**Article 1** **Internship Application System (IAS) for University Students using Laravel** Alif Faisal Ibrahim\*, Norshazwanie Musa, Muhammad Nabil Fikri Jamaluddin Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Perlis Branch, Malaysia , , *Abstract* *Industrial training or internship is an important part of a study program for all university students in Malaysia. The current system is done manually where students must apply for internship by filling in paper forms. The purpose of the study is to design, develop and evaluate the Internship Application System (IAS) for university students using Laravel PHP framework. Laravel is a fully-fledged Model View Controller (MVC) framework chosen due to many features it supports, which are valuable set of characteristics which will speed up web development and create powerful, interactive layouts with the contents. Agile methodology was implemented as the research methodology for this study. This methodology consists of five phases which are requirement, planning, design, develop and release. The study is using both functionality and usability test in release phases, which involves coordinators and students as participants. A questionnaire was given to each participant to evaluate the usability of IAS. As a result, most participants agreed that using the developed system can improve internship application process.* *Keywords: internship, web-based system, Laravel, PHP framework* **Introduction** There Industrial training or internship is an important part of a study plan for all university courses in Malaysia. To gain working experience, students should involve internship program which it is part of the university curriculum (Phang, Yusof, Saat, & Yusof, 2014). Internship is important to all students to help them build confidence level and lead to find a job in future (Patki, Patki, & August, 2015). Current system of internship application is using manual process, where students fill in their details in a Google form. Details include basic student's information, and company details. Coordinator will generate an official letter, where students will need to manually print to attach with their resume, internship scope and objectives and a feedback form to their preferred company. Coordinators then will receive the feedback form by fax or email, where the student's application status is accepted or rejected by the company. Most students also will receive feedbacks via their email, but some do rely on coordinators since some companies send their feedback form using fax or physical letters only. This method of internship application produces a lot of issues, which can lead to time consuming process and pushes tougher responsibilities towards both coordinators and students. Problems include miscommunication between coordinators and students, where coordinators usually create a group WhatsApp for the class representatives as a medium to disseminate information. However, not all students are aware of the information. Besides that, using the Google form prevents use of excessive paper form usage, and helped ease the coordinator's task to keep all student’s information in one place, but still cannot prevent human errors. Therefore, the development of web-based system of IAS is to provide automation from current manual, time consuming process to a web-based system which can help speed up the internship application. **Laravel** The used of Laravel is to design and improve the system that was developed and reduce time and cost. Laravel have its own special features which enables developers to develop a web-based system without losing any data or functionality (Armel, 2014). Laravel can create a simple process or system that have good design and most advance and elegant for PHP framework (Akash, Rohit, & Shivganga, 2017). Several other benefits include increase in popularity among PHP frameworks, able to create powerful layouts, and being able to produce secure applications. Laravel is a fully-fledged MVC framework. MVC rapidly became the industry’s standard practice used in every modern development environment. **Model View Controller (MVC)** ## *Model* A model is the mode by which the developer can manipulate the data. It consists of a layer residing between the data and the application. The data itself can be stored in various types of database systems such as MySQL or even simple XML or Excel files (Armel, 2014). ## *View* Views are the visual representation of our web application (presentation layer), they are responsible for presenting the data that the controller received from the model (business logic). They can be easily built using the Blade template language that comes with Laravel or simply using plain PHP code. Blade is driven by template inheritance and sections. ## *Controller* The primary function of a controller is to handle requests and pass data from the model to the views. Thus, a controller can be considered as the link connecting our model and views. The developer has the option to write her/his business logic either in routers or controllers. Routers can be useful when dealing with a small web application, or in rapidly defining static pages. Writing controllers for every single page of the web application is thus not necessary (Armel, 2014). **Application System Development** The development process adheres to the Agile methodology. IAS is developed during the fourth phase, which is the develop phase. After prior investigation and requirements for the system are gathered, coding is written using Laragon, MySQL and Sublime. Figure 1 shows the student dashboard part of the system, where students can access once registration is done. Figure 2 below shows an interface example of Student Application Status web page, where students can view and manage all their internship