Academic Timetabling Research Articles

Automated Bell and LED Display System

Traditional school bell systems and manual scheduling methods often lead to inefficiencies, inaccuracies, and confusion, resulting in operational delays and unclear communication regarding class timings. To address these issues, this project introduces an automated school bell system with a digital display that provides real-time updates on current periods, upcoming classes, and accurate time. Our system utilizes an Arduino microcontroller to automate the ringing of classroom bells based on a pre-set schedule. The bell timing can be easily programmed and adjusted through a user interface, ensuring precise synchronization with the academic timetable. Additionally, an integrated LED display provides real-time visual cues, indicating the current period and upcoming period. This feature helps to minimize confusion and ensure that both students and faculty are consistently informed of schedule changes. This will enable easy management and scheduling updates, reducing the likelihood of errors and improving overall operational efficiency. By streamlining scheduling and enhancing communication clarity, this solution aims to create a more organized and efficient school environment.

A Smart Academic Advisor Model for Undergraduate Students

The undergraduate enrollment rate is rapidly increasing. Many students want advice on their journey to graduation. The students are unfamiliar with the major sheets and academic timetable of the university where they have enrolled. Thus, a model that handles the advising process for students who are unclear about how to choose their courses must be designed. This study provides a model for an academic adviser who may help students navigate their university experience. The model recommends a list of courses to the student depending on his current study level and categorizes the major sheet's courses by difficulty, which varies from easy to challenging based on previous exam results. Lastly, with so many students, the suggested model can assist in automating the advising process without requiring a lot of work.

Developing a chatbot to monitor a university's academic timetable

Developing a chatbot to monitor a university's academic timetable

‘Nice to Meet You Again’: When Heutagogy Met Blended Learning in Teacher Education, Post-Pandemic Era

Heutagogy and blended learning (BL) are core concepts in the educational discourse post-COVID-19. Conducting a mixed-methods study, we investigate meeting points between heutagogy principles and BL in the context of curricular change in the academic timetable of teacher education college, where pre-COVID most courses have been taught face-to-face (F2F). At present, teacher educators and students meet F2F for three weeks, followed by a week of remote learning, combining synchronous and asynchronous pedagogies. Data have been collected by a closed-ended questionnaire and two focus groups, involving altogether 76 lecturers and 553 students. Findings indicate that heutagogy has been applied in all facets of BL, rather than only with online or digital technological components. This study explores a bottom-up growth of heutagogy expressions in BL at three meeting points. When the core facets of heutagogy principles have been identified, there has been a predominance of the students’ agency and life-long learners, together with facets such as a non-linear learning and capability development that have been underrepresented. This study contributes to the research field of heutagogy in teacher education as it identifies the meaning and the way a structural change in the curriculum can constitute an accelerator and catalyst when implementing heutagogy in practice.

Contextual Changes and Shifts in Pedagogical Paradigms: Post-COVID-19 Blended Learning as a Negotiation Space in Teacher Education

This study investigates a post-COVID-19 curricular change in the blended learning (BL) academic timetable of a teacher education college where, pre-COVID-19, most academic courses were taught face-to-face (F2F) on campus. At present, the meetings are F2F for three weeks, followed by a week of remote learning, combining synchronous and asynchronous pedagogies. This study explores these two aspects of the online component and the considerations for their implementation. In a mixed-method approach, the data were collected using a closed questionnaire and two focus groups involving 76 lecturers and 553 students altogether. Of the wide range of pedagogies identified, the highest success rating was accorded to synchronous frontal lectures via Zoom by the students and to integrating MOOCs, YouTube, and Podcasts by the lecturers. Moreover, compared to the lecturers, the students rated the success of asynchronous self-directed learning considerably higher. Qualitative analysis revealed that pedagogies slated for the online module were frequently negotiated between students and teachers. Findings suggest that a structural change in the curriculum could be a first step in rethinking pedagogies in the post-COVID-19 education arena. The next step should focus on narrowing the gap between lecturers’ and students’ perceptions regarding the success of the various pedagogies.

