Solomon Adepoju

The paper examines the efficacy of neural networks application
for inflation forecasting. In a simulated out-of-model forecasting
investigation using recent Nigeria inflation rate data obtained
from the appropriate authorities, the neural networks did better
than univariate autoregressive models on normal rate for short
periods of quarter one and quarter two; quarter one and quarter
three; and quarter one and quarter four. A clear-cut condition of
the model of neural network and specialized evaluation trial from
the neural networks literature exemplify the important roles in
the achievement of the feed-forward neural network model.

Decision making is becoming more complex and stressful for individuals and groups especially for medical professionals as a result of huge quantity of data. This paper is on the use of decision tree for treatment options in medical decision support systems. Decision tree was developed and an algorithm to identify optimal choice among complicated options in Surgery (Medical Operation) and Medical management (Drug Prescription) by calculating probabilities of events and incorporating patient evaluations of possible outcomes based on Average Life Year (ALY). This can help the medical professionals in taking decision among the available choices.

The internet has finally found its way into the educational sector in a developing country like Nigeria. This is attested to the fact that most Nigerian institutions have now either completely or  partially embraced the use student online registration system. This paper takes a look at the various challenges faced by students in carrying out this task. Questionnaires were distributed to students from various faculties to find out their level of satisfaction with the online registration interface and procedure as well the challenges being faced in the course of carrying out online registration. The results indicates that many of the students found it very interesting and easy to use but with attendants challenges of inadequate systems to use, slow speed of server, and lack of privacy of student data among others. The paper also suggests the way forward in order to make this laudable exercise a huge success in the nation tertiary institution.

Usability testing is a means of measuring how well people can use some human-made object such as a web page, a computer interface, a document, or a device. This study was carried out to perform usability study on three universities websites in order to know the ease with which users can obtain information on them. The websites tested are futy.edu.ng, futa.edu.ng and futonigeria.net. Twenty-two users from a university volunteered to participate in the study. The participants were given five tasks to perform on the three web sites under a close observation of observer to determine their efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction with the web sites. Questionnaires were also used to get the users’ demographic data, users’ satisfaction, overall performance and recommendation on the web sites. The results indicate that futa.edu.ng performed best in terms of users’ effectiveness and efficiency with the sites.
Keywords: Website, WebPages, Usability,
Users, internet

The study examines the extent of adoption and usage of
internet banking and other web related services by customers
of Oceanic Bank plc in Minna Nigeria. A survey was conducted
and sampled copies of 200 questionnaires were distributed to
the banks customers which were purposively selected. Out of
these 160 were returned. Internet bank though still relatively
young in Nigeria is growing rapidly and is widely accepted
among the customers. Findings shows that apart from the
Automatic Teller machine (ATM) which is commonly accessed
and used predominantly by customers, other web services are
not really been utilized by many customers.

Usability evaluation of interactive systems has been a topical issue in human-computer interaction. People at different times and places have attempted to evaluate software, websites, and other tools to ascertain their levels of usability. The essence is to indicate the extent to which such interactive systems are easy to learn, easy to use, easy to remember as well as to determine their effectiveness, efficiency, error tolerance, aesthetics and user satisfaction. The evaluation methods applied so far have not yielded desired results in the perspective of users. This work adopts a user-centered approach to usability evaluation of two Nigerian universities’ websites (www.unical.edu.ng and www.uniport.edu.ng) by applying a systematic methodology of involving users in performing set tasks (user testing) and using the tasks completion time as metric. Data collected from

the tasks completion time were statistically analyzed for usability criteria of learnability, efficiency, and satisfaction. Feedbacks were obtained from users through questionnaires on areas where improvements are desired from the sites, and the design-evaluate-redesign cycle recommended to the Universities’ Web Teams to amend poorly developed interfaces and contents. It is inferred in the paper that www.unical.edu.ng received more preference from the perspective of users due to its ability to allow quick tasks performance, fast downloads, effective navigation, error tolerance, consistency, and minimal background coloring.

Keywords and Phrases: Usability evaluation, interactive systems, human-computer interaction, user-centered approach, metric