Artificial Intelligence (AI) – Cover Sheet

ASSIGNMENT

Instruction:

 Marks will be awarded for good presentation and thoroughness in your approach.
 Referencing Code: If you use some code, or ideas for code, which are taken or adapted from another
source (book, magazine, internet, discussion forum, etc), then this must be cited and referenced using
the Harvard Name convention within your source code. Failure to reference code properly is
considered as plagiarism.
 Complete this cover sheet and attach it to your project.
 This project is to be attempted by a group of 3 students.

Student declaration:

I declare that:  We understand what is meant by plagiarism

 The implication of plagiarism have been explained to us by our lecturer
 This project is all our work and we have acknowledged any use of the
published or unpublished works of other people.

Group Leader’s Signature: Date:

Group Name: Intake: UC1F1107IT

Project Title: Education Consultant
Name Designation/Role Signature
G. Leader Wong Soon Mei Team Leader

Member Rika Janesa Programming Leader

Member Pua Kian Yong Knowledge Engineer

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Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................................................................... 3
ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................................................. 4
PROPOSAL CONTENT .............................................................................................................................. 5
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 7
PROBLEM SPECIFICATION ..................................................................................................................... 8
AIM ........................................................................................................................................................... 8
DOMAIN EXPERT .................................................................................................................................. 8
PROJECT TEAM ..................................................................................................................................... 9
LITERATURE SURVEY ........................................................................................................................... 10
QUESTIONNAIRE RESULT ................................................................................................................ 10
Effectiveness of current system .......................................................................................................... 10
User friendliness of current system .................................................................................................... 14
EXPERT INTERVIEW / DOMAIN EXPERT INTERVIEW................................................................ 17
METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................................. 19
KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION ....................................................................................................... 20
SEMANTIC NETS ................................................................................................................................. 20
FLOW DIAGRAM ................................................................................................................................. 21
EVALUATION OF PROTOTYPE ............................................................................................................ 24
USERS OPINION ................................................................................................................................... 24
LIMITATION AND PROBLEM DURING SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT ............................................ 25
FURTHER IMPROVEMENT / DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................... 26
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................... 27
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................... 28
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................................ 29
QUESTIONNAIRE SAMPLE ....................................................................................................................... 29
INTERVIEW REPORT ................................................................................................................................ 35
WORKLOAD MATRIX ............................................................................................................................... 39
GANTT CHART ......................................................................................................................................... 40
SCREENSHOTS ......................................................................................................................................... 41

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to acknowledge the contributions of the following groups and individuals to the
development of our assignment.

We would like to thank God for giving us this opportunity to do this research. HE gives us a
good health and guides us in our life every day. We would like to thank our family. Their
financial and moral support during the period is greatly acknowledged.

Besides that, we would like to thank our lecturer, Miss Sarerusaenye Binti Ismail who directed
us to some tips on how to make our project well and done on time. She answered all of our
questions as well as asked us questions that helped us to narrow our search.

Last but not least, we want to thank our class peer review group who are willing to help us to
make our works more perfect. They are those that we discussed the assignment with when we
faced problems. All of them are willing to help us and give us a lot of support to finish this
assignment.

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ABSTRACT

This documentation is prepared based on our Introduction to Artificial Intelligence assignment.

The system we are doing is about the education consultant that focuses in the school of business
and management at the UCTI. Expert domain is Asia Pacific University College of Technology
and Innovation while human expert that help in our assignment is Dr. Barry.

This documentation will consist of the process how we come out with the expert system that is a
benefit for APIIT-UCTI, the system’s functionality, the evaluation of the system created and also
future improvement needed in the system we created. We do comparison between manual system
and expert system. We believe that we are able to solve the existing problems and give
recommendation or opinion to enhance the current situation by putting our idea into the system.

To create the system, we are required to use a software tool called Verbot. It is actually easy
software to implement the expert system compare to Object-oriented Programming.

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PROPOSAL CONTENT

Background

Based on this kind of technology, our group is going to develop a knowledge based education
system that serve as an information repository and consultant. The system that we are going is
focus on faculty of business and management.

The situation is like when the user is using the system we developed, list of available business
programmes are listed out. Then, we as education consultant will give information and also give
recommendation based on their input. User’s qualification will determine whether they will meet
the requirement to pursue their tertiary studies in APIIT-UCTI. Besides that, system will prompt
user to key in their interest and further information needed. The last output is the
recommendation of the course that suit them the best based on the conversation.