Exploring the motivations and challenges West African female students experience engaging in university sport

ABSTRACT This study sought to explore the motivations and challenges to the engagement of female West African university students, whilst participating in competitive and non-competitive extra-curricular sport and physical activity (ECSPA). The study was situated at a university in the North West of England that has a culturally diverse student population. The ECSPA program that operates at the university seeks to enable individuals to embark upon activities away from their academic schedule, wherein engagement in such activities is thought to nurture health, well-being and social development. Drawing on the intersections of ethnicity, culture and gender, the study aimed to identify the dominant constructs that influence West African students’ motivations towards ECSPA. An online cross-sectional survey of 168 participants with an average age of 34 years complimented by two focus group interviews involving 15 participants, was the primary data source for this study. The women in the study evidenced their key motivations for engaging in ECSPA, such as enjoyment, affiliation and appearance. However, a range of structural barriers to participating in ECSPA was identified including cultural insensitivities, unrelatable marketing and the non-alignment of ECSPA scheduling to the academic timetable.

Course timetabling in medical universities given physicians' educational and clinical tasks

The physician assignment and course timetabling problem at medical universities is a generalized version of the academic timetabling problem. This problem entails assigning courses, educational and clinical tasks to physician faculty members over a semester or academic year. The problem of timetabling academic courses and scheduling physicians in a hospital has been investigated independently in previous studies in this field. These two fields of research are brought together in this article through the presentation of a multi-objective mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model. The proposed model is based on two optimization criteria: minimizing workload imbalance and maximizing physician preferences. The model is applied to a case study involving the assignment of physicians to courses, educational and clinical tasks at Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences' Department of Infectious Diseases. Pareto solutions are obtained using an enhanced version of the augmented epsilon constraint implemented in the GAMS optimization software; one is selected as the most desirable solution using the TOPSIS method. The proposed model is generic and could be adapted for use in other departments or medical schools.

INVESTIGATING CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO STRESS AMONG MATHEMATICS LECTURERS IN HIGHER INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Introduction: This study investigated some contributing factors to stress among mathematics lecturers in higher institutions of learning in Oyo state, Nigeria. Purpose: The study was to find out the contributions of cognitive, intrinsic and systemic factors in causing stress among mathematics lecturers in higher institutions. Methodology: The study adopted a survey research design. The population of the study covered mathematics lecturers in ten (10) selected higher Institutions of learning in Oyo State, Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used in the selection of one hundred (100) mathematics lecturers, ten (10) lecturers per institution participated in the study. A self-designed structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the participants in the study. Croabach alpha was used to attain Correlation Coefficient (r = 0.88) which made the instrument reliable for the study. Three hypotheses were tested using the Chi square statistic at 0.05 level of significant. Results: Findings revealed that cognitive factors did affect individual Mathematics lecturer with x2-tab (21.0) < x2-cal (183.31). Also, intrinsic factors do affect the level of stress among Mathematics lecturers with x2-tab (21.0) < x2-cal (86.84), while systemic factors within the school setting did affect stress among Mathematics with x2-tab (21.0) < x2-cal (91..62). Recommendations: Based on findings of the study, it was recommended among others that management of higher institutions of learning should encourage mathematics lecturers to go for break and relaxation every day during break period on the academic time table.

Factors Affecting Reading Performance Of Primary Four School Children: The Case Of University Practice School (South Campus) Winneba, Ghana.

This study examines the inhibiting factors affecting reading as a medium of instruction for primary four pupils in the University Practice Primary School (UPPS) at Winneba. Unfortunately, reading which is supposed to be a medium of communication had rather become a challenge by the aforementioned pupils. In this study, both quantitative and qualitative designs have been applied to address this gap. The findings of the study revealed that out of the thirty-two pupils tested, using the 100 high-frequency words for word recognition, only four (4) pupils attained a mastery level of 80%. Thus, rendering the remaining pupils as poor readers. The study recommends that pupils with reading difficulties may need more periods on the academic time table to read in order to overcome their problems. Furthermore, teachers must give much attention to pupils with such challenges. Keywords: Reading, reading performance, Reading challenges, Teaching approaches.

