Abstract
In this paper, we present a case-based reasoning (CBR) approach solving educational time-tabling problems. Following the basic idea behind CBR, the solutions of previously solved problems are employed to aid finding the solutions for new problems. A list of feature–value pairs is insufficient to represent all the necessary information. We show that attribute graphs can represent more information and thus can help to retrieve re-usable cases that have similar structures to the new problems. The case base is organised as a decision tree to store the attribute graphs of solved problems hierarchically. An example is given to illustrate the retrieval, re-use and adaptation of structured cases. The results from our experiments show the effectiveness of the retrieval and adaptation in the proposed method.
Highlights
case-based reasoning (CBR) [1] solves problems by retrieving the most similar previous cases in a case base and by re-using the knowledge and experiences from previous good quality solutions
The aim of this paper is to present the possibilities and advantages of using attribute graphs to represent cases structurally in a CBR system which solves educational time-tabling problems
Retrieval targets every pair of nodes and edges between the new problem and source cases so that the retrieved case(s) are the most adaptable for the new problem
Summary
CBR [1] solves problems by retrieving the most similar previous cases in a case base (source cases) and by re-using the knowledge and experiences from previous good quality solutions. The aim of this paper is to present the possibilities and advantages of using attribute graphs to represent cases structurally in a CBR system which solves educational time-tabling problems. Böner [3] proposed a CBR system that transformed a set of Knowledge-Based Systems, 13(2-3): 159-165, 2000 pre-selected candidate cases into a structural representation to find the common structure between the new problem and candidate cases This approach was used to represent the topological structure to support layout design [4]. CBR is a valuable method for scheduling problems that put emphasis on constraint directed research, a major feature in time-tabling problems. The directed line between SpanishA and SpanishB has the label 4 (with value 1) which denotes that SpanishA should be held before SpanishB Using this approach, the course time-tabling problems can be represented structurally. Knowledge-Based Systems, 13(2-3): 159-165, 2000 structures, unlike in traditional case representation using the list of feature-values pairs where all the cases have the same form of feature slots
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