Problem Statement

The reason that provokes the idea of developing this system is because some of the students face
the difficulties on checking the details of the courses offered in the university. They will find it
bore to run through the brochure, template and so on. Furthermore, people nowadays like to use
electronic gadget.

Mostly students are not sure about the course they want and they need further explanation about
the course available. Moreover, student services are not available all the time. They will have
their work hours and break hours.

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Project Environment & Scope

The project scope is about education, specifically in business courses available in APIIT-UCTI.
It helps new students to know and understand more about the courses offered by the university.
The user scope is new local students who want to know and consult about what course they
should take.

Project Outcome

The main output of the proposed project is:

1. List of business and management courses available

2. Recommendation on what course will suit the best for the users

With the existence of this education consultant, somehow it can replace the current education
consultant in APIIT-UCTI which is the student services staffs, as they might not be available all
the time.

User Level

This is a system for novice level users.

This is because the interface of the system is user friendly. User can understand and handle the
system easily. Besides, it contains basic information that user wants to know about the courses
available in the faculty of business and management in APIIT-UCTI.

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INTRODUCTION

Artificial intelligence means create intelligence processed by human being and put it into a
machine. It makes our human life easier. In this module, we are going to develop an Education
Consultant System using Verbot, an artificial intelligence software development kit. It is also
known as Chatbot, short for chat robot, is a program that attempts to stimulate the conversation
between human being by typing in natural language. Chatbots such as "Eliza" and "Parry" were
popular early attempts at creating programs that could temporarily fool a real human being into
thinking they were talking to another person.

Chatbots plays role in applications such as e-commerce customer service, call centres and
Internet gaming. However, they are typically limited to conversations regarding a specialized
purpose. They are not for the entire range of human communication. Online interactive games
like Tinymuds also use chatbot application. It enables a single player to interact with it while
awaiting other "live" players.

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PROBLEM SPECIFICATION

AIM

Aim of the project is to choose and recommend the most suitable course for the student that wish
to study in the school of business & management of UCTI. We provide course information for
users through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The
recommendation is based on the users input which is closely related to their interest, their
personality traits and also their qualifications or result from the previous education.

DOMAIN EXPERT

Domain expert of the system we developed is Asia Pacific University College of Technology and
Innovation (UCTI). The Business School at the UCTI prepares students for a role that gives them
an industry relevant edge. At the School of Business Management, UCTI continually
demonstrate high quality international curriculum through portfolio of Business Management,
Accounting and Finance at undergraduate levels.

As for the human expert, we chose to interview Acting Dean of Faculty of Business and
Management in UCTI, Dr. Barry Ramsay. Dr. Barry holds 9 certificates which are BCom,
PGCTT, MAB, LLM, MEcon, MFin, MMkt, MIT and DBA. Dr. Barry is a person who likes to
study and he is a non-stop learner. He has a lot of knowledge in the business area, IT area and
also the laws area. From him, we can get the knowledge about Faculty of Business and
Management like the courses available and its specialism, the similarities and differences
between each module, the requirements to apply as student in particular course, and suggestion
for students to choose what course will be suitable for them. This knowledge is important for us
to help us in our system development using the verbot. This system will serve as intelligent agent
to act as an education consultant in the School of Business & Management at the UCTI.

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PROJECT TEAM

There are three members in this project team and each has their own responsibility. They are:
1. Wong Soon Mei – Team Leader
A team leader is needed to guide the team members and motivate them to stay focus.
Goal and objective is set for the team. She needs to carry out discussion need with all the
members so that all of them are aware of their roles and responsibilities after the duties
are assigned according to their interest and specialization.

2. Rika Janesa – Programming Leader

A programming leader is a software engineer in developing the system. Programming
leader acts as an interface between the programmers and management and has
supervisorial responsibility in delegating work. This is to ensure that software projects
come in on time and under budget. In this team, she needs to develop the expert system
after getting enough information from knowledge engineer and instruction from the
group leader.

3. Pua Kian Yong - Knowledge Engineer

The term "knowledge engineering" is often used to mean the process of designing,
building, installing and maintaining an expert system or other knowledge- based system.
It is an engineering discipline that involves integrating knowledge into computer systems
in order to solve complex problems which normally need human expertise. He works
closely with the programming leader and prepare interview with the domain expert.

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LITERATURE SURVEY

QUESTIONNAIRE RESULT

We had created a questionnaire forms and distributed it to 15 students especially those who are
looking forward to study business courses in APIIT-UCTI. We wish to get a better understanding
how they look forward in this education consultant system.

