International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change. www.ijicc.net
Volume 15, Issue 2, 2021
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SITRANS: A Design of Laboratory
Management System
Emmy Wahyuningtyas
a
, Shofiya Syidada
b
, Firman Pratama
c
,
a,b,c
Informatic
Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Wijaya Kusuma Surabaya,
Surabaya, Indonesia. Email:
a
[email protected],
b
[email protected],
c
[email protected]
The Covid19 pandemic has changed the culture of human
civilisation, including in the field of higher education. The learning
process has switched to online and requires educational institutions
to provide facilities that support the carrying out of online activities
for regular and non- lecture courses such as practicum, research,
thesis, practical work and real work lectures. At Wijaya Kusuma
University, Surabaya, regular lectures have been facilitated by the
existence of a moodle- based learning management system (LMS)
called Elena, but the implementation and monitoring of non- lecture
activities has not been facilitated by online media so there are many
obstacles and it is less than optimal. This study aims to design a
system to facilitate the management of these activities that is
integrated with the institution's integrated e- campus system. The
design uses a unified modelling language (UML) which consists of
a package diagram, use case, class and sequence diagram. The
system is named Transitoris Information System (SITRANS).
Keywords: Labs Management System, UML, P ractical W ork, Practicum Management
Introduction
The Covid19 outbreak that hit almost all parts of the world has changed the way humans live
in various ways. The education sector is one of the areas that is directly affected, and there are
significant changes in the learning process. Until this paper was written, all levels of education
in Indonesia, from pre-school to tertiary education, were still implementing learn from home
(LFH) to reduce the rate of transmission of the virus. The World Bank reported that 530
thousand education units in Indonesia were closed due to the Covid19 outbreak. For this reason
the presence of an information technology- based education platform is needed as a concrete
response to reduce the loss of academic learning time (Yarrow, et al., 2020). Yet the American
Enterprise Institute (AEI) reports digital learning will become more ubiquitous out of necessity
but will likely not be the preferred choice of most undergraduate students. To reinforce distance
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learning, institutions must provide virtually strong student support, which will require creative
thinking and reallocation of resources and staff (Kelly & Columbus, 2020). Most, but not all,
students have access to digital tools that can be used for online learning (as shown in T able 1).
Institutions should be prepared to provide accommodation for students who do not have access
to devices at all or do not have devices that are compatible with the institution's LMS. Access
varies greatly by type of institution (Brooks & Grajek, 2020). The percentage of students using
LMS is shown in T able 2.
Table 1 Device Access Among Community College and Four -Year Students
Table 2 Students' LMS use
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Universitas Wijaya Kusuma Surabaya as one of the higher education providers in Indonesia
always responds quickly to environmental situations and conditions, as well as the
government's appeal through the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of
Indonesia (Kemdikbud RI) to carry out online learning.
An online learning platform is available and continues to be developed by presenting new
features to support the needs of lecture activities. This online learning platform named Elena
has been well managed so that it can accommodate the needs of all lecturers and students. LMS
is very important for students regarding their daily assignments so that lecturers can more easily
reach students outside of class hours related to assignments and learning materials
(Adzharuddin & Ling, 2013).
However, the learning process is not only through lectures, there are also non-lecture activities
such as practicum, field work practices, and theses that are no less important in supporting the
learning process. This non- lecture activity has not been managed optimally so that during the
LFH period, lecturers and students experienced problems such as difficulty in validating
participant data, lack of a simple payment processes and difficulty monitoring activities and
reporting processes for non- lecture activities, all of which were still manual causing the
implementation to be inefficient.
This study aims to design a system that is expected to facilitate the entire management of non-
college academic activities that are integrated with the institution's integrated e- campus system.
This design uses a unified modelling language (UML) which consists of a package diagram,
use case and class diagram. The system, which is named Transitoris Information System
(SITRANS), consists of several sub- systems, namely the registration sub- system, the
laboratory management sub- system, the practicum and assignment sub- system, the practical
work sub- system, the thesis / final project sub-system, and the real work lecture sub- system
(KKN).
