons take the lion share for failure. Because since there are about 15 courses that are
targeted for National exit exam for each departments. covering all those courses(each containing 10 to
15 chapters) within a few month along with normal class is too much difficult. What is worse, even the
material they have at their had is lecturer-based, direct-copy of internet and off-topic of curriculum.
Thus, it is already known that reading those materials result in not success. Because the Exit Exam
questions are standard curriculum-based and conceptual. All of this cause the student not to prepare
themselves very well.

The second cause is manual Exit-Exam Preparation system. In Gambella University, of course, there
is Exit-Exam Preparation System. But it is manual, somehow traditional, paper-based,time consuming
as well as not organized and contentious assessment-based. As a result, it is not helping Graduates
students in passing National Exit Exam as expected as we understand from last year experience. Plus It
costs the university for unnecessary resource expenditure as well as load to much burden to the Exit
Exam committee or Lecturers during exit-exam-material preparation. The following are major issues
that are highly observed in the existing system.

➢ Exit-exam materials’ notes are no precise, short and template-based as well as exit-exam
oriented.
➢ Only two Mock (Models) exam are available
➢ retaking Mock multiple time is difficult and almost impossible
➢ editing exit-exam material is time consuming and cause delay delivery to students
➢ high cost to buy papers, printing color for hard copy exit exam materials
➢ exit exam materials occupy much spaces in Graduate electronic devices.
➢ Students has to wait for their results
➢ not flexible (in terms of time,place,capability ) for student
➢ not student-centered
➢ student waste for students particularly the tutorial class since it is conducted afternoon time.

So as problem solver, it is important to build a platform that allow instructors to create, edit, delete exit
exam-oriented notes and questions. Generally, it become very crucial build an online web-based exit
exam preparation platform to resolve some of the issue observed in the existing system. \
1.4 Objective of the Project
1.4.1 General objective

The general objective of the project is to develop web-based exit exam preparation platform for
Gambella university students

1.4.2 Specific objective

the following are the specific objectives of our project, which will be done in order to achieve the
general objective cited above.
➢ Developing user friendly web application
➢ to design dynamic and responsive as well as mobile-first interface for the user
➢ develop online examination system
➢ develop user-friendly note-taking system
➢ design user-friendly question forming platform
➢ develop user-friendly note-taking platform
1.5 Scope and limitation of the project
Our proposed system, EEPP, which is going to be implemented for Gambella University will increase
the number of NEE passing graduate students of Gambella university. The platform allow exit-exam
committee or lecturers to create short and precise, content-full, template-based, exit-exam-oriented
notes, and as well as hard, and exit-exam-oriented questions. Thus Gambella university graduate
students can access those exit-exam-oriented notes and questions of each course with respect to their
department. The platform will enable graduate student doing exit exam preparation without lecturer-
student face-to-face interaction. If the exit-exam committee of department want to prepare note of
particular course and model questions, the platform will provide all the required interfaces to create a
note and question. Thus they can create,update, save and delete notes and question using the proposed
platform. In addition, if the graduates want to study particular course’s exit-exam-oriented notes and do
a test of particular course, again the platform will enable them to read notes and do questions. Further
more,graduates can see their exam-results and their rank among other graduate of their departments.
Also if the graduates want to know their progress on each courses, the platform enable them to see their
progress. What is more, the platform also have a description for each answers of the questions. So the
graduate student does not has to meet the instructors in person to get some explanation about answer of
particular questions. The platform will include notes,questions with answer and enough description of
why the answer is the answer. But if it is must to meet instructors, the platform will hold the phone
number and email or their social media account of the one who prepare the question. So the graduate
can talk to them in person for further explanation as well.

The scope of the project is:

➢ to design dynamic and responsive interface for the user
➢ user can view their profile
➢ registration for using the platform
➢ design note creation mechanism
➢ develop course-level and chapter-level question forming mechanism
➢ develop online examination system
➢ design course progression indicator mechanism
➢ administrator control the system
➢ the proposed system is accessed by english language and only for Gambella University students
➢ implement next course recommendation mechanism
the followings are what the proposed system is not going to perform or what is not included in the
proposed system.
➢ The proposed system cannot access with their local language
➢ the platform does not force the student to complete the course in order to take the Exam
provided in the platform
➢ the proposed system does not provide quiz or pop up questions to help student focus on what
they are reading on.
➢ It does not bring education quality
1.6 Methodology
1.6.1 Data Collection Methodology
this project is going to be created for graduate students and exit-exam committee, we have to gather
data from those direct beneficiaries of the platform in order to create user-friendly and responsive user
interfaces. We used the following requirement gathering techniques to gather necessary information.