Our goal is to know how effectiveness and user-friendly of our system in helping the users to get
the most suitable course for them. There will be four sections in the questionnaire, which are
background, effectiveness of the current system, user friendliness of the current system and
personal & behavioural questions. The following graphics illustrate the result based on our
questionnaire survey.

Effectiveness of current system

12
12
Number of people

10
Yes
8
No
6
3
4
2
0
Yes No
Course details understanding

Based on the result, 12 users said that the details of every course offered by APIIT-UCTI are
clear enough for them to understand. This is basically because everything is shown on the
brochure and used by the student services staff when they are doing counseling. However, there
are 3 users choose “No” mainly because they saw there are many common modules in every
business programmes.

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10 9
Number of people
8 Yes
6
6
No
4
2
0
Yes No
Exact information received from student services

From the graph show above, only 9 users agree that they can get exact information they want.
This can only be obtained after a long conversation with student services personnel. 6 users are
not happy with the information given maybe is because of the replies are too general for them.

10 9
Number of people

8
6
6
Yes
4 No
2
0
Yes No
Fit of recommended course by student service consultant

Based on the survey result, we found that only 6 users agree that the recommended course
given by APIIT-UCTI consultant suit for them. Again, the user will only really choose and
confirm the course after a long consultation hours with the student service staff. 9 users state

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that they did not go for the course recommended by the student service consultant. This is
because only users themselves know what they like and dislike. When the student service
consultant communicates with them, the marketing skill and mind will come first as quantity
is needed rather than quality.

10
10
Number of people

8 Online
sources
6 5
APIIT
counselors
4
2
0
Online sources APIIT counselors
Way to get the course information

As shown above, 10 users choose to get the courses information through online sources. The
reason is mainly the location. For those who stay area outside Kuala Lumpur like Johor,
Terengganu, Sarawak and so on will have the difficulty to go to APIIT-UCTI student service for
consultant. On the other hand, only 5 users prefer to get the courses information directly from the
APIIT counselors. This is because they wish to get the explanation from counselors and view the
university environment.

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Effectiveness of the manual system

7% 6%

20% Very Poor

27% Poor
Average
Good
Excellent

40%

From the pie above, 40% of the users rate the effectiveness as average. They are sitting on the
fence because for them they may just want to continue their tertiary studies to get a diploma or
degree certificate recognition. Secondly, 4 users rate the current system as poor as they did not
really depend on consultant to go to UCTI to study. Continue by good ranking by 20% of the
users. 3 of those users may undergo long conservation with UCTI consultant to choose the
suitable course for them to study. Lastly, very poor ranking and excellent ranking is rate by one
student each. The percentage shown is 7% and 6% is because of the remainder calculation
caused by odd number of users that did the questionnaire.

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User friendliness of current system

10 9
Number of people
8 6
6
Yes
4
No
2
0
Yes No
Enjoyment of the conversation

6 users admit that they enjoy the conservation with student service staff when they are consulting
about the business courses available in UCTI. However, there are more users stated that the
conservation did not go that well. Most probably is because of their introvert personality and
they do not know what to ask.

10 9
Number of people

8 6
6
High
4
Low
2
0
High Low
Replies' satisfication

From the graph above, 6 users are satisfied with the answers and replies from student service.
They may be asking a lot of agents about those business courses offered by UCTI before they

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went for the APIIT consultant. So, the replies met their answer in the heart and eliminate all their
doubt. 9 users have low satisfaction with the replies given by APIIT consultant during the
consultation. This may be caused by the specific terms that used by consultants and is not
understood by the users. The users are shy to ask and interrupt the consultant so they do not
really get the exact answer for their questions.

10 9
Number of people

8
6
6
Yes
4
No
2
0
Yes No
Suitable course decided base on brochures

9 users think that the brochures help them to decide the suitable courses to study. It is because
the brochures got analysis every single course what the modules they can learn and also can
know what the different modules they can learn in every specialism course. On the other hand, 6
users think that the brochures do not really help them in deciding the suitable courses. The
reason is that all modules listed do not really describe what they are going to study. Moreover,
there are too many choices and people also have choosing difficulties when there are many
choices.

