A Streamlined Approach to Enhance the Capacity of Undergraduate IT Students to Deliver High Quality and Demand-Driven Final Year Project: A Conceptual Framework on Collaboration between Industry and University

Abstract

A final year project (FYP) is a pinnacle in the undergraduate and graduate program. It is a culmination of skills and knowledge acquired during the course. the experience and excellence of the FYP is the strong factor to increase the self-confidence and market oriented skills for a student. The growth of IT sector is always exponential and competitive. The development of FYP using traditional approach is inefficient in developing skills and knowledge for many students. Traditional approach is weak in addressing the issues like time constraint, in adequate guidance, high expectation without proper direction and poor technical knowledge. Thus, student's ends up with low-quality IT projects which is neither benefit to them nor benefit to society. Further fear of grade; take students in to malpractices in order to accomplish FYP i.e. full plagiarism and illegal outsourcing. This paper proposes a streamlined approach to ensure to produce high quality and efficient project. We categorize FYP development as five main modules namely requirement, development, demonstration, documentation & presentation. This is a three-tier architecture, which involves student, teacher & IT industry. Further, a short outcome-based assessment procedure is developed for each module. We also propose a framework of a computerized management system for the processing of a FYP including a structured project allocation to students, a comprehensive assessment procedure, an automated processing of marks, and a management supporting system. This proposed approach guides the student to improve self-confidence and strong market-oriented skills which will help to find better jobs and higher earnings