AN INFORMATION PORTAL FOR CAREER GUIDANCE: THE CASE OF ORDINARY LEVEL IN UGANDA

by BALIRWA MOSES [BSc, PGDE, PGDCS, (Mak)] mbalirwa2000@yahoo.co.uk, +256-71-2812893

A Project Report Submitted to School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment for the Award of Master of Science in Computer Science Degree of Makerere University

February 2006

Declaration
we Parvinder Singh , Sandeep Vishwas, Sunil Yadav and Sandeep Kumar do hereby declare
that this Project Report is original and has not been published and/or submitted for any other degree award to any other University before.

Signed............................................... Date:.........................................

Parvinder Singh Sandeep Vishwas Sunil Yadav Sandeep Kumar

Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the following people without whose help this work would never have come this far. First I wish to acknowledge the contribution of my supervisor Dr. Peter Jehopio for his invaluable guidance throughout the study. I do acknowledge the patience which my family members exhibited for all the time i used to desert them while engaged in this research. And lastly to the human experts, Mr. Mbulakidero Timothy and Mr. Gitta Joseph for their cooper-ation and Information sharing attitude that enabled the success of this project. I wish also to extend my thanks to Mr. Benjamin Mpeirwe for his technical support.

iii

Table of Contents
Content Page i i

Declaration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. iii

List of Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CHAPTER ONE: 1.1 1.2 1.3

INTRODUCTION

1 1 3 4 4 4 5 5

Background to the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Statement of the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.1 1.3.2 General Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Specific Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.4 1.5

Scope of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Significance of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

CHAPTER TWO:

LITERATURE REVIEW

7 7

2.1 General Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.2 Expert Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 2.3 Expert System Tools, Shells, and Skeletons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

CHAPTER THREE:

METHODOLOGY

13

3.1 Tools for Building Information Portal 3.1.1 3.1.2 3.1.3

3.1.4

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Web Application Server, Development Tools and Frameworks . . . . . . . 18 The Data Integration Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 The Content Management System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Knowledgebase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

3.1.5

Career Guidance Procedure

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20

3.1.6
3.1.7

Subjects Taught at Ordinary Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Problems in Career Guidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

21

3.1.8
3.2

Approaches used to Overcome some of the Problems in Career Guidance

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

.
28

26

Production Rules

3.3

Inference Mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

29

3.4

Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

33

CHAPTER FOUR:

PORTAL IMPLEMENTATION

34
34

Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Developed Information Portal

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35

Validation of the Developed System

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

47

5 CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 5.1 5.2 5.3

50

Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

REFERENCES

55

APPENDICES: APPENDIX A: Definition of Terms

57 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

APPENDIX B: Interview guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

List of Figures
Figures
3.1 3.2 3.3
3.4

Page
System Administrator login Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Block diagram of system operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Problem flowchart of Career Guidance Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 19 23
30

Knowledge tree for career choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3.5

Web Interface for questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

31

3.6
4.1

Forward chaining in expert systems

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

32
35

System Login Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5

Home Page for Career Guidance Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Links for Educational Institutions in Uganda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Level of Interest in subjects offered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Level of performance in subjects offered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

36 37 38 40

4.6 Career Choices display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 4.7 Specific Career description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.8 Response screen for YES: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

42
43

4.9

Response screen for Uncertain: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

44

4.10

Response screen for NO: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

45

4.11 Last message to a student convinced: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.12 Solution screen Mechanical Engineer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

46 48
50

4.13 Solution screen Secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

List of Acronyms
AI BIT CACG CEC CGI CIS CLIPS CSC ESs HTML KBIS KBS MIS
PHP
Artificial Intelligence

Bachelor of Information Technology

Computer-Assisted Career Guidance

Career Education Center Common Gateway Interface Computer Information Systems

C Language Integrated Production System

Computer Science Expert Systems

Hyper Text Markup Language

Knowledgebase Information System Knowledgebase Systems

Management Information Systems Personal Home Pages Senior one

Senior two Universal Primary Education

S.1 S.2 UPE

Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop an Information portal for career guidance to provide ex-pert advice to Uganda Ordinary Level secondary school students. This report describes the devel-oped information portal providing career guidance for Ordinary Level students. Not infrequently students are confused on which career choice they should undertake, basing on their ability, inter-est, values, etc. Unfortunately there are very few career guidance experts to provide such advice and even then they do not have comprehensive information. The information portal advises the student on a number of the professional options that may be suitable for them basing on their abil-ities and interests. It contains an expert system module that helps in guiding towards conclusion. Simultaneously, it offers web pages that give additional information, from which decisions can be based. This information portal contains a knowledgebase with information gathered from human experts on career guidance. The information contained in this portal provides typical questions asked by students while seeking career guidance and those asked by the career experts in order to determine a suitable placement for the student. The findings of the study may be generalised so as to cater for more advanced problems and thus help a broader audience. Thus the portal can be expanded to put into consideration all factors that determine a career choice i.e student personality, socio-economic status of the family, sex, Religion. It can also be broadened to cater for Students completing Advanced Level and those opting for particular specialisations in a profession