ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY

Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

APPROVAL SHEET

The Capstone Project entitled “Decision Support System for

Online Scholarship Application through Classification using Decision

Tree Algorithm” prepared and submitted by RONALD B. RIVERA in

partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree MASTER IN

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (MIT).

MARY JANE S. BITANGA, DIT

Adviser

Approved by the PANEL of Oral Defense with a grade of _____.

BETCHIE E. AGUINALDO, DIT

Chairman

JESUS M. LINDO, MIT DIONICIO D. GANTE, MIT

Member Member

Accepted as partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree

of Master in Information Technology (MIT) Capstone Project.

MARY JANE S. BITANGA, DIT LORELEI C. TABAGO

Dean, CCIT Campus Research Director

ADELA L. REYNO, D.P.A

Campus Registrar
 ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY
Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this research study to my parents especially to

my mother who is always there to support me, financially and morally. To my

Wife and Daughter who have serve as my inspiration in finishing this race, to

my Prof’s who always believed in my ability, to my relatives and friends for

sharing enlightenment for me to accomplish this work.

And most of all to Our Almighty Father who is always there to guide,

protect and give us strength in all things.

 ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY
Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to extend sincerest appreciation to the following persons for their

invaluable help in the realization of this study:

The Capstone Adviser/Dean of CCIT, Prof. Mary Jane S. Bitanga,

DIT, for her patience and pieces of advices that encouraged me in the

completion of this study;

The MIT Coordinator, Prof. Betchie E. Aguinaldo, DIT, for her

patience, guidance, knowledge and learnings that reminded us in the

realization of our study;

The MIT’s Mr. Giant Kangaroo. Prof. Dionicio D. Gante, MIT For his,

unending support and advises to cope up challenges in the making the this

study;

To my beloved Parents, for the financial and continues moral support

in making this study a success;

To my wife and daughter who served as my strength and hope in

beating every deadline.

Above all to Our Almighty God, for his unfailing love, and gave me

wisdom, patience and strength that I need despite all difficulties and

problems I encountered in conducting this study.

-Ronald Bautista Rivera-

 ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY
Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

ABSTRACT

Nowadays most government agencies are making use of Web-Based

Information System to speed-up their transactions. Decision support

system is also one of the most common types of system that is being

deployed online today. One of the most common algorithms that are

used by decision support system is the Decision Tree; decision tree

builds classification or regression models in the form of a tree

structure. It breaks down a dataset into smaller and smaller subsets

while at the same time an associated decision tree is incrementally

developed. The final result is a tree with decision nodes and leaf

nodes.

Meanwhile, R.A. 10687 mandates Scholarship Program that

aims to help indigent citizens all throughout the Philippines. This Act

is supported by Santiago City to promote a City wide College

Scholarship Program to help indigent families on their financial

problems. However, there are issues that need to be addressed in the

current scholarship program of the City Hall.

Scholarship application in Santiago City Scholarship Board is all

done manually using paper-based processing. Applicants have to fill

out application forms and submit them manually in the office.

Meaning, applications are being checked manually . This manual

 ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY
Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

process consumes a lot of time in checking and accessing

student/applicant pre-application information.

The developed Decision Support System for Online Scholarship

Application through Classification using Decision Tree is a web-based

system designed to assist the process of scholarship granting. The

system’s primary use is to assess student’s pre-application

requirements through the use of Decision Tree Algorithm. The system

was developed using PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, Bootstrap and JQuery

and implemented in the Scholarship Board of Santiago City, Isabela.

Through the use of the developed system, the Scholarship Board

of Santiago City boosts up its assessment of pre-application

requirement using decision tree classification. Students will just fil-up

pre-application requirements and the system classifies them from

qualified to not-qualified. In general, previously identified problems in

the scholarship application were all addressed.

 ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY
Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Table of Contents
CHAPTER I ............................................................................................................................ vii
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................... vii
Rationale ............................................................................................................................ vii
Statement of the Problem .............................................................................................. ix
Limitation ............................................................................................................................. x
Related Studies ................................................................................................................. xi
Related Literatures ......................................................................................................... xii
 ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY
Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Rationale

Supporting education through scholarships to students of

higher learning is an important aspect of government’s effort to assist
students at all levels of learning to allow them afford the basic needs
that accrue during their studies. It’s a government plan to develop a
critical mass of professionals who would serve as catalysts of change
and agents of scientific and technological advancement, as well as
sustainable economic development. However, the cost of education has
risen drastically over the past few years hindering the families of low
income earners to send their children to school as they can barely
afford the cost. Scholarship as defined by [1] is a grant or payment
made to support a student's education, awarded on the basis of
academic or other achievement. Many scholarships are awarded

Most of Local Government Units nowadays are making use of

Web-Based Information System, to showcase their municipalities,
towns or cities globally. Aside from showcasing, there are also LGU’s
who have been using this kind of technology to process transactions
like business permit licensing (LGU-Santiago). R.A. 10687 mandates
Scholarship Program that aims to help indigent citizens of Santiago
pursue education through this program. The ordinance mandates a
City wide College Scholarship Program to help indigent families on
their financial problems. However, there are issues that need to be
 ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY
Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

addressed in the current scholarship program of the City Hall. (R.A.

10687, July 27, 2015).

Currently, the procedures of applying for scholarships at

Santiago City Scholarship Board are all done manually using paper-
based processing. Applicants have to fill out their application forms
and submit them manually to the office. If there is any problem with
their applications while they are processed, it will also take an extra
time for both the reviewing committee as well as the applicant to
communicate and correct the errors. Therefore, additional paperwork
for the review may cause a delay in the entire procedure. The
processes of screening the applicant’s credentials and evaluation of
applicant’s form are also tedious. This informed the development of a
Decision Support System for Online Scholarship Application which
can facilitate the processes of various scholarship applications.
The Decision Support System is a web-based system designed to
assist the process of scholarship granting. The system’s primary use is
to assess student’s pre-application requirements through the use of
Decision Tree Algorithm. Decision Tree Algorithm will be used to
assess student’s grade, ethnicity and income. The algorithm is a flow-
chart-like structure, where each internal (non-leaf) node denotes a test
on an attribute, each branch represents the outcome of a test, and
each leaf (or terminal) node holds a class label.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_tree_learning)
Through the use of the decision support system, the team in-
charge for LGU Santiago’s Scholarship Application will be having
lesser time in evaluating students’ pre-application requirements.
Moreover, students (applicants) won’t flock their way to the city hall
because all transactions regarding scholarship application will be done
 ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY
Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

online.

Statement of the Problem

The following problems are being encountered in the application of
scholarship
- Time consuming student’s pre-application assessment
- bunch number of application papers
- insufficient man power to accommodate the number of
applicants
- unsecure record keeping
- time consuming preparation of scholarship grant report

Objectives
This study generally aims to develop a Decision Support System for

Online Scholarship Application through classification using Decision

Tree and specifically to (1) Determine qualified and not qualified

applicants, (2) Lessen the work of scholarship application in-charge,

(3) Secure record through database integration and access privileges

and (4) Timely generation of report in scholarship grants.

Scope and Delimitation

This project focuses only in the development of a Decision

Support System for online Scholarship Application though

classification using decision tree algorithm to classify scholarship

application based on their income, ethnicity and grades.

 ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY
Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Limitation
The limitation of the system is that it does not cater all of the
transactions on the management of each scholarship like, billing and
payment of grantee’s fees. It only focuses on the online application
where pre-application requirements will be evaluated online.

Significance of the Study

This study entitled “a Decision Support System for online Scholarship

Application though classification using decision tree algorithm” will

help the implementing agency to easily assess every applicant’s pre-

scholarship requirement, this will lessen application papers that are

scattered in their office. Moreover, it will also lesson manpower since

the system automatically assesses the student’s pre-assessment

requirements.

