Development Of An Automatic Class Scheduler

Regarding the rapid growth of the number of students and the increasing number of courses offered in school, colleges and institution, the task of scheduling classes to fit into timetables and into existing facilities is becoming much more complicated. At the present time, class scheduling not only needs to fit the courses offered but also has to be performed based on many factors, such as availability and capacity of the room, cost occurred when the rooms are engaged by any courses, losses occurred when the rooms are left out, etc.

Class Scheduler is an easy to use single or multi-user application for scheduling student’s classes. The software is ideal for schools, colleges and other institutions that must create class schedules. Class Scheduler can be used by a single teacher or by a group of students to schedule classes. The idea behind Class Scheduler is to increase the productivity of classroom administrators by automating the class scheduling process by automatically setting up course times and assigning rooms and instructors. We can view course schedule, student schedule, instructor schedule and classroom schedule online.

We can also resolve clashes without effort, and preferences of staff and students action with ease and serves a clash-free and error-free timetable. It also saves time and labour.

2. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

Timetable creation for has always been an error-prone task, normally resulting in multiple iterations of creation and proof-reading. Changes desired by teaching staff, changes of course locations etc. also require an adaptation of the previously created timetables.

Traditional approach to generation of timetable had great difficulties due to large search space which were created as a result of number of variables that need to be considered in such problems. Hence the objective of this project is to automatically generate time tables for the betterment of the teaching staff & students.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

The manual system of preparing Time Table in colleges with large number of students is very time consuming and usually ends up with various class clashes either at same time or with same teacher, having more than one class at a time. These are just due to common human error which are very difficult to prevent in processes as these. To overcome these problem people usually end up making injudicious use of classrooms and labs.

To overcome all these problems we propose to make an automated system.

INTRODUCTION

CLASS SCHEDULER is the online timetable generator for schools, colleges and any other institutions that must create class schedules. CLASS SCHEDULER offers functionality for generating timetables (for students or teachers) as well as overview timetables, i.e. all courses in a certain semester for any given degree.

This study is expected to solve those problems and improve the qualitative aspects of generating schedules as follows:

Shortening the time in establishing the timetables with computer assistance and better information.

Easing the procedure of establishing the timetables

Establishing the timetables according to maximize facilities utilization and instructors’ preferences.

Developing an interactive computer link to facilitate data output and the interpretation of the results.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SYSTEM

The project aims at developing an automated Time Table generator. The system will take various inputs like details of student, subjects, classrooms and teachers available. Depending upon these inputs it will generate a possible Time Table. Making optimal utilization of all the resources such as rooms and labs and distributing classes in a way that will best suit any of constraints or college rules. List of subjects may include elective as well as core subjects.

Features:

Simple Data Entry:

It is quick and easy to enter information of all subjects, years (FE, SE, TE, BE), courses

( computer science, extc, bio-medical), Rooms and teachers.

Automatic generation:

In few minutes, the program generates a complete timetable that fulfills all your requirements. The program follows all organizational requirements such as selection for number of working days of the week, zero (attendance) period insertion. Subjects could be entered considering subject in which classroom, single or double duration consecutively, periods per week per subject. Periods could be entered with considerations of maximum number of consecutive periods per teacher.

Teachers could be placed with considerations such as class should not be assigned when teacher is not free i.e ABC teacher should not be given any class on Monday. XYZ teacher should not get 1st and 2 period on all days etc. Also considering teachers getting x number of maximum periods, minimum/maximum periods per day, limit number of consecutive periods.

Automatic Reports for Printing, Website:

Reports for website could be generated for the following:

Summary timetable for classes

Summary timetable for teachers

Summary timetable for rooms

year wise time table

Teacher wise time table

All classes assigned to a teacher ( no. of periods per week bifurcations)

Total number of periods subject wise

Checking of total Working Hours per week details for the teachers

PROCESS FLOWS

ER-DIAGRAM

DATA FLOW DIAGRAM

Context Level Diagram

Level 1 DFD

CLASS SCHEDULER is a system in which automatic timetable is generated by considering various constraints in the system. It also provides the login facility.

System takes the required data provided by class coordinator and performs function to generate time table. A professor logs in and can view the required time table.

Professor can request for modification which is forwarded to system by coordinator system generates the alternate timetable, coordinator views the generated timetable and accepts or rejects the modification.

If modification is accepted then the received timetable is stored in database. If the request is rejected then it is informed to requestor that request cannot be processed.

This all activities are shown in the data flow diagram (Level 0) also called as context free diagram.