Search algorithms for improving the pareto front in a timetabling problem with a solution network-based robustness measure

We develop search algorithms based on local search, and a matheuristic that solves a set of mixed integer programming models to improve the robustness of a set of solutions for an academic timetabling problem. The matheuristic uses the solution pool feature of CPLEX while solving two related MIP models iteratively. The solutions form a network (Akkan et al. in Eur J Oper Res 249(2):560–576, 2016. doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2015.08.047 ), in which edges are defined by the Hamming distance between pairs of solutions. This network is used to calculate a robustness measure, where disruption of a solution is assumed to occur when the time slot to which a team had been assigned is no longer feasible for that team and the heuristic response to this disruption is choosing one of the neighbors of the disrupted solution. Considering the objective function of the timetabling problem and this robustness measure results in a bi-criteria optimization problem where the goal is to improve the Pareto front by enlarging the network. We compare the performance of the heuristics on a set of random instances and seven semesters’ actual data. These results show that some of the proposed local search algorithms and the matheuristic find high quality approximate Pareto fronts. Besides being one of the few timetabling algorithms in the literature addressing robustness, a key contribution of this research is the demonstration of the effectiveness of the matheuristic approach. By using this matheuristic approach, for any discrete optimization model that can be solved optimally or near-optimally in an acceptable time, researchers can develop a robustness improvement algorithm.

Comparing counselling alone versus counselling supplemented with guided use of a well-being app for university students experiencing anxiety or depression (CASELOAD): protocol for a feasibility trial

BackgroundUniversity counselling services face a unique challenge to offer short-term therapeutic support to students presenting with complex mental health needs and in a setting which suits the academic timetable. The recent availability of mobile phone applications (apps) offers an opportunity to supplement face-to-face therapy and has the potential to reach a wider audience, maintain engagement between therapy sessions, and enhance therapeutic outcomes. The present study, entitled Counselling plus Apps for Students Experiencing Levels of Anxiety or Depression (CASELOAD), aims to explore the feasibility of supplementing counselling with guided use of a well-being app.Methods/DesignForty help-seeking university students (aged 18 years and over) with symptoms of moderate anxiety or depression will be recruited from a University Counselling Service (UCS) in the United Kingdom (UK). Participants will be recruited via counsellors who provide the initial clinical assessment and who determine treatment allocation to one of two treatments on the basis of client-treatment fit. The two conditions comprise (1) counselling alone (treatment as usual/TAU) or (2) counselling supplemented with guided use of a well-being app (enhanced intervention). Trained counsellors will deliver up to six counselling sessions in each treatment arm across a 6-month period, and the session frequency will be decided by client-counsellor discussion. Assessments will occur at baseline, every counselling session, post-intervention (3 months after consent) and follow-up (6 months after consent). Assessments will include clinical measures of anxiety, depression, psychological functioning, specific mental health concerns (e.g. academic distress and substance misuse), resilience and therapeutic alliance. The usage, acceptability, feasibility and potential implications of combining counselling with guided use of the well-being app will be assessed through audio recordings of counselling sessions, telephone interviews with participants, focus groups with counsellors and counsellor notes.DiscussionThis study will inform the design of a randomised pilot trial and a definitive trial which aim to improve therapy engagement, reduce dropout and enhance clinical outcomes of student counselling.Trial registrationISRCTN55102899

A Rectification Strategy In Genetic Algorithms for Academic Timetabling Problem

The university course timetabling problem is both an NP-hard and NP-complete scheduling problem. The nature of the problem concerns with the assignment of lecturers-courses to available teaching space in an academic institution and may take on the form of high school timetabling, examination timetabling or university course timetabling. In this paper, the authors attempt to construct a feasible timetable for a faculty department in a local university in Malaysia which at the present moment; the scheduling task is performed manually by an academic registrar. The feasible timetable is constructed by means of Genetic Algorithm, embedded with a rectification strategy which transforms infeasible timetables into feasible timetables.

Supporting students in higher education: results and recommendations following a paradigm shift within a Scottish Ancient

The model of emotional support to students in Higher Education for over 40 years has been one of ‘person-centred therapy’. Factors now challenge the supremacy of this approach, including its delivery format in an environment of extra-curricular demands, academic timetabling, students' financial restrictions (often requiring them to take paid work alongside their studies), and the requirement for them to build an undergraduate portfolio of employability to supplement their degree attainment. Other influential factors include staff accountability to the institution clashing with professional protocols, and duty of care dilemmas for support staff. In 2003, an action research project exploring the quality of its student counselling resulted in a Scottish Ancient university1 replacing traditional student counselling with a mental wellbeing service for students, which came to be known as ‘Support Advising’. This revised approach brought together professional staff from diverse disciplines providing short-term, focused individual and group work; student-led and with shared information databases. This paper examines the project's success, with regard to it representing a paradigm shift. Thus we address the central concepts of institutional purpose and responsibility boundaries, renegotiate the interpretation of ‘professional confidentiality’, and look to the future evolution of a mental wellbeing service in the context of student support.

