Design of a university-based information service centre with SMS notification (Obafemi Awolowo University as a case study)

Abstract

Mobile applications are being implemented in varieties of areas including mobile commerce, purchase of services and products using mobile devices, gaming, banking, information services etc. Obafemi Awolowo University is a large academic community that can benefit from a mobile information service centre. There is a large population of students who can satisfy a great deal of their information needs. Existing modes of information delivery are inefficient and in most cases not timely. There is therefore a need for the provisioning of a suitable software application framework that can meet this critical need. This paper presents a suitable software system that can deliver information services with mobile functionality to the content subscriber (students in this case). Mobile devices are prevalent amongst students and teachers, which provides the motivation for the application of mobile technologies in learning environment. The mobility provided was achieved using SMS over GSM Network with the hardware implemented on a GSM Nokia phone acting as a modem. Object-Oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD) approach with the Unified Modelling Language (UML) was employed to document the software component of the application. This system was then implemented in Java programming language. The software developed include; integrated subscription, payment and billing, user profile management, efficient mobile architecture, and ease of content publishing, all loosely coupled, to allow for further extension to the service architecture.