1. Interview
we interviewed graduating students those who live in our campus about the kind of platform they are
looking for to prepare themselves for Exit Exam. We made an interview with instructors (lecturers)
what kind of website or platform or online system they are in need to prepare exit-exam oriented notes
and questions.
2. Questionnaire: from the technical approach of gathering data with respect to questionnaires and
interviews, Questionnaire is one of best approach in order to generate different requirement information
from Lecturers, because interviews are not much appropriate for them due to work burdens.
3. Prototyping: it is a techniques of obtaining early feedback on requirements by providing a working
models of the expected product before actually building it. So in this project we used this technique to
elicit requirements in order to build user-friendly user interfaces.
1.6.2 System analysis and design methodology
there are different types of software development approaches. In this project we used the following
approaches because we found that they are very suitable to our project.
Software development model:
since this project is a little bit long and ongoing as well as it has to be flexible and scalable, the model
used in this project is iterative model. Because software development process, in iterative model,
begins with small set of requirements and a new set of requirements blended each cycles.

Object-oriented system analysis and design methodology:

it is software development methodology by building self-contained modules or objects. This
methodology have the following futures increased re-usability, increased extensibility, proved quality,
and reduced maintenance burden and managed complexity. Due to this we select OO-SAD
methodology.

1.6.6 Implementation methodology

our platform will be integrated with the existing Gambella University web application. So there
is no need to pay for hosting and domain to make the platform available for everyone. Also the
current manual system is still working. Since we cannot change it directly or partially we
choose to develop the proposed system parallel to the existing system. We are going to change
the manual exit exam preparation system after the graduates students and instructors familiar
with the proposed platform, until that the graduates and the university uses the proposed system
parallel with manual exit exam preparation platform.
1.6.4 Development Tools
1.6.4.1 Hardware tools

No Material Required Specification use

1 Personal Desktop With Internet connection Write documentation,
4GB and above RAM design the system and
256GB HDD and above Storage implementing the system
Ubuntu or parrot os Installed

2 Printer Print document

3 Flash Drive Sandisk To store the project for
backup and protection
4 Note taking, audio recording 4GB RAM To take note, record
and questionnaire tablets 64GB storage audio and to do
android version 8 and above questionnaire during data
collection
5 Stationary materials(pen,papers) To do
sketching,diagramming
and drafting
documentation. To jot
down some insight and
pop up ideas
Table 1: hardware tools

1.6.4.2 Software tools

No Material Required Version Use

1 Visual code studio (VCS) 1.85 To write Django, ReactJS code
2 ReactJS 18.2.0 To develop the front-end of the platform
3 Django 4.2 To Develop back-end of the platform
4 PostgreSQL 15.1 To store data necessary to the platform
5 LibreOffice 7.6.4 To write documentation and power point

6 GitHub account To store our project online and to be

accessible to all group members.
as a result all members of the group can
contribute to the implementation.

7 E-drawMax To draw project diagrams

8 Kali Os 2023 Operating system
9 python.anywhere.com account Host our back-end (Django application)
10 Vercel.com Host our front-end (ReactJS application)
 1.6.5 testing methodology
when we are doing our project, there may be different errors and faults occur. In each phases,
we may use the following known strategies.
➢ Unit test
➢ Subsystem test
➢ System test
First , in each of programming states, we will check either the code has an error or not at ach
line. Next, we will test the block of codes, and finally if the implementation is ended whole
code is verified and maintained.
1.7 Beneficiaries of the project
the beneficiaries of this project are divided in two: direct beneficiaries and indirect
beneficiaries
Direct Beneficiaries:
➢ Graduate students
➢ Instructors (Exit-Exam committee)
Indirect Beneficiaries
➢ Gambella University
1.7 Project Plan
below we list the plot of project in line with a schedule, cost and team organization and
composition. However this may alter in the real time on our project.
1.7.1 Project Schedule

Tasks Dece January February march April

mber
25
W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Collecting
Requirement
Analysis
Documentation

Design
Implementation

Testing

Deployment

1.7.2 Project Cost

No Required Unit Price/Unit in ETB Total Price
Material
1 printing 100 pages ETB 5.000 ETB 500.00
document
2 A4-Size Paper 1 Packet ETB 400.000 ETB 400.00
3 Pen 7 ETB 20.000 ETB 140.00
4 Flash Disk 2 ETB 340.000 ETB 680.00
(16GB)
5 For unforeseen ETB 1000.00 ETB 1000.00
costs
Grand Total
ETB 2,720.00

1.7.3 Project Organization

Project Title Team composition Advisors
Name Role/responsibilities Main Co-Advisor
advisor
Exit Exam Saleamlak Msgan Team Leader Mr. Abebe Mr. Getachew
Preparation Belete Mulugeta System design and Analysis Alambo
platform Yenenesh Requirement (M Sc.
Recitation Computer
Banchayehu Requirement science)
Recitation
Ayle System Design and development

Asmamaw System design and development

Negase System testing
References
my proposal2-final year project, Kaduna state University
web based graduate exit examination system(2022). debre tabor university
web based Dormitory Management system (2022). Gambella University