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User friendliness of the manual system

7% 6%
20% Very Poor
27%
Poor
Average
Good
40%
Ecellent

From the pie above, 40% of the users rate the user friendliness of the current system as average.
It is probably because they come and study in APIIT-UCTI due to the recommendation of their
parents or friends. So, they did not really go to the student service to ask for consultant.
Secondly, 4 users rate the current system as poor as they did not really depend on consultant to
go to UCTI to study. They might just follow their friends to go as people scare to get into a new
environment alone. Next, 20% of the users give a good rank for the manual system. 3 of those
users may undergo long conservation with UCTI consultant to choose the suitable course for
them to study. Lastly, one student gives poor ranking and excellent ranking respectively.
Because of the calculation result caused by odd number of users that did the questionnaire, the
percentage shown for both ranking is different, which is 7% and 6% respectively.

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EXPERT INTERVIEW / DOMAIN EXPERT INTERVIEW

An interview session with Dr. Barry Ramsay is conducted on 4th April 2012 at UCTI library
discussion room 1. After we conducted the interview and had further consultant with lecturer, we
just realized that the duration we interview him had been too long. That caused us to ask many
unnecessary questions. In this part we will improve ourselves when there is a chance for us to
interview others.

First of all, he told us about his work background and how those experiences helped him in his
current position. During the conversation, we knew that he had an outgoing personality. He loves
to talk to people, think well on his feet and prefer something that challenges him to keep him
from feeling bored.

We had asked him about APIIT system which did not provide internship for business students
and just focus on examination. He agree that internship is not necessary because he had feedback
from students that they are given small and unimportant job that did not let them learn anything
at all during that three month.

Besides, migration of FBM to mines did not cause any problem for him as well as business
students as the environment is much better and more relaxing than in TPM. Students in level 1
module did not require choosing their specialism when they register unless some special courses
like tourism, media and accounting.

Moreover, we believe that most students have the question whether students from business
management can move to accounting and vice versa to continue direct with the modules even
though there are some different modules. Based on the interview, Dr. Barry said it depends. For
example, in accounting, there is a professional course. It also related with the ACCA, student
need take the total 14 papers to complete it. It is possible for year 1 student because AF and BM
have almost same modules. If in second year, they might spend more time to re-take different
modules they need for the course. So they will complete more modules than normal student.

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Moreover, we ask about the switching program matter. Students are allowed to switch the
program if it is not big different. It is just possible for year 1 student because still having the
common modules. If in second year, they might spend more time to recover the modules they
need for the course. So they will complete more modules than normal student. But if for the
engineering, IT in gaming course, business in tourism and accounting they are not allow to
switch. Because they are professional course and the modules are different with other course.

Dr. Barry also answered us about the differences between normal business management and
international business management. He said that there are more advantages to have international
business management degree than normal business management. When it comes to an interview
to work overseas, mostly the company will hire the person who holding the international
business management if not compare in working experience.

When we looked through the broacher, we found that 90% of the modules studies are the same
among four bachelors in accounting and finance program. As a student, we think that is not
necessary. However, Dr. Barry said that every specialism courses still have 30 percent different
with other course and it is an advantage if looking for a job which needed in some specialism
course.

He also said that it depends on student what they want for their life and which enjoy for them
when they are thinking of having specialism or general bachelor. What is important is that the
student can consider properly and not wasting their time and money to switch to another course.
For those foundation students, they got 1 year to figure out what they want to study (Business,
Information Technology or Engineering). In addition, for those students who in degree 1 level
still got 1 year to figure out what they want to do. That is why we want to develop an education
consultant system to prevent those issues from occurring continually.

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METHODOLOGY

We develop our education consultant using evolutionary prototyping as we do not understand all
requirements and built only those that are well understood. Evolutionary prototyping model is a
software development lifecycle model in which software prototype created for demonstration
and requirements elaboration. This methodology is suitable for the projects that have low risk in
such areas as losing budget, schedule predictability and control, large-system integration
problems, or coping with information sclerosis, but high risk in user interface design.

With this methodology, we can focus on working in the part which we understand well rather
than developing whole system. We can specify it to all we want the output will be. This
methodology also enables us to create new features or make changes in the future so it is very
useful and suitable methodology for us. We also use verbot to create the education consultant
which engaging with the user and communicate with them verbally.

Four main phases are included in evolutionary prototyping model:-

 First, define the basic requirements.

 Then create the working prototype.

 Next, verify the working prototype.

At the end of the circle, function development phase, the working model will be presented to
customer. Changing or elaboration of the requirements will be done according to the customer’s
response.