The WPA train-the-trainers workshop on mental health in primary care (Ibadan, Nigeria, January 26-30, 2009).

A 5-day WPA training workshop for the teachers of mental health in community health officers’ training institutions in the southwest of Nigeria took place at the University of Ibadan Conference Centre, Ibadan from 26 to 30 January, 2009. There were 25 participants selected from the 6 southwestern states (Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, and Ekiti) and the two Yoruba speaking north-central states (Kogi and Kwara). The workshop aimed to provide the participants with: – Knowledge, skills and competencies around mental health and mental disorders as well as common neurological disorders, and their contribution to physical health, economic and social outcomes. – Understanding of linkages between mental health and child health, reproductive health, malaria and HIV. – Understanding of the general policy and implementation contexts for primary care. – Understanding of mental health policy and legislation. – Skills about working with the community, and supporting volunteer community health workers. – Skills about disaster management. Selection of participants was made through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency working with the heads of the various institutions. The selected participants were experienced, senior teachers serving in colleges of health technology, community health officers’ training programs in teaching hospitals, and community health officer tutors’ courses in the University College Hospital Ibadan. There were also representatives of the Community Health Officers’ Registration Board (the agency responsible for developing community health officers’ curriculum and licensing of practitioners) and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency. The program ran daily from 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. using an adapted curriculum, following a general health systems approach and compatible with the World Health Organization Primary Health Care (WHO-PHC) guidelines. The curriculum had been previously developed by R. Jenkins for Kenya, and subsequently adapted for and used in Ghana (V. Doku), Malawi (F. Kauye) and Pakistan (R. Taj and R. Jenkins). Short didactic lectures were augmented with 23 role plays and case vignette discussions. The resource persons were O. Gureje, R. Jenkins and V. Doku. Participants were administered a pre- and post-workshop questionnaire to assess their knowledge of mental health issues and evaluate the changes due to the training. The analysis of the tests will be conducted in due course. An important highlight of the workshop was the requirement for the participants to develop specific plans of action that build on the out-come of the training. The following were the plans collectively agreed upon: – Provision of written report on the workshop to the authorities at their institutions within one week of completion of workshop. – Plan to incorporate the contents of the WHO-PHC guidelines into their lecture notes on mental health within the next academic session. – Plan to improve their teaching skills by employing role plays and discussions by their students. – Having understood the relationship between mental health and reproductive health, malaria, HIV/AIDS and child health, the participants resolved to sensitize teachers of other subjects in their institutions to the relevance of mental health to the other courses and subjects. – Specific plan to forward to Ibadan the academic timetable of their institutions indicating when mental health courses would be taught so as to facilitate monitoring and support visit by O. Gureje and his team in Ibadan. It was agreed to have periodic monitoring, evaluation and boosting of the knowledge already acquired through scheduled visits to the participants in their respective institutions to observe them teaching their students using the skills acquired during the training. This initiative is part of the WPA Action Plan 2008-2011 1.

New integer linear programming approaches for course timetabling

The most complete form of academic timetabling problem is the population and course timetabling problem. In this problem, there may be multiple classes of each subject, and the decision on which students are to constitute each class is made in concert with the decision on the timetable for each class. In order to solve this problem, it is normally simplified or decomposed in some fashion. One simplification commonly used in practice is known as blocking: it is assumed that the classes can be partitioned into sets of classes (or blocks) that will be timetabled in parallel. This restricts clashing to occur only between classes in the same block, and essentially removes the timetabling aspect of the problem, which can be carried out once the blocks are constituted and the classes populated. The problem of constituting the blocks and populating the classes, known as the course blocking and population problem, is nevertheless a challenging problem, and provides the focus of this paper. We demonstrate, using data provided by a local high school, that integer linear programming approaches can solve the problem in a matter of seconds. Key features include remodelling to remove symmetry caused by students with identical subject selection, and the observation that in practice, only integrality of the block composition variables needs to be enforced; the class population aspects of the model have strong integrality properties.