An evaluation of Student Practical Online Application System (SPOA) developed using User Centered Design (UCD) / Muhammad Izzuddin Khairul Annuar Lim

Practical training is the medium for the students to apply the knowledge they gain in the classroom to be apply in the real job situation. This is to help the student to be more prepared in working environment after finish their studies. Faculty Computer and Mathematical Sciences (FSKM) still does not have any web-based system to handle or manage their practical student efficiently. They still using the manual paper-based form and student need to write their practical report in a paper based. So, the author will develop and design the student practical online application system (SPOA) by using user-cantered design (UCD) as the guideline and evaluate the usability of the system according to the user perspective. The UCD process is an iterative process which is after the SPOA system prototype been completed, the prototype will be evaluated and if there is any usability problem discover, the problem will be fixed and evaluated again until the system is ease to use. The UCD process has four phases that being used in this project which are understand user need, establish requirement, prototyping alternative designs and evaluate designs. The outcome of this project is the usability testing result and the comparison from using manual system and by using web-based automated system. Last but not least, there is only a few usability problem been discover by the usability testing participants and the participants agree that using web-based Student Practical Online Application System (SPOA) more facilitate the practical training process in the future. For future enhancement, this system can be enhanced by expending the scope and target area of the research. Instead of focusing on student from one faculty, this system can be introduce to others faculty in UiTM.