Article: Algorithm for automation of the teacher-course allotment Journal: International Journal of Operational Research (IJOR) 2023 Vol.47 No.1 pp.81 - 108 Abstract: The university course timetabling problem (UCTP) is one of the important scheduling problems, which is a NP-hard category problem. The teacher-course allotment is a sub-problem in this category. It is a time-consuming and complicated exercise in academic institutions and influences the quality of teaching due to subjectivity in allocation decision. This problem is solved manually by holding a number of meetings at institute level and even after such involved interactions, there is no guarantee that courses are allocated in a correct fashion in order to meet program and course objectives as well as for the satisfaction of all stakeholders. To overcome this subjective practice, it is proposed to develop and validate an algorithm to automate this tedious job. The proposed algorithm consists of two phases. In Phase-I, a bipartite graph is used to obtain the teacher-course preferences-based initial solution of the problem, and then conflict free final solution of teacher-course allocation is achieved in Phase-II. To validate, a software application with rich graphic user interface (GUI) is also developed and tested on an Indian university dataset. The results have been implemented with a good degree of stakeholder's satisfaction. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Algorithm for automation of the teacher-course allotment

Authors: Sanjeev Kumar; Rakesh Pandey; R.P. Mohanty

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The ICFAI University Dehradun, Uttarakhand, 248011, India ' Department of Mathematics, HSB Government Degree College Someshwar, Almora, Uttarakhand, India ' SOA University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 751030, India

Abstract: The university course timetabling problem (UCTP) is one of the important scheduling problems, which is a NP-hard category problem. The teacher-course allotment is a sub-problem in this category. It is a time-consuming and complicated exercise in academic institutions and influences the quality of teaching due to subjectivity in allocation decision. This problem is solved manually by holding a number of meetings at institute level and even after such involved interactions, there is no guarantee that courses are allocated in a correct fashion in order to meet program and course objectives as well as for the satisfaction of all stakeholders. To overcome this subjective practice, it is proposed to develop and validate an algorithm to automate this tedious job. The proposed algorithm consists of two phases. In Phase-I, a bipartite graph is used to obtain the teacher-course preferences-based initial solution of the problem, and then conflict free final solution of teacher-course allocation is achieved in Phase-II. To validate, a software application with rich graphic user interface (GUI) is also developed and tested on an Indian university dataset. The results have been implemented with a good degree of stakeholder's satisfaction.

Keywords: university course timetabling; teacher-course allotment; bipartite graph; NP-hard; algorithms; scheduling; teaching-learning process.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2023.130860

International Journal of Operational Research, 2023 Vol.47 No.1, pp.81 - 108

Received: 14 Dec 2019
Accepted: 02 Nov 2020
Published online: 13 May 2023 *

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Title: Algorithm for automation of the teacher-course allotment

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