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KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION
SEMANTIC NETS

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FLOW DIAGRAM

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EVALUATION OF PROTOTYPE

After approximately 2 months of time given, we have finally success in designing and
developing the APIIT-UCTI education consultant system. The system has been designed for
those people who are interested in Business Course but still not sure which course to take. The
reason is that there are too many courses offered by UCTI and they seem to be quite similar to
each other.

When we are in progress developing the system, we let some users to try the system. We take
note of the users’ opinion and suggestions so that we can change the errors and improve the
system design to make it more effective and efficient. Furthermore, through the fact-finding
techniques like research, questionnaire and interview of domain expert had helped us to solve the
problems we faced and enhanced the accuracy of the information in our APIIT-UCTI education
consultant system.

USERS OPINION

After we let the users to try our education consultant system, we have received some positive and
negative opinion from the users. Based on the comments, we can really understand what are the
errors we still having and how we can improve our system.

First of all, our system is not intelligent enough. It is because our system only provides courses
information without allowing users to ask their doubts about the modules in that particular
course. In addition, our system is not attractive and interesting enough because the interface is
text-based conversation. The agent looks so stiff because not enough expression available.

Besides, some users said that our system is efficiency and easy to use. They can directly get the
information of the course they want from the system. The conversation is straight forward and
this saves their time. Moreover, some of the users said that the testing part in our system really
help them to figure out what they were interested based on their behavioral and personality.

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For those users who are unfamiliar with technology stuff still can enjoy using our current system.
It is because our system is user friendly. Although the users are week in English, they still can
use our system because only simple English is applied to prompt the user to key in their input. In
addition, our system provides the hint how to answer the question so that the user will not stuck
in the system. It is an easy step by step system.

Furthermore, we receive suggestion such as add more optional language in our system. Although
English is international language, a system with more language availability is still better than
system that can only run with one language. Others than that, they recommend us to add more
expression features because this can make user enjoy system more.

In conclusion, every system has its own strength and weakness. Our current system is still not
good enough in solving user problem. So, we need to add more script to make it more intelligent.
Improvement is needed to make our system more perfect. We appreciate the users’ commend to
help enhancing our system.

LIMITATION AND PROBLEM DURING SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

During system development, we faced many problems and we had tried our best to solve those
difficulties. First of all, the expert system remain what they are – the machine expert. It is lack of
deep knowledge. Our system does not have a real understanding of the whole programs offered
by UCTI, mainly because it is much easier to program with shallow knowledge. What we did is
link the information about diploma and degree programs available at the school of business &
management to UCTI official website.

Education consultant system does not really respond well to the various situations outside its
range of the expertise. There will be lack of data accessibility due to the problems in knowledge
acquisition. It has the ability of performing only with a specific and logical of the expertise.
There will be difficulty in reaching domain experts when there are problems. Moreover, we did
not host the system online. So, it is not easy for the users to get it at one place as it operates
through networks and engines.

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The advantage is that our education consultant system can complete the task faster than a human
expert. It enables immediate response, decision and diagnosis. Hence, it makes consistent
recommendations. From the user perspective, this may cause dissatisfaction if they think that the
result did not really match their expectation.

Besides, our system is only created using software called Verbot as required by this module. This
had limited us in extra features like calculation, database and so on. It is because Verbot only
supports text-based conversation, the system we create is not very attractive and somehow can
make users will feel bored to use it for a long time.

FURTHER IMPROVEMENT / DEVELOPMENT

First of all, the bugs or errors that occur while using this system need to be fixed to avoid any
unnecessary inconvenience and mistakes. Moreover, we can add more optional language in our
system. Although English is international language, a system with more language availability is
still better than system that can only run with one language.

Other than that, we need to add more expression features to make our agent more amusing and
interesting. Users will enjoy more when they are having conversation with a person that have
many expressions but not too much. Furthermore, it would be good if Verbot can do some
calculations. Verbot only support input output conditions that is derived from C#. When the
condition is true, then the input or output will be fired. When it is false, the input or output is
ignored. So for now we cannot handle calculations if we only use verbot. We need to link to
Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) or any other programming to being able to do so.

Lastly, we hope this system can be applied into UCTI website. So for users who still confuse and
want some consultation to choose courses can use our system instead of just looking to the
information of the courses online which make them probably become more confused when they
are not really understand it.

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CONCLUSION

By using Verbot as our development tool, finally we are able to come out with the education
consultant system. Although it is just through text-based conversation, it is user friendly enough
to be used by variety of users, include those who do not have IT background. Our target users are
all students; either they are new students or current students in UCTI. For those current students,
the system enables them to check whether they are in the right track with the course they are
studying now. New students can use this system to avoid selecting wrong course and wasting
time and money studying course that is not suitable for them.

Based on the system we created, we believe that our system can help users who are confused in
choosing suitable course for their tertiary education to make a wise and best decision for them.
The information is based on our research about all courses in the school of business and
management at UCTI. We hope the consultation through the education consultant system will
increase the effectiveness and user friendliness compared to the current system.

However, our system is only a simple and easy-to-use expert system. The system will come up
the conclusion based on the users’ qualification and then personality test. Users will not feel shy
and awkward as they are only facing intelligent agent. They feel free to ask any information
related to the business courses offered by UCTI. We believe that users will enjoy conservation
more with our system rather than talking to real human. Furthermore, it will not be time-
consuming because the result will be straight to the point and depends on users’ input. We have
to admit that there are still many enhancements and improvement areas to make it more perfect.

Lastly, we believe that the system we created can benefit UCTI. After it is officially launched,
anyone from anyplace can access it and choose the right course for themselves. This will in turn
increase the popularity of our university and promoting our university at the same time.

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REFERENCES

 Adarsh. (2008). How to create a chatbot ? (a.k.a chatting bots, chatterbots) tips and links |
Chatbots Virtual A.I Web Chat with a Chatbot. Available at:
http://www.virtualentities.com/how-to-create-a-chatbot-programming-chatterbot [Accessed:
26th Feb 2012].
 Rajendra. (2011). Software Engineering: 1. Introduction & Life Cycle Models (First
chapter). Available at: http://myrajendrak.blogspot.com/2011/03/introduction-life-cycle-
models-first.html [Accessed: 25th Feb 2012].
 TechTarget.com. (1998). What is chatterbot? Definition from Whatis.com. Available at:
http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/chatterbot [Accessed: 28th Feb 2012].
 Ucti.edu.my (2012) Welcome to UCTI - Asia Pacific University College of Technology &
Innovation, Malaysia. Available at: http://ucti.edu.my [Accessed: 28 Apr 2012].
 Verbots.com (2012) Manual:Verbot Editor Using Conditionals - VerbotWiki. Available at:
http://www.verbots.com/wiki/Manual:Verbot_Editor_Using_Conditionals [Accessed: 28 Apr
2012].
 Webopedia.com. (2001). What is chat bot? - A Word Definition From the Webopedia
Computer Dictionary. Available at: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/chat_bot.html
[Accessed 26th Feb 2012].

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APPENDICES
QUESTIONNAIRE SAMPLE
Questionnaire
This questionnaire is designed to encourage you to consider how your own personality traits may
relate to APIIT-UCTI business diploma and degree programs. Some students take years to
decide, putting off the decision as long as possible and wasting valuable time and money in the
process. The decision should not be that difficult — if you know the right questions to ask. Save
yourself the agony and find the perfect degree right from the start. From the questions below,
you can be directed to the course that fit you well.

Name : _____________________________________________________________________
Sex : Female / Male Age : ________________________________
Nationality: (Please identify your state) Local : ________________________________
(Please identify your country) Foreign : ________________________________

Background
1. Which level are you studying in APIIT now?
 Degree
 Diploma
 Others: ___________________________________________________________

2. What modules are you taking right now?

 Business Management in general
 Business Management with specialism in E-Business
 Business Management with specialism in E-Procurement
 International Business Management
 Marketing Management
 Human Resource Management
 Tourism Management
 Services Management

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 Media Marketing
 Accounting and Finance in general
 Accounting and Finance with specialism in Forensic Accounting
 Accounting and Finance with specialism in Taxation
 Accounting and Finance with specialism in Forex and Investments
 Others :______________________________________________________________

3. Are there any courses that are still not available in APIIT-UCTI that you wish to suggest in?
 Yes (please state) :______________________________________________________
 No

Effectiveness of current system

1. Are the details of every course offered by APIIT-UCTI clear enough for you to choose the
best course that suit you?
 Yes
 No

2. Can you get exact information you want from Student Services personnel?
 Yes
 No

3. Is the recommended course given by APIIT consultant suit you?

 Yes
 No

4. You prefer to get the courses information from online sources or directly from APIIT
counselors?
 Online sources
 APIIT counselors