Literature review
Academic Activities in Higher Education
In general, there are two types of academic activities in tertiary institutions, namely intra-
curricular and extracurricular activities. Intra-curricular activities are regular academic
activities that must be followed by students who have been designed based on the applicable
curriculum (Santoso, 2015). Meanwhile, Correa-Fernandes (2015) in their study report stated
that in general the involvement of extracurricular activities is part of the college experience
and strengthens the relationship between students and their institutions. Wijaya Kusuma
University, Surabaya is known for transitory activities, which are non- lecture academic
activities that must be taken by every student other than regular courses.
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Laboratory functions
Activities and experiments in the laboratory often accompany the lecture and discussion
sections of science courses. Universities often have separate laboratory sections for students,
in addition to a lecture section (Forcino, 2013). Meanwhile, other literature states that the
engineering laboratory is a technical instrument of teaching. The continuity of classroom
learning theory will be applied in the laboratory for understanding and exposure to technical
skills (Mohamad, et al., 2012). In his study, Aiyan (2017) states that practical teaching is an
effective way to consolidate and deepen the study of theoretical knowledge, that it is an
important link to cultivate innovative high- quality technical and technical personnel, is an
important platform for theory by practice, trains students to master the method scientific and
that it improve s practice abilities.
Laboratory Management
Laboratory management is a very important element during the teaching and learning process,
especially in terms of practical work for engineering students (Mohamad, et al., 2012). In other
sources it is stated that the laboratory is an important element and one of the requirements for
the existence of a university. It needs to be managed properly in order to carry out the functions
of the Tri Dharma of Higher Education (Asmoro, et al., 2019). In terms of operation, the
laboratory is managed by the head of the laboratory who is assisted by several assistants. The
role of an assistant as a direct technical assistant for the practitioners during the lab session is
as stated by Utekar, et al., ( 2020), that a teacher cannot supervise the entire lab and control
student activities at all times during practical sessions. The biggest challenge is enabling
students to take advantage of learning technology while keeping the classroom productive and
well-managed. In addition, in this study, an architectural design for a lab management system
is proposed as shown in Figure 1.
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Figure 1 Lab Management System Architecture (Utekar, et al., 2020)
In order to create a safe and comfortable laboratory environment for all lab users, a conducive
situation must be maintained and laboratory management staff must regularly organise,
maintain and update the work culture environment in the laboratory (Aiyan, 2017).
Object Based System Design
The development of object-oriented programming language gives rise to a new approach that
in order to develop object-based information systems, it is advisable to carry out object-
oriented analysis and design. Many proponents of the object-oriented approach claim (with
non-substantial evidence) that it is better to start a system analysis by determining the structure
of its objects than by defining its function.
Object-oriented analysis and design is a technical process for the specific manipulation of an
application, business model or system, and simple graphic diagrams to analys e and design by
applying the object-oriented prototype method (Castagna, 2012). Object-oriented analysis
(OOA) is basically a collection of system models that combines various requirements and pre-
and post-analysis methodologies for software systems. Object-oriented modelling is used at the
beginning of the software life cycle to develop domain property, requirements, and
specifications. This involves the following steps (Al-Fedaghi, 2018):
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a. Represent people, physical things, and concepts that are important to our understanding
of what is going on in the application domain.
b. Show connections and interactions among these people, things, and concepts.
c. Show the business situation with enough detail to evaluate possible designs.
d. Check whether the functions we will include in the specifications will satisfy the
requirements, and test our understanding of how the new system will interact with the
world
Unified Modelling Language (UML)
UML, short for Unified Modelling Language, is a standardised modelling language consisting
of an integrated set of diagrams, developed to help system and software developers for
specifying, visualising, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of software systems, as
well as for business modelling and other non-software systems (Anon., n.d.). Another website
(Anon., n.d.) says that UML is a standard mode lling language, not a software development
process. UML 1.4.2 Specification explained that process:
a. provides guidance as to the order of a team’s activities,
b. specifies what artifacts should be developed,
c. directs the tasks of individual developers and the team as a whole, and
d. offers criteria for monitoring and measuring a project’s products and activities.