This study will also be beneficial to the future researchers. This

will serve as their guide or reference in conducting related studies. The

related literature found in this study will also be their guide to trace

out additional information.

 ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY
Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents a brief discussion of the literature reviewed by

the researcher which further enriched the conceptualization of the
study and helped in describing the cognitive design that guided the
conduct of the researcher.

Related Studies
According to Wisconsin, (2011), “An Online Scholarship
Application System” for a foundation at University of Wisconsin-La
Crosse. The foundation deals with a large number of scholarship
applications as the foundation uses paper-based processing. In order
to automate the task performed by this foundation, a re- engineering
approach named “Evolutionary Re-engineering Approach” was used to
identify all critical functionalities from the existing system. This
evolution focuses on replacement in which portions of the existing
system is substituted for re-engineered system portions. The system
was developed under java development platform using java in the
business logic layer, JSP in the presentation layer and Oracle 10g
Express Edition in the database layer. It was run under IIS application
server.
In addition, Asia pacific issues. No. 48( 2001) sighted that some
basic applications areas like e-exams that are related to E -scholarship
System was also reviewed. In a paper titled "An Arabic Web- Based
Exam Management System" [M. Z. Rashad 2010) proposed a web
 ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY
Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

based online examination.

Despite impressive advances in file system throughput resulting

from technologies such as high-bandwidth networks and disk arrays,
file system latency has not improved and in many cases has become
worse. Consequently, file system I/O remains one of the major
bottlenecks to operating system performance according to USENIX
Conference (1990)

Related Literatures
Although Decades of Research have focused on understanding
students retention, persistence and degree attainment, national
statistics remain fairly constant. Modifications to Tinto’s Theory
(1987, 1993) original theory of students’ departure have been
proposed to take into account diverse populations according to
Hurtado & Carter, (1997)

College graduates are more likely satisfied with their jobs, and
place a better premium on the need to feel that their work is more
important according to Friedl, M. A (1997). They also make to engage
civically, with higher rates volunteering and voting as to Al-Radaideh
(2006]. Greater educational attainment is associated with both higher
salaries and lower unemployment rates said Kuleswar (2010).

The term "scholarship" according to A Nelnet Network (2013) is a

form of financial assistance that does not require repayment or
employment and which is usually offered to students who show
potential for distinction, or who possess certain characteristics
important to the scholarship provider (such as religious beliefs,
 ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY
Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

hobbies, ethnicity, etc.). A scholarship is a form of financial aid that is

specifically geared towards students who are attending college. It is
used as a way of financing their education, and it may pay a part of
their education, or it may pay the entire cost of a student’s tuition. As
A. Exforsy, (2014) point out, Scholarships will require students to meet
certain requirements, both before and after they’ve obtained it. Most of
these scholarships will require students to have a minimum GPA, and
they may also require them to take a certain number of credit hours
within the first 12 months of their schooling. While some scholarships
are based on gender, others are based on the field the student is
majoring in. Scholarship, especially in developing countries, has been
considered as a means to improve the access, participation, enrolment
and achievement of students from the poor and disadvantaged
background B. Sanothimi (2010). A study was conducted by M.
Brumbaugh (2010) on “Increasing Efficiency in a Community College
Scholarship Program”, the research was designed to increase the
efficiency of a community college scholarship program. The research
was developed in response to a desire to increase numbers of
scholarship applications from students and to streamline the selection
and financial reconciliation processes at the research site. Data was
gathered through surveys, interviews, and observations. The data
analysis suggests that passive information on the part of colleges, lack
of student confidence in qualifications, and lack of student awareness
of the differences in scholarship criteria are significant contributing
factors leading to low rates of application. Data related to recipient
selection processes show that committee training, the use of multiple
reviewers, and the use of consistently-applied scoring rubrics increase
selection efficiency. Results suggest further research possibilities to
determine the extent to which various scholarship marketing
 ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY
Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

strategies, and the manner in which individual scholarship criteria are

presented, influence application rates. Further research is suggested
to determine the factors influencing student confidence and motivation
related to scholarship application.

