Research Background

From the definition, alumni are a group of people who have graduated from a school or university. Alumni are usually used to refer to a group of graduates of either one or both genders, while ‘alumnus' traditionally refers to a single male graduate, with the feminine term being ‘alumna'. While alumni system is a system that brings the entire graduated student together by providing a web based, portal system where they can exchange information and ideas and stay connected with each other and with their former education place (Webaloo LLC,2007). The alumni system is one type of online social community network and also a part of content management system (CMS) because most of community web-based application will refer to the CMS (Wayne Powel & Chris Gill, 2003). A Content Management System allows content to be stored, retrieved, edited, updated, controlled, and then output in a variety of ways such that the incremental cost of each update cycle and output production shrinks dramatically over time (Kartchner, Chris, 1998). So, in the CMS, there is content where communication interaction is also being part of them.

From the statement that mentioned by Petra Schubert and Koch on 2002, communication interaction network is a web platform and also electronic commerce system that are equipped with the annotation functionality and various communication features. It is provides an informations spaces that centered around the lifestyle events which can be filled up by the members of community. There are many type of communication interaction or channel that can be included such as web-based forum, email, messagging and chatting, comments, posted, shared information, links to the other social community network such as Facebook, Twitter, Friendster and so on. It means that collaboration between all the content is compulsory to make sure that the effectiveness and efficiencies of the community social network system is realizable.

As quoted by the Nebeth in year 2008, collaboration platform has been designed where the function is to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and information between the learner and courses, and further on in an alumni learning community that is contributing to a better assimilationof content that delivered to them.

UiTM Alumni System is a system under Alumni Relations Center unit. This unit is under Student and Alumni Affair Department which managing and controlling the alumni system of UiTM.Recently in UiTM Alumni System, there is no others way other than email for UiTM alumni to communicate each other in the system. It is because in the system there is only information are given, means the current UiTM Alumni System support only general basic information of the student but doesn’t have communication system in the system except through email.

            So, the main idea that I’m proposing this project is to enhance the designing of communication interaction in the alumni system and provide a visual communication platform, which is the Alumni System portal and focusing into the way how they can interact with each other in the system.

            The reason why I’m conducting the research about this project is to facilitate the communication interaction between the alumni through the current system and identify what is the features of communication that can be include in the alumni system. Besides that, although this UiTM Alumni System is the same as other alumni portals, but the new features and additional function that focusing on the communication between the alumni that will be added will make this portal a little different from other and having an improvement from the current UiTM Alumni System. This system will act as “man in middle” between the graduated students to still reconnect and keep in touch with their batch as in the university environment.