Methodology The stage in this research is to collect data through interviews with the heads of the lab and lab
assistants. Observations were made to see the process of implementing the practicum running
for 1 practicum period for 4 practicum subjects. Document review is carried out to obtain
various forms of documentation of activities from the beginning to the end of the practicum
period related to attendance, assignment of assistants and monitoring of activities and reporting
of practicum results. Researchers take part in the integration of transitory (non- college)
activities with the academic system which includes participant registration, payment, data
verification, monitoring, reporting and assessment. The types of transitory activities at Wijaya
Kusuma University, Surabaya are grouped as in T able 3.
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Table 3 Non -Lecture Activities
Type of activity Description
1 Practical work Practical activities in the campus laboratory
2 Course assignments Activities that are attached to certain courses but
held outside the classroom
3 Field Work Practices (PKL) /
Job Training (KP)
Activities to apply science in the real industrial
field
4 Final Project / Thesis Student research activities at the end of the study
period
5 Community Service Program
(CSP)
Student personality development activities
include hard skills and soft skills. Performed off
campus
Furthermore, the authors conducted a functional requirements analysis and designed a business
process to produce a more detailed picture of how all activities are carried out by each entity,
designed using an activity diagram. The system design is continued using UML, as well as an
interface design, is made based on the results from the generated diagrams.
Proposed Design
Package Diagram
The SITRANS system consists of a sub- system for managing laboratories, practicum and
assignments, practical work, final assignments and Community Service Program (CSP) .
Practicum sub-system and assignments are part of the laboratory management sub- system.
Figure 2 Package Diagram of SITRANS
The main system of SITRANS consists of 4 main sub- systems, namely (i) a sub-system run by
practicum, (ii) a sub-system managed by KKN, (iii) a sub-system that is managed by practice
and (iv) a sub-system that is finalis ed. In the system practice there is a laboratory management
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module. The interaction relationship between SITRANS and its environment is shown in the
use case diagram in Figure 3.
Figure 3 Use Case Diagram of SIT RANS
There are 10 use cases and 6 actors in SITRANS. A login is required for each user, both
practical students and assistants and lecturers. In the case of transitoric MK, students can
choose the type of transitory MK provided by the study program, then MK participants are
required to make payments. Before practicum and assignments can be carried out, it is
necessary to recruit lab assistants to help the lab head and lecturers to accompany the
practitioner during the practicum until the end of the semester. In the case of laboratory
management, the head of the laboratory is given a feature to report practicum activities which
is then reported to the head of the study program.
Furthermore, a class diagram is made to describe the relationship between classes that will be
built in SITRANS and its sub- systems. Figure 4 is a class diagram for SITRANS which consists
of 17 classes and their relationships. This class diagram helps system developers to translate
the data model schema and the relationships between classes that must be built.
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Figure 4 Class Diagram of SITRANS
One of the important sub- systems in SITRANS is lab management which includes the
management of various activities including research, practicum and assignments, recruitment
of lab assistants, lab administration and reporting of lab activities. The interactions that occur
in the m anage lab sub-system are visualised using the use case diagram in Figure 5.
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Figure 5 Use Case Diagram of Lab Management
The research sub-system as part of the l ab management is a module designed to facilitate the
research activities of lecturers and students under certain laboratories. I t includes research
planning activities, research team selection, research progress monitoring and reporting. An
overview of the sequence of research activities is shown by the activity diagram in Figure 6.
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Figure 6 Activity Diagram of R esearch Sub System
The practicum and assignment sub system is an important part of SITRANS which contains
modules for managing practicum activities. Figure 7 visualises cases that occur in practicum
activities that involve 4 actors in their interactions with 5 existing cases, namely login,
practicum setup, schedule, practicum monitoring and grade entry.
Figure 7 Use C ase Diagram of Practicum and Assignment Sub System
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Each use case scenario is described in detail in T ables 4, 5 and 6.
