Session F4F CourseScheduler

A typical problem in an academic environment is trying to find the best set of courses to offer students in a given semester, taking into consideration which courses are needed by students, and the availability of instructors capable of teaching those classes. The optimal solution is to offer all courses that will allow all students to graduate in the minimum number of semesters. This allows students to finish their course-work quickly so that they can enter the work-force and earn a living. The job of determining which courses to schedule (usually done by a department chairperson) requires information about the student-body needs and information about instructor availability/capability. The most difficult part of this process is to determine which instructors should teach which courses, and in which time-slots they should teach them, and still be able to satisfy all of the students. Selection of instructors is determined by the fact that an instructor knows the course material and that they are available to teach a given course. Instructors may have preferences as to what time of day they teach, or on which days of the week they would like to instruct the courses for which they are responsible. An instructor may not be available if they are already teaching too many courses, as defined by the individual learning-institution. There are several difficulties in determining when to offer a given course. For example, consider a college Senior who has taken almost all of the courses required to satisfy the requirements for his/her degree. Because the student has nearly satisfied the degree-requirement, the student has a limited choice of courses that they can take. This is a problem for the department-chairpersons, since they must offer appropriate courses to the student to ensure that they will have enough credits to graduate. This document will present a small set of softwarecomponents which will aid department-chairpersons in their scheduling process.