Title: University course timetabling problem considering day and time pattern

Authors: Chompoonoot Kasemset; Takashi Irohara

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Rd., Suthep, Muang, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand ' Department of Information and Communication Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Sophia University, 7-1 Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-8554, Japan

Abstract: This study aimed to propose a new formulation for the university course timetabling problem (UCTTP) when a day and time pattern is introduced. The day and time pattern would be set by the university and all assigned courses should follow this pattern. The different points of the proposed formulation would structure the model using starting and ending timeslots instead of a single timeslot to deal with courses with consecutiveness, periodic repeat, and multi-period sessions. To present the effectiveness of the proposed model, three test cases were solved and the results showed that the number of variables and constraints reduced with less computational time. Then, the case study was solved with multiple objectives based on goal programming (GP). The results of the case study show that the number of assignments during the undesirable time was minimised and that the total satisfaction score of all the lecturers was improved.

Keywords: university course timetabling; integer programming; goal programming; case study; day and time pattern.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOR.2019.103124

International Journal of Operational Research, 2019 Vol.36 No.3, pp.375 - 398

Received: 13 Aug 2016
Accepted: 26 Nov 2016
Published online: 21 Oct 2019 *

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