application. ![](85-1-149-1-2-20180824_media/media/image1.jpeg) Figure 1: Interface example for Student Dashboard page. ![](85-1-149-1-2-20180824_media/media/image2.jpeg) Figure 2: Interface example for Student Application Status page. Meanwhile, Figure 3 shows the users management page, where lecturers or coordinators who handled internship programs can manage registered users as well as perform actions. Figure 4 below shows an interface example of Application List page, where coordinators can manage all internship applications. ![](85-1-149-1-2-20180824_media/media/image3.png) Figure 3: Interface example for Users Management page. ![](85-1-149-1-2-20180824_media/media/image4.jpeg) Figure 4: Interface example for Application List page. **Results and Analysis** For usability testing, a total of twenty respondents are randomly selected among Computer Science students who will eventually applied for their internship in the next semester. In addition, two lecturers or coordinators which have prior experience in handling internship programs were also invited to evaluate and give comments on the usability of the system. ## *Usability testing for students* First, the respondents are given a few minutes to explore the system, in which to get them familiar with the interface of the system. Respondents were also encouraged to use their own, real information while using the system. Afterwards, a questionnaire is provided to have them rate the system, based on scale from 1 which is for ‘Strongly Disagree’ up until scale 5 which is ‘Strongly Agree’. All their feedbacks and suggestions are recorded for future refinement. The questionnaire for students is further described in Table 1. Table 1: Questions for students | No | Item | | -- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | | 1 | Overall, I am satisfied with how easy it is use to this system. | | 2 | It was simple to complete the applying and view status. | | 3 | The system gave error messages that clearly told me how to fix problems | | 4 | All links worked well | | 5 | The interface of this system was pleasant | | 6 | Easy to click on the button | | 7 | The text is clear and readable | | 8 | Sentences and words used in this website is understandable | | 9 | This system has all the functions and capabilities I expect it to have | Based on the analysis, many respondents managed to understand the flow of the system. However, some parts can be improved, such as having proper tutorial on how to use the overall system, as well as having clear instructions to guide users while using the system. Therefore, it can be concluded that majority of respondents agreed on the effectiveness of the system. ## *Usability testing for lecturers (coordinators)* For lecturers or coordinators, a different set of questions are given to assist them in evaluating the system. Before rating the system, they were invited to explore the coordinator’s part of the system. The questionnaire contains questions which are described in Table 2. Table 2: Questions for lecturers (coordinators)
No Item
1 The information provided is easy to understand
2 This website helps coordinator to more efficient during monitoring students
3

For column on your student status is clear and understand

what it means.
4 All links worked well
5 I have no difficult while using this website
6 Easy to click on the button
7 The text is clear and readable
8 The system gives error messages that clearly tell me how to fix it
9 Overall, I am satisfied with this system
Based on the observation, both coordinators were satisfied with the interface of the system with some suggestions that might further the capabilities of the system itself. Comments and suggestions from both students and coordinators are compiled for future refinement of the system. **Conclusion** Internship Application System (IAS) is a web-based system which can automate the process of internship application in a university. The backbone of the system was developed using Laravel, a well-known Model View Controller (MVC) framework which supports for web development process. The system has received positive feedbacks from both students and coordinators during testing phase. As a conclusion, most participants agreed on the ease of use the system provides, as well as the simplicity behind completing the internship application using IAS. In addition, most participants also agreed that most of the interface was designed properly with good placement of buttons, links and suitable use of words or sentences, which participants can understand well. Therefore, this system aims to provide benefits to all person involved in internship program, including students, coordinators and the university itself. | | | | | | | | | | | | **References** Phang, F. A., Yusof, K. M., Saat, M. M., & Yusof, N. M. (2014). World Congress on Engineering Education 2013 Perceptions of engineering students on industrial training in Malaysia, (JULY), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.5339/qproc.2014.wcee2013.20 Patki, V., Patki, M., & August, J. (2015). Web Site : [www.ijettcs.org](http://www.ijettcs.org/) Email : Importance of Industry Training for Engineering Undergraduate students-case study. Journal of Emerging Trends & Technology in Computer Science (IJETTCS), 4(4), 164–167. Armel, J. (2014). Web application development with Laravel PHP Framework version 4. Media Engineering, (April), 59. Retrieved from http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201405066158 Akash, J., Rohit, J., & Shivganga, G. (2017). IJESMR International Journal OF Engineering Sciences & Management Research, 4(5), 47–51. Norshazwanie Musa. (2018). Internship Application System (IAS) for University Students using Laravel. Bachelor of Information Technology Thesis. Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia.