Learn from Home Application of Politeknik Negeri Padang Students

during Covid 19 Pandemic

Hidra Amnur, Roni Putra, Andre Febrian Kasmar and Raemon Syaljumairi

Department of Information Technology, Politeknik Negeri Padang, Padang, Indonesia

Keywords

Covid-19, Android, Database, MySQL, Server, Moodle, Presence Information System, LMS, QR Code.

Abstract

The number of positive cases of the Corona or Covid-19 virus continues to grow. The existence of this

epidemic has an impact on society, ranging from social and economic impacts to education in Indonesia. This

was recognized by UNESCO on Thursday 5 March 2020, that the Corona virus outbreak had an impact on

the education sector. several campuses in Indonesia implement a distance learning policy, including the

Politeknik Negeri Padang. Before the pandemic, lecture attendance was carried out with the Presence

Information System. And lectures are carried out face-to-face in the class, laboratory or workshop. During

the pandemic, the information system was no longer used and lectures were redirected using Moodle. Online

lectures have several problems that arise, such as attendance, lecture schedules and the current student

condition. This research was conducted by combining the Presence Information System database with Moodle

which has similarities and adding several new fields to determine the condition of students with a

questionnaire. To make it easier to use, an Android-based Learning from Home application was created and

used by students.

INTRODUCTION

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed many things

the world of education. Access to online learning

(e-learning) is now more important than ever. This

change has been seen since the pandemic, due to

health protocols that must be followed to prevent the

spread of the virus.

Before Covid-19, one of the information systems

in Politeknik Negeri Padang (PNP) was the

Attendance Information System which aimed to

manage lecturers, students, courses, classes, and

attendance. This system is web-based with a MySQL

database and is integrated with an attendance device

using a card (RFID technology). This information

system is very helpful in the management and

reporting of lectures during normal conditions.

However, during the Covid 19 period the lecture

model was no longer face-to-face in class, replaced

by distance learning (eLearning). The Attendance

Information System that was usually used before the

Covid-19 is no longer used. The eLearning used by

PNP is Moodle (https://moodle.com). The advantages

of Moodle's LMS (Moodle, 2020) are:

Opensource

flexible learning

Mobile Learning,

Accessibility for All,

Security and Privacy,

Easy Integration.

PNP also uses JTSI (https://jitsi.org/) for video

conferencing as a complement to lectures if you want

face-to-face online.

The interesting thing about Moodle is Opensource

and Easy Integration. Moodle is open source with

advantages such as: Complete ownership, Give it

your own look & feel, customize the functionality.

At Moodle there are various external platforms

and services. Moodle can integrate with video

conferencing for in-person meetings; Student

Information System, plagiarism detection; portfolios,

popular document suites, content repositories and

thousands more. Moodle is a global learning

management platform that supports open standards,

and is interoperable by design to allow the integration

of external information and applications into a single

Moodle platform.

During student learning activities at home, there

are several obstacles faced, including students and

lecturers who are less disciplined with class

schedules, and there is no control for student

attendance during lectures. The lecturers' ignorance

1340

Amnur, H., Putra, R., Kasmar, A. and Syaljumairi, R.

Learn from Home Application of Politeknik Negeri Padang Students during Covid 19 Pandemic.

DOI: 10.5220/0010965100003260

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Applied Science and Technology on Engineering Science (iCAST-ES 2021), pages 1340-1344

ISBN: 978-989-758-615-6; ISSN: 2975-8246

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

of the student's condition, why students don't go to

college, don't do assignments. The lecturer only

guessed the condition of the students. In the

Attendance Information System, there are ways to

recap student attendance, class schedules, and lecture

journals. Attendance can be seen by the

administration department without the need for the

lecturer to recap the attendance and give it.

The information system that already exists in PNP

can certainly take advantage of this Moodle feature to

be able to adjust and expand existing functions. The

big question is how to integrate Moodle with the

existing system in PNP.

Each system has advantages and disadvantages. If

both are used, it will tend to be troublesome because

the data that is filled in are basically almost the same.

And it tends to cause input errors that result in data

being filled in at Moodle not the same as the

attendance information system. This error can result

in detrimental to students or lecturers later. So this

research contributes to finding how to integrate two

different systems in one application by engineering

the MySQL database

This Learning from Home application uses

database tables that already exist in the PNP’s

Presence Information System and Moodle. To

determine the condition of students, several

questionnaire tables are added. This research is based

on the Android and MySQL databases.