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5. Please rate the effectiveness of this manual system in helping you to decide the most suitable
course for you in UCTI.
Very Poor Excellent

1 2 3 4 5

User Friendly of Current System

1. Do you enjoy the conversation with APIIT-UCTI consultant?
 Yes
 No

2. Are the replies given by APIIT consultant during the consultation satisfied you?
 Yes
 No

3. Do you think the brochures provided help you in deciding the course that suits you?
 Yes
 No

4. Please rate the user friendliness of this manual system in helping you to decide the most
suitable course for you in UCTI.
Very Poor Excellent

1 2 3 4 5

Personality & Behavioral

1. Do you see yourself as someone that is able to structure and discipline your life well with the
world relatively quick to decide?
 Yes (to question 2)
 No (to question 3)

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2. You prefer to work in team or individually?

 Work in a team (to question 4)
 Work individually (to question 5)

3. Are you a driven and motivated type of person?

 Yes (to question 4)
 No (to question 9)

4. Are you good in communication and able to sense other’s mood?

 Yes (to question 6)
 No (to question 5)

5. Are you interested in visualizing and navigating?

 Yes (to question 7)
 No (to question 9)

6. Do you think you are good in persuading and selling product or services to others?
 Yes (to question 8)
 No (to question 7)

7. Do you like to create or lead a project in an organization?

 Yes (to question 9)
 No (to question 10)

8. Do you like to create or lead an outgoing event?

 Yes (to question 13)
 No (to question 9)

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9. Do you see yourself as someone that can spend endless hours in the office doing office work?
 Yes (to question 11)
 No (to question 10)

10. Do you like to take risk or challenge when doing a thing?

 Yes (to question 12)
 No (to question 14)

11. Are you interested with numbers, appreciate step-by-step and logical explanations?
 Yes (Option A)
 No (to question 12)

12. Are you interested in investment and willing to spend time for navigating?
 Yes (Option H)
 No (to question 14)

13. Do you like to travel and make it part of your work?

 Yes (Option C)
 No (to question 14)

14. Are you interested in designing and business managing associated with technology?
 Yes (Option F)
 No (to question 15)

15. Do you like to work in care taking capacity and able to handle several activities in quick
order?
 Yes (Option D)
 No (to question 16)

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16. Do you see yourself as a person that is able to prioritize and treating everyone the same way?
 Yes (Option E)
 No (to question 17)

17. Do you prefer working in international organization rather than working in organization that
only open for Malaysian?
 Yes (Option G)
 No (Option B)

Option Diploma Degree

Option A  Accounting  Accounting and finance
 Accounting and finance with
specialism in taxation
Option B  Business administration  Business management
Option C  Business administration  Marketing management
 Tourism management
Option D  Business administration  Services management
Option E  Business administration  Human resource management
Option F  Business with information  Media marketing
technology  Business management with
specialism in E-Procurement
 Business management with
specialism in E-Business
Option G  Business administration  International business management
Option H  Accounting  Accounting and finance with
specialism in forex and investments
 Accounting and finance with
specialism in forensic accounting

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INTERVIEW REPORT

Interviewer : Wong Soon Mei, Rika Janesa, Pua Kian Yong

Interviewee : Dr. Barry Ramsay
Date : 4 April 2012
Venue : UCTI Library (discussion room 1)
Time : 10:00am until 12:30pm

Opening questions
Q: Tell us a bit about your work background, and then give us a description of how you think it
relates to this position.
A: When Dr. Barry was a student, normally he spent his semester break to work in bar, cook,
hotel and office management. Besides, he currently works in an international company which is
an American company and he also worked as a Manager in Singapore for three years before
work in Malaysia.

Q: Why are you interested in this position?

A: Dr. Barry is always interested in academic very much. He interested in this position because
he likes students, where he can communicate with them and treat them as friends. Besides, he
likes to travel everywhere especially in Kuala Lumpur. This is also the first job he works in
Malaysia (in APIIT).

Q: What made you take the next step and apply or the job?
A: Dr. Barry found the job on jobstreet.com and start to work since 6th December 2011. The
purpose he apply the job is want to see which area the lecturers are going.

Q: What unique qualities or experiences would you bring to this position that no other applicant
can?
A: Having experience in industry factor will be the advantages since it related to academic and
other factors too.

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Q: In APIIT system, they didn’t provide any internship for the student and just focus in the
examination. How do you think about it?
A: Dr. Barry said no for internship because he get some comment from the student that
internship is just giving small and unimportant job for student and it doesn’t let the student learn
anything from there and just wasting their time. Besides, for those students who internship in
hostel or hospitality will get 0 pay.