Table 4 Use Case Scenario of practical work initial setup
USE CASE NAME: SET UP PRAKTIKUM UNIQUE ID :
AREA: SITRANS
ACTOR(S): Lecturer
DESCRIPTION: Preparing the transitoris practicum MK which will be carried out in the
current semester which includes filling out the RPS and practicum
modules
TRIGGERING EVENT: at the beginning of the semester
TRIGGER TYPE: External Temporal
STEP PERFORMED (MAIN PATH) Information for Steps
1. DOSEN LOGIN PADA SUB SYSTEM
PRAKTIKUM
Username, password, lecturer access rights
2. DOSEN MEMILIH PRAKTIKUM YANG AKAN
DIBUAT RPS DAN MODULNYA
Practical data for the current semester
3. DOSEN MEMBUAT RPS Practicum data
4. DOSEN MEMBUAT MODUL Practical data material
PRECONDITIONS: Practical data opened in the current semester has been determined
POSTCONDITIONS: Each practicum opened has a RPS and a practicum module
ASSUMPTIONS: Each practicum has been assigned a supervisor
REQUIREMENT MET: Lecturers make RPS and practicum modules
OUTSTANDING
ISSUES:
PRIORITY: High
RISK: High
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Table 5 Use Case Scenario of practical work scheduling
USE CASE NAME: BUAT JADWAL PRAKTIKUM UNIQUEID :
AREA: SITRANS
ACTOR(S): Head of Lab
DESCRIPTION: Make a schedule for practicum implementation carried out by the
laboratory
TRIGGERING EVENT: at the beginning of the semester
TRIGGER TYPE: External Temporal
STEP PERFORMED (MAIN PATH) Information for Steps
1. KALAB LOGIN PADA SUB SYSTEM
PRAKTIKUM
Username, password, Head of Lab access rights
2. KALAB MELIHAT JUMLAH DATA PESERTA
PER KELAS
Practicum participant data per class
3. KALAB MEMBAGI SESSI PRAKTIKUM Practicum participant data, laboratory capacity
4. KALAB MEMBAGI PESERTA PRAKTIKUM
SESUAI DENGAN SESSI YANG TERSEDIA
Practicum session data
5. KALAB MEMBUAT JADWAL SESSI PER
MODUL PRAKTIKUM BERDASARKAN
WAKTU SERTA ASISTEN YANG TERSEDIA
Session data, assistant
6. SYSTEM MEMERIKSA KETERSEDIAAN
JADWAL PRAKTIKUM
Practical schedule data
PRECONDITIONS: Practicum participant data opened in the current semester has been
determined
POSTCONDITIONS: Practical schedule per session per module is available
ASSUMPTIONS: Each practicum has been assigned a supervisor
REQUIREMENT MET: Lecturers make RPS and practicum modules
OUTSTANDING
ISSUES:
PRIORITY: High
RISK: High
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Table 6 Use Case Scenario of practical work monitoring
USE CASE NAME: MONITORING PRAKTIKUM UNIQUE ID :
AREA: SITRANS
ACTOR(S): Students, Assistants, lecturers
DESCRIPTION: Monitoring the implementation of practicum which includes the
presence of students in practicum, processing and submitting
assignments per module, guidance and assistant assessment of
practicum results reports, and recapitulation of student practicum scores
at the end of the semester
TRIGGERING EVENT: During lab session
TRIGGER TYPE: External Temporal
STEP PERFORMED (MAIN PATH) Information for Steps
1. MAHASISWA LOGIN PADA SUB SYSTEM
PRAKTIKUM
Username, password, student access rights
2. MAHASISWA MELIHAT PRAKTIKUM YANG
DIIKUTI
Practical data followed
3. MAHASISWA MENGISI PRESENSI
KEHADIRAN
Session data
4. MAHASISWA MENGERJAKAN TUGAS
MODUL YANG DIBERIKAN
Module data
5. MAHASISWA MENGUMPULKAN TUGAS
DAN LAPORAN HASIL PRAKTIKUM
Module assignment data
6. ASISTEN MEMERIKSA LAPORAN HASIL
PRAKTIKUM DAN MEMBERIKAN NILAI
Practical report data
7. DOSEN MEMERIKSA TUGAS, LAPORAN
HASIL PRAKTIKUM SERTA PENILAIAN DARI
ASISTEN
Data reports on practicum results, grades
8. DOSEN MELAKUKAN REKAPITULASI NILAI
PRAKTIKUM MAHASISWA
Grade
9. DOSEN MEMBUAT LAPORAN NILAI
PRAKTIKUM
Grade
PRECONDITIONS: Practical implementation
POSTCONDITIONS: Students get grades from the practicum that is followed
ASSUMPTIONS: Students take part in practicum activities from beginning to end
REQUIREMENT MET: Documentation of practicum activities is well recorded
OUTSTANDING
ISSUES:
PRIORITY: High
RISK: High
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Table 7 Use Case Scenario of Grading
USE CASE NAME: GRADING UNIQUE ID :
AREA: SITRANS
ACTOR(S): Assistant and lecturer
DESCRIPTION: Entry scores are part of the monitoring process of practicum
implementation, where the Assistant provides an assessment of the
results of student work in completing the practical module assignments
and the final assessment of the practicum given by the lecturer based on
the recapitulation of scores obtained by students.