Level 2 DFD

INPUTS:

It takes various input required by system that are professor information and various data required about that professor. It also takes input of subjects and the relevant information required. The classroom and lab information are also provided. This all data are provided by coordinator.

GENERATION OF TIMETABLE:

It takes the information provided by the coordinator and consider the various constraints provided. It generate professor schedule and the respective schedule is entered in the class schedule, while generating the schedule it also checks that no timeslot redundancy occur i.e; no single slot is allotted to a two or more professor. Two type of timetable is generated: class wise and professor wise, this both timetable are stored in database by this process. This stored timetable is used as and when required by the users.

DISPLAY TIMETABLE

Whenever user login the system it provides various option of displaying timetable. User select the required options , the request is then analyzed by the system and in accordance to the request made the required timetable is displayed. The system provides the online view of timetable.

MODIFICATION

After the time table is generated the provision is made to view them in various options , timetable is displayed as per the user requirement. The professor views the timetable and if required he/she request for modification. This modification request is forwarded manually to the coordinator which in turn is forwarded to the system. The system then generates the alternate timetable .this alternate timetable is then viewed by the coordinator. He then decides whether the change is propagated or the request cannot be considered. If request is not considered then it informs the requestor about it.

STRUCTURE CHART DIAGRAM

USE CASE DIAGRAM

Display timetable

Login

Generate timetable

Modify timetable

< include >

Professor

student

coordinator

Use cases involved in the system are:

LOGIN:

User logs in the system by entering user name and password. If user name or password is invalid, the system display error message.

GENERATE TIMETABLE:

The system generates the timetable according to the input data provided to it by considering different constraints.

MODIFY TIMETABLE:

The system takes the request from user and generates new timetable.

DISPLAY TIMETABLE:

The system displays the timetable in a format requested by the user.

Actors involved in the system are:

PROFESSOR:

Professor views the timetable online which is generated by the system and if it is inconvenient for professor then he/she requests for modification in timetable.

STUDENT: Students view and follow the timetable generated by the system.

CO-ORDINATOR: It is an actor who is responsible for managing the system.

1

UC1 Login

Brief Description

UC1.1 This use case helps user to login to the system.

Flow of Events

Basic Flow

UC1.2 To login in to the system:

system asks the user to enter his/her login id & password

The user enters his/her login id & password

The system validates the id & the password

System displays the Homepage of the college

Alternative Flows

UC1.3 If id is wrong

System displays message wrong Id

UC1.4 If password is wrong

System displays message wrong password

Special Requirements

UC1.5 At least one character must be an alphabet

Preconditions

UC1.6 User must be registered

Post Conditions

System displays the Homepage of the college

1Generate Timetable

Generate Timetable UC1

Brief Description

UC1.1 This use case helps coordinator to generate timetable

Flow of Events

Basic Flow

11111111111111111111111111111111kkkkk1. Coordinator logs in

2. System asks for input data

3. Coordinator enters data

4. System generates timetable

Alternative Flows

UC1.3 Incorrect data entry

System cannot generate timetable, displays error message

UC1.4 Insufficient availability of rooms and labs.

System generates incomplete timetable, displays warning statement

Special Requirements

UC1.5 Professor should be available for all time slots

Preconditions

UC1.6 At least one professor should be assigned to a subject

Post Conditions

Provide various option of displaying the timetable

1Modify Timetable

Modify Timetable UC1

Brief Description

UC1.1 This use case helps System to modify the timetable according to feedback provided by the professor

Flow of Events

Basic Flow

11111111111111111111111111111111kkkkk1. Professor request for change of timings for his lectures

2. Coordinator feeds the request

3. System generates new timetable and requests Coordinator for updating

4. Coordinator approves the modified timetable

5. System revises the timetable

Alternative Flows

UC1.3

Coordinator rejects the modified timetable

Original timetable is retained

Preconditions

UC1.6 Professor’s request should be within college time slots

Post Conditions

Revised timetable should be displayed

1Display Timetable

Display Timetable UC1

Brief Description

UC1.1 This use case helps System to display the revised timetable in various formats

Flow of Events

Basic Flow

11111111111111111111111111111111kkkkk1. User logs in

2. System provides option for selecting different formats of timetable

3. User selects the required option

4. System displays the timetable in requested format

Alternative Flows

UC1.3 Login is incorrect

If login is incorrect, system displays invalid login

UU

Preconditions

UC1.6 Timetable should exist

7. CONCLUSION

This study has examined the possibility of implementing the concept of assignment of lectures for the class scheduling process. The advantage of this system is that it would be able to applied not only to similar scheduling problems and be extended to various types of problem sharing the same concept. The model has to be able to reduce the number of activities in the scheduling process.