School of business & management

Q: Do you think the migration of FBM to mines campus is a wise choice? Why?
A: Yes, because of the environment is much better and relaxing than TPM.

Q: Since all level 1 modules in business management course are all the same, is it necessary for
students to choose the specialism when they register?
A: Not really, they still can consider within the first level before going to second level. But there
are some special case student must choose the specialism before starting the level 1, there are
tourism and accounting. It is same with the Information Technology in the gaming development.

Q: Can students from business management move to accounting and vice versa to continue direct
with the modules even though there are some different modules?
A: Not really, it is because in level 1 they are learning different modules in both of the course. In
accounting, there is a professional course. It also related with the ACCA, student need take the
total 14 papers to complete it. It is possible for year 1 student because AF and BM have almost
same modules. If in second year, they might spend more time to re-take different modules they
need for the course. So they will complete more modules than normal student.

Q: How can they switch the program? What are the conditions that enable them to do so?
A: Students can switch the program if it is not big different. It is just possible for year 1 student
because still having the common modules. If in second year, they might spend more time to
recover the modules they need for the course. So they will complete more modules than normal
student. But if for the engineering, IT in gaming course, business in tourism and accounting they

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are not allow to switch. Because they are professional course and the modules are different with
other course.

Q: What are the differences between normal business management and international business
management? Is there possible for a normal business management holder to work in other
country?
A: Having international business management degree gives more advantage than normal
business management. When it comes to an interview to work overseas, mostly the company will
hire the person who holding the international business management (if not compare in working
experience).

Q: Take the example from accounting and finance programs, 90% of the modules studies are the
same among 4 bachelor. Do you think all the specialism is necessary? Why?
A: Yes, every specialism courses still have 30 percent different with other course. And it is an
advantage if looking for a job which needed in some specialism course.

Q: In an era of global transformation, do you think is a better choice for a student to take
specialism instead of general bachelor? Why?
A: It is just depends on student what they want for their life and which enjoy for them. Hope the
student can consider properly and hope they don’t waste their time to switch to another course.
For those foundation students, they got 1 year to figure out what they want to study (Business,
Information Technology or Engineering). In addition, for those students who in degree 1 level
still got 1 year to figure out what they want to do. Every specialism programs just different in
30% but 70 percent still the same common modules. Focus in specialism programs means having
an advantage than other competitors who are just holding the general certificate if the specialism
program is more suitable and needed for the job.

Q: In what areas would you like to develop further? What are your plans to do that?
A: In future I plan to add more PhD and Master programs, add more courses, and separate
postgraduate study from faculty.

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Behavioral
Q: The faculty of business and management can be very stressful at times. As an acting dean, can
you describe ways you deal with stress and the type of situations you feel are most stressful to
handle?
A: Dr. Barry said that every kind of job have their own stress. But for him, he does not feel any
stress in his own job. Because he is enjoys working in education development and he like
students so much.

Q: In this international university college, what kinds of experiences have you had in relating
with people whose backgrounds are different then your own?
A: Dr. Barry does not face any problems with those people who came from other country and
backgrounds. It is because he is also a foreign who is holding 3 passports in Australia, New
Zealand and United Kingdom.

Photo Session with Dr. Barry

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WORKLOAD MATRIX

Student Name & ID Contribution Signature Mark Allocated

Wong Soon Mei Proposal Content
(TP026572) Domain Expert Interview
Problem Specification
Questionnaire
Literature Survey
Verbot
Evaluation of Prototype
Rika Janesa Proposal Content
(TP024838) Domain Expert Interview
Interview Report
Questionnaire
Literature Survey
Verbot
Evaluation of Prototype
Pua Kian Yong Proposal Content
Domain Expert Interview
Interview Report
Questionnaire
Literature Survey
Evaluation of Prototype
Knowledge Representation
Verbot

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GANTT CHART

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SCREENSHOTS

Startup

Courses available

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Choose level

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Choose diploma - accounting

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Choose diploma – business

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Choose degree – AF or BM

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Choose accounting and finance

Choose business and management

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Qualifications - diploma

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Qualifications – degree

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Qualifications - diploma (cont.)

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Qualifications - degree (cont.)

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Accepted

Rejected

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Result

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Miscellaneous

Level 1 Asia Pacific University College of Technology and Innovation 2012