TRIGGERING EVENT: Completion of practicum module assignments
TRIGGER TYPE: External Temporal
STEP PERFORMED (MAIN PATH) Information for Steps
1. ASISTEN LOGIN PADA SUB SYSTEM
PRAKTIKUM
Username, password, Assistant permissions
2. ASISTEN MEMERIKSA HASIL PENYELESAIAN
TUGAS MODUL MAHASISWA
Student module assignment data files
3. ASISTEN MEMBERI NILAI Student module assignment data files
4. ASISTEN MEMBERIKAN CATATAN KOREKSI,
BILA ADA YANG HARUS DIPERBAIKI
MAHASISWA. SETELAH MAHASISWA
MEREVISI TUGASNYA, ASISTEN
MEMBERIKAN NILAI KEMBALI
Correction record data
5. DOSEN MELIHAT NILAI YANG TELAH
DIBERIKAN ASISTEN DAN MELIHAT TUGAS
MAHASISWA
Module assignment grade data
6. DI AKHIR SEMESTER, DOSEN MELIHAT
SELURUH NILAI TUGAS MAHASISWA PADA
SETIAP MODUL
List of all module assignments
7. DOSEN MELAKUKAN REKAPITULASI DAN
MEMBERIKAN NILAI AKHIR PRAKTIKUM
grade list data
PRECONDITIONS: Students have completed module assignments
POSTCONDITIONS: Students get the value of each assignment and the final score of the
practicum
ASSUMPTIONS: Students complete assignments for each module
REQUIREMENT MET: The assistant provides an assessment for each task
OUTSTANDING
ISSUES:
PRIORITY: High
RISK: High
The class diagrams for the practicum and assignment sub-systems are shown in Figure 8. A
total of 17 object classes must be built for this module, and the relationships that occur between
classes are listed to describe the data model.
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Figure 8 Class Diagram of Practical work module
The recruitment of assistants is no less important in SITRANS. A good recruitment process
that meets certain standards will result in selected assistants who are competent and qualified.
User interface
Login Module and Password Recovery
The following are some of the SITRANS interface designs, including login page and password
recovery (Figure 9), placement of menus on the system dashboard (Figure 10). The rest are an
interface for joining the research group (Figure 11) and a page to monitor the progress of the
research (Figure 11).
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Figure 9 Login Page
Figure 10 System Dashboard
Figure 11 Join a Research Page
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Figure 12 Research Approval Page
Conclusions
In this study, a system was designed to manage all non- lecturing academic activities, especially
those carried out in the laboratory as one of the study centres on campus. The design of use
case diagrams and their scenarios, class diagrams and activity diagrams has been obtained for
each module in SITRANS. The authors hope that the results of this study will be useful as a
reference for institutions to carry out system development, so that the management of non-
college academic activities can be optimally organised and monitored online, especially during
the Covid19 pandemic which has not ended. Further study is needed to design practical work
modules, theses and real work lectures so that a comprehensive and integrated design will be
obtained with the academic system that has been settled.
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