Student Centered Learning Environment for Project Monitoring

Student Centered Learning Environment is a learning environment that describes thinking methods about learning and teaching that emphasizes student responsibility in learning activities such as planning, interacting with lecturers and other students, doing research and evaluating learning. This means that students play an important and active role in learning. Applying the concept to Computer Science final year project requires students to be independent in carrying out activities related to the research literature, mastering software tools or libraries, designing, developing and testing software, and writing reports. Theoretically, a supervisor plays the role of an advisor to ensure the project is successfully completed within the designated timeframe. However, most of the time, students are often given the freedom to manage their project, sometimes without adequate guidance from supervisors. This is a rather complicated problem for moderate and weak students. For students to actively participate in their own learning they must possess self-monitoring and other meta-cognitive skills which are not necessarily inherent in every individual. A survey done in our faculty shows that Computer Science students face a number of problems in the course of accomplishing their final year project which include time management, anxiety, academicachievements, and capability of managing project and strategy to complete the project (listed according to factors that most affected them). This paper will discuss the role of the Final Year Project Supervision Management System in support of student-centered learning for final year project at the School of Computer Science. Mapping between system features and principles of student centered learning is also presented. The system has been developed to monitor students' progress both in software development and report writing, as well as managing the process of allocating supervisors and examiners to students and grading. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Faculty of Information Science & Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.