SMS Powered Grade Verification System

The SMS-Powered Grade Verification System (SMS GVS) enables students to verify their grade records using their cellular phones.

Students do not need to go to the school and search through a bulky set of papers and files. By sending simple SMS text messages to the system, they can receive their grade records right through their cellphones.

How it works

Student records are kept on a database within a personal computer. These records are regularly updated using the SMS GVS software. Students can log-in to the software to view their grade records. Each grade record is password-protected to prevent unauthorized access. This allows students to view only their own records.

When students are away from the personal computer, they can use their cellular phones to get access to their records. To verify grade, the student can simply send a text message to the system in the following format:

verify <space> studentNumber <space> subjectCode <space> studentPassword
Example:
verify 2002-015291-6 cmpe311 mypassword

The student will then receive an SMS message that goes like this:

Juan dela Cruz (2002-015291-6) obtained a grade of 1.5 on Data Structure and Algorithm Analysis (CmpE311).

Students can also change their own password using their cellular phones. To do this, the student should send a text message to the system in the following format:

modify <space> studentNumber <space> oldPassword <space> newPassword
Example:
modify 2002-015291-6 mypassword mynewpassword

After changing his password, the student will receive a confirmation message like this:

Password for Juan dela Cruz (2002-015291-6) has been successfully changed.

A cellular phone is connected to the SMS GVS computer. This cellular phone receives all incoming messages to the system. Everytime a student sends an SMS message to verify grade, the cellular phone receives it and forwards it to the computer. The message is evaluated by the SMS GVS software to determine if it follows the correct format.

After evaluating the message, the system will obtain the corresponding information from the database and relay this information back to the cellular phone. Finally, the cellular phone sends the information as an SMS message to the student.

If the message received is in the correct format, the student will receive an SMS message containing his grade for a particular subject, otherwise, the student will receive an error message that indicates the correct format to be followed.


A block diagram showing how the SMS GVS works

The SMS GVS Block Diagram

System Features

Remote Usage

The most important feature of the SMS-Powered Grade Verification System is its support for remote users.
  • Students can verify their grade records using any cellular phone.
  • Students can change their own password using any cellular phone.
  • No additional amount is charged when a user sends message to the system. Regular SMS message rates apply.

Managing Records

The SMS-Powered Grade Verification System provides an efficient way of managing records.
  • Easy and friendly user interface for adding, viewing and updating student, subject, and grade records.
  • "Quick Search" feature to easily find a specific student record.
  • Print support to allow users to have a hard copy of the student grade records.
  • Password-protection for each of the grade records to prevent unauthorized access.
  • Easy procedure for database backup and restoration.
Monitoring and Maintenance
  • A monitoring interface that allows system administrators to check system status.
  • A complete log of all finished and pending system transactions.

Technical Details

The SMS-Powered Grade Verification System was a college thesis project submitted to the Computer Engineering Department of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

The system was developed using Microsoft Visual Basic.NET and utilizes a Microsoft Access Database as the system database containing all student, subject and grade records. Oxygen Software’s Mobile ActiveX Control was integrated within the SMS GVS software to manage all incoming and outgoing SMS messages.