Exam scheduling: Mathematical modeling and parameter estimation with the Analytic Network Process approach

Abstract

An invigilator is a person who supervises students during examinations in educational systems. Assigning invigilators to exams is an important phase in the exam scheduling process. The problem has its own constraints and a multi-objective structure. Hardly any mathematical models have been used in the past. Mostly, heuristic approaches are used to assign invigilators to exams. The Analytic Network Process (ANP) with dependence and feedback is a general framework for a detailed analysis of societal, governmental and corporate decisions that is available today to the decision maker. Within the ANP networks of influence one includes all the factors and criteria, tangible and intangible, which have bearing on making a best decision. In this paper, an ANP model is used to prioritize the objectives of the invigilator-exam assignment problem. The model has ten clusters. All the participants and the criteria with their interrelations are defined. Different objectives of the problem are treated as alternatives in this model. Relative weights are obtained for the elements in the ANP model by using the Super Decisions software. Then we solve a previously developed nonlinear optimization model with several constraints using these weights.