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 eLearning, LMS and Moodle

e-Learning is a distance learning that utilizes

computer technology, computer networks and the

internet. E-Learning makes it possible for learners to

learn via computers in their places without having to

physically leave follow lessons / lectures in class.

Software applications for managing

documentation, reporting, automation, delivery of

learning or educational materials, training programs

are known as learning management systems (LMS).

It acts as a centralized training platform that serves as

the center of any learning ecosystem. LMS can

manage learning content, audience and assess the

performance of the audience

The first introduction of LMS occurred in the late

1990s. LMS is more focused on delivering online

learning that can support a variety of users. LMS acts

as an online content platform that can do classroom

management, training, instructors, or vice versa

which is usually done by schools or colleges. over

time, e-learning tools and features continue to evolve.

The e-learning industry keeps abreast of trends, such

as implementing VR, AI or other types of new

technologies. It aims to bring flexibility, accessibility

and convenience to its customers at a low cost, which

will not have a drastic impact. Research shows that

the LMS market is expected to pick up with a

compound annual growth rate of 24% between 2016

and 2020. In 2020 the growth will continue to

increase due to Covid-19 (Pappas, 2019).

Moodle is a learning platform designed to provide

educators, administrators and learners with a single

robust, secure and integrated system to create

personalized learning environments. To be integrated

with external systems, Moodle provides

External database authentication

This method uses an external database table to

check if the username (which must be varchar)

and password are valid. If a user is not currently

Moodle, a new account is created and their

information copied from an external database.

Activating the External Database Authentication

feature, can be done by logging into the Moodle

administrator and accessing the site

administration

> Plugins > Authentication >

External database.

And check the external

database authentication

plugin.

There are 2 ways to use the External Database

Authentication feature

Field Mappings

Update Local - Specifies that the

external

data will be entered into the

local field in

question

Update External - Specifies just the

opposite,

meaning changes in the local

Moodle field in

question will update the

corresponding field

in the external

database

Lock Value - Only determines whether

the

local user can make a change in the

Moodle

field and does not affect the two

settings

above.

Automatic Synchronization

A typical cron entry will be as follows:

/usr/bin/php

/path/to/moodle/auth/db/cli/sync_us

ers.php >dev/null

External database enrolment

External databases (of almost any type) can

control registration. It is assumed that the external

database contains a field that contains course IDs,

field that contains user IDs, and optionally a

field

that contains roles. It is compared with the

fields

Learn from Home Application of Politeknik Negeri Padang Students during Covid 19 Pandemic

1341

selected in the local course, the users table,

and the

roles table.

This script is meant to be called from a system

cronjob to sync moodle enrolments with enrolments

in the external database.

Example cron entry

# 5 minutes past 4am

5 4 * * * /usr/bin/php -c

/path/to/php.ini

/path/to/moodle/enrol/database/cli/sync.p

MySQL is a database based on the client-server

model. At the heart of MySQL is the MySQL server,

which handles all database instructions (or

commands). MySQL server is available as a separate

program for use in a client-server network

environment and as a library that can be embedded

(or linked) into separate applications.

2.2 Android

Android is an open source platform software

package that is based on the Linux operating system

for mobile devices and allows anyone to download,

customize, innovate and distribute so that people

around the world can enjoy greater access to more

information and opportunities.

The Learn from Home application uses the

Android platform, because most lecturers and

students use Android-based smartphones (Afdal and

Hidra, 2020).

2.3 QR Code

External database for integration of academic

information systems (SIA) with Moodle by preparing

the SIA data structure as required by the External

Database feature in Moodle. For external database

authentication, the integration process is carried out

every time a user logs in to Moodle, so that data can

be integrated in real time. External database

enrollment poses the integration is done by executing

the file that has been prepared in the doodle on PHP

CLI and it also takes a long time (so as not to overload

the server, it is done once a day) (Bunyamin and

Syazili, 2019).

2.4 Information System

An information system (IS) is a system designed

collect, process, store, and distribute information.

One example of an information system is a presence

information system, a presence information system

aims to manage the presence of an institution or

company. The system is designed to collect a person's

attendance data at any time which will be processed

automatically according to the wishes or needs of the

institution / company. The results will be distributed

in the form of reports that have been processed from

data that are related to the presence in the database.

2.5 Database

and MySQL

A database is an organized collection of

structured

information, or data, typically stored

electronically

in a computer system. A database is

usually

controlled by a database management system

(DBMS).

A QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response

code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional

barcode) first designed in 1994 for the automotive

industry in Japan. A QR code consists of black

squares arranged in a square grid on a white

background, which can be read by an imaging device

such as a camera, and processed using Reed–

Solomon error correction until the image can be

appropriately interpreted. The required data is then

extracted from patterns that are present in both

horizontal and vertical components of the image

(Denso, 2011).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The material used includes existing databases in

the presence information system and Moodle.

From

the two databases, find the equation that

intersects the

two databases. Merge records from

two relational

databases and create a new

database which will be

created for the Moodle

External Database and will be

used for the API in

application.

Figure 1: Database Relational.

In addition to the table above, it is added to

determine the current condition of students. and

for

an overview of the application as follows:

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1342

Figure 2: Overview of the application.

In Figure 2, it can be seen that there are 2 servers,

one server for presence information systems and the

second server for Moodle. The database and API of

the Learn From Home Application are on the same

server as the presence information system. The main

users of the system and applications are

Administrators, Lecturers and Students. They can

directly access the Presence Information System or

directly access Moodle. And they can also access it

via the Learn from Home Application. Whatever they

access the information and the data received will be

the same. information from the operating system and

applications used on the server can be seen in table 1

Table 1: The operating system and applications used

the server.

Serve

1 Serve

CentOS 7.6 x64 CentOS 7.6 x64

CWP7Pro,

Apache

CWP7Pro,

Apache

2.4.39, PHP

5.3, 2.4.39, PHP 7.2.19,

L 10.1.43- M

L 10.3.23-

MariaDB, Attendance

MariaDB,

Moodle

Information System 3.9.1

RESULT

To implement the External Database, several

steps are carried out such as:

Setting up a view in the database that

provides student and lecturer data that can log

to Moodle, along with the profiles required

Moodle

Enabling the External Database feature

Setting the external database on the plugin

Mapping the Moodle system. This process

aims to map the previously prepared fields to

the table in Moodle

If external database enrollment has been

configured, the administrator may choose to use

those

settings. This setting can be seen in the

following

figure:

Figure 3: External Database Configure.

Figure 4 is an additional table in the database

related to the questionnaire to determine the

student's

condition.

Figure 4: Additional tables in the database

Distance learning difficult to know the real state

of the

student. This additional table is needed as data

information to find out their situation in order to

make it easier for lecturers or leaders to make the best

decisions for them during this pandemic.

Learn from Home Application of Politeknik Negeri Padang Students during Covid 19 Pandemic

1343

CONCLUSION

Integration of Moodle and Attendance

Information

Systems can be done by utilizing the

External

Database feature in Moodle. Similar tables

are

configured to sync. It is recommended to

synchronize database contents with the main data on

the Presence Information System, because the

External Database feature is in Moodle. for further

research, it can be developed in other tables in the

Presence Information System and other information

systems can also be carried out in the Padang State

Polytechnic environment.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Politeknik Negeri Padang and Information

Technology Department for their support in this

research. This research was sourced from the

Politeknik Negeri Padang’s DIPA funds for the 2020

fiscal year

REFERENCES

Moodle. (2020). Key features of Moodle LMS. [Online].

Available: https://moodle.com/lms/features/.

C. Pappas (2019). Top Learning Management System

(LMS) Statistics For 2020 You Need Tto Know.

Available:

https://elearningindustry.com/top-learning-

management-system-lms-statistics-for-2020-

infographic. [Accessed: 01-Oct-2020].

M. Bunyamin and A. Syazili. (2019). External Database

Sebagai Media Integrasi Sistem Informasi Akademik

dengan E-Learning. J. Bina Komput., vol. 1, no. 1, pp.

73–81.

Afdal and Hidra Amnur. (2020). MRAPAT Untuk Sistem

Manajemen Ruanga Rapat , Absensi , dan Notulen di

PT PLN Unit Wilayah Sumbar. J. Ilm. Teknol. Sist.

Inf., vol. 1, no. 2.

Denso. (2011). QR Code ® Essentials. Denso ADC.

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