  Seminar activities never occur randomly or in a vacuum. Carefully planned and
well-organized thematically, they allow both undergraduates and graduates to
explore in (more) detail various subject areas of particular interest to every
individual or group. Discussion and participation characterize this form of
learning, which is often supplemented by in-class presentations of previously
assigned tasks. The preparation of assignments often presupposes a lot of
self-study and research; it is desirable that the student group enrolled in the
same seminar be able to share all points of view, results and conclusions. The
present paper presents an information system designed to manage the assignments
proposed in a seminar and balance students' individual study load. The system
was developed in PHP language with all editable features stored in MySQL
database for the best speed and performance results. With a modular
organization, the system relies on various entities such as Student, Theme,
Keyword, Reference, etc. The implemented procedures are enhanced by a
user-friendly graphic interface (this will be described in another paper). The
system is easy to use; it eliminates appointment dysfunctions, allows students
to have their say in selecting/accepting a task and even to correlate their
decision with the proposed date for presentation.