According to D. Ernst (2001) Internet has become the means for

conducting growing numbers of transactions because of the speed,
flexibility, and efficiency that it offers. This technology is required by
every organization if it does want to reach out to its customers in this
age of globalization.

Moreover the use of Decision support system is rapidly

emerging. Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) has been a rapidly
emerging field of the 1980's. Whereas conventional Decision Support
Systems (DSS) help individual decision makers, GDSS are designed to
help groups of senior management and professional groups reach
consensus according to Gray, P. (1987).

In the past few years, the use of decision trees (DTs) to classify
remotely sensed data has increased. Proponents of the method claim
that it has a number of advantages over the ML and ANN algorithms.
The DT is computationally fast, make no statistical assumptions, and
can handle data that are represented on different measurement scales.
Software to implement DTs is readily available over the Internet.
Pruning of DTs can make them smaller and more easily interpretable,
while the use of boosting techniques can improve performance Pal, M.,
& Mather, P. M. (2003).

Decision tree classification algorithms tested include an

 ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY
Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

univariate decision tree, a multivariate decision tree, and a hybrid

decision tree capable of including several different types of
classification algorithms within a single decision tree structure.
Classification accuracies produced by each of these decision tree
algorithms are compared with both maximum likelihood and linear
discriminant function classifiers. Results from this analysis show that
the decision tree algorithms consistently outperform the maximum
likelihood and linear discriminant function classifiers in regard to
classification — cation accuracy Friedl, M. A., & Brodley, C. E. (1997)

The decision tree is a very good and practical method since it is

relatively fast, and can be easily converted to simple classification
rules. The decision tree method depends mainly on using the
information gain metric which determines the attribute that is most
useful. Baradwaj,(2012)

A decision tree is a set of conditions organized in a hierarchical

structure. It is a predictive model in which an instance is classified by
following the path of satisfied conditions from the root of the tree until
reaching a leaf, which will correspond to a class label. A decision tree
can easily be converted to a set of classification rules. Some of the
most well-known decision tree algorithms are C4.5 and CART Romero,
C (2008)

Synthesis of the Studies and Literature

Internet has become the means for conducting growing numbers
of transactions because of the speed, flexibility, and efficiency that it
offers. This technology is required by every organization if it does want
to reach out to its customers in this age of globalization.
 ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY
Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Online application system has been spreading all throughout

the globe; it deals with a large number of scholarship applications as
the foundation uses paper-based processing. In order to automate the
task performed by this foundation. Through this, more transactions
can take place at a time.

In the other hand, one of the common transactions that have been
automated online is the scholarship application. Research shows the
increase numbers of scholarship applications from students and to
streamline the selection and financial reconciliation processes at the
research site. Moreover, to lessen the work in online systems, a
classification algorithm is used to assess different kinds of entities.
The most common classification algorithm is the Decision Tree. A
decision tree is a set of conditions organized in a hierarchical
structure. It is a predictive model in which an instance is classified by
following the path of satisfied conditions from the root of the tree until
reaching a leaf, which will correspond to a class label. A decision tree
can easily be converted to a set of classification rules.

Either for conclude, using the above mentioned technologies and

algorithm proves that Decision Support System using classification
through Decision tree is more efficient in delivering the problems
encountered in manual scholarship application. Through the said
system, it can boost up scholarship application in the City of Santiago,
Isabela. Aside from that, officer-in-charge of evaluating pre-application
requirements would make his/her task easier because the system
uses Decision Tree to manage the assessment of pre-application
requirements. Lastly the system can be accessed anywhere because of
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Cauayan Campus
Cauayan City, Isabela

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

it online technology which uses internet to access the said application

/ website.