James M. Thorne, James Palmer, S. P ~ U Steed, I and William Linsley Brighom Young University
Provo,
Utah 84601
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Computerized Scheduling 01 Teaching Assistants and Graders
choosing the best qualified student from those available to assist as graders or laboratory instructors in a given course can be a very difficult and time consuming process at a large university. Among the factors which must be considered are (a) possible conflicts between the time the laboratory is taught and courses the prospective assistant is taking, ( b ) qualifications of the prospect (courses taken and grades received), (c) preferences of the student for certain types of work, (d) preferences of the professor for certain students to assist in his courses, and ( e ) obligations of the department to those awarded assistantships, chemistry majors, and former employees. I t has been our experience at B.Y.U. that assigning the student employees needed for 60 laboratory and lecture sections takes about 20 man hours of tedious, unrewarding effort. Although the results have appeared to be satisfactory, there is no assurance that the distribution of assignments is equitable or optimum according to any criterion whatsoever. T o improve this situation a computer program has been written which makes the assignments according to quantified and well defined criteria, and produces assignments lists sooner after registration than was previously possible. Program The program is operationally divided into five subroutines, mput," "teacher preference," "main," "backup," and "output!' In Fieure 1 the "inout" and "outout" subroutines are further dividcd to show the'information required for "input" and produced by "output." 2,.
"Input" reads information from five groups of cards and processes it for use by the remainder of the program. The information in each group is as follows 1) Course information-one card for each course a. T h e course number b. T h e number of credit hours o. T h e division of ohemistry to which i t belongs (organio, inorganic. physiaai, analytical, and biochemistry) d. Lowest prerequisite eourae number 2) Student informstion-two cards for eaoh student 8. Name h. Identification number o. Major a n d minor d. Ci!emistry G.P.A. s n d overall D.P.A. e. Work preference i n three arcas. laboratories, grading, and stockroom, according to t h e criteria. "will not do." "rvill do," and "rvant t o do" f. ~ o a d e m i cand work reoord, aa ahown i n Figure 2 a. Semester's schedule. as s h o v n in Fieure 3 h. Previous work for t h e department i. T y p e of financial assistanoe granted (hourly wage or assistantship) 3) Seotioninformation-may have two cards for each section a. Gradinp: information 1. course number 2. section number 3. inetruotor'e identification number 4. minimum number of graduate students rewired 5 , maximum number of graders desired 0. antioipated enrollment (used t o set t h e number of gradins bourdstudent enrolled) 7. actual enmllment (used t o determine the actual number of grading hours for t h e seotion) 8. number of hours gradindweek dssired 9. names a n d identification numbera of u p to eight students accompanied by a rating of "must have:' "prefer strongly:' "prefer," or ","ill not work with"
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the highest appropriate number beside the m u m or its equivalent where you 141 completed with A-or better 101 have not taken 151 waded before I11 conc~rrentlvenrolled i 2 j completed with C- or better 161 taught lab before 131 completed with 8- or better
a;rk
(32)1 0, 1 3 9 ) 101-
1
223-1461 351-
385-1531 461-
518-1601 521-
I
564581-
165-661 Number of chemistry credits in 598-700level classe$with 8or better
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Figure 2. Academic and work record. The parentheticd number. ( 3 2 39, etc.1 ore the numbers of the cord columnr in which the corresponding information is punched.
Figure 3. Academic and work schedule. Students applying for work enter their sovnes and mom numben in appropriateboxer. Each day is divided into the three 3-hr periods during which loborotorier are normolly in session. Any entry in a 3-hr block would be indicated b y punehing o "9"in the corresponding card column to show that the student is unovoilable for laboratories tought then.
152
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lournol of Chemical Education
b.
Laboratory information 1 . course number 8eOti00 number 3. instructor's identification number 4. minimum number of grhduate students required 5. ratio of studentdlab assistant desired, if the internal ratio of 20/1 is not satiafaetory 6. the identification numb+) of the period(s) during which the laboratory is taught (see Figure 3) 7. minimum number of laboratory assistants desired if only minimum enrollment is achieved 8. ratio of hours oreoaration timelhours in iaboratorv. .. if the internal ratio d 2 / 3 ia not sati&tory 9. the names and identification numbera of up to eieht students accompanied by a rating of "must have," "prefer strongly," "prefer." or "will not work with" 4) Inatruetor information-one card for each profearor 2.
-. .warn. .--. a
b. Identification number 5 ) Financial information-one
card far each rate The amount for each type and fraation of asaistaotship
a.
The "teacher preference" section of the program surveys the section information sequentially, and assigns those students rated "must have" to the section for which they are requested. I t then surveys the information once more and assigns those rated "prefer strongly." An accounting is kept for each student so that he is not assigned more hours work than he requested. In "main" the section information is surveyed again. When a section is found with unfilled requirements, a survey is made of the available and qualified students. Each student is evaluated by giving numerical values to the parameters in the following equation and obtaining a number by which he may be ranked.
HCT CN
LPC
(CN) (Gradej (Credit H pv) *= = This factor (1/10) is ellm~natedif
name appears on another list along with all of the courses he teaches and the students assigned to assist in each course. Only one professor is listed per page so the output can be distributed easily. Two other lists are used in the event that a student is unable to accept the employment after being ashigned, or if unexpected circumstances make it necessary to modify the schedule determined by the computer. In one, students who applied for work are listed along with the number of hours per week they are availahle beyond their assigned work load. Most have no time left, some have a few hours, and usually a few poorly qualified students have not been given any work. The schedule of courses each student is taking or teaching is also printed out, making it easy to see when each student is available for a possible laboratory assignment. The other list gives each student's qualifications (courses taken, grades, and courses where the student has been a reader or laboratory instructor). These two lists greatly facilitate any repairs that the computer's assignment schedule needs because of unforseen events. The output also includes a series of statements explaining certain requests that remain unfilled. Examples are: "Student 059074 not in student file, preferred by class 464L," and "Student 174209 is not availahle for course 385L due to conflicting schedule." Finally, the semester's cost to the department for student wages is printed.
A
the course taken is from the same division (e.g., analytical) as the course to he taueht B = 5 X (Gmber of eraduate credit hours student has eom-
C
D E
major or minor F = Student's preference G = Professor's preference There will inevitably come a time during the assignment process when no student can be found with the necessary free time and experience needed for the assignment under consideration. An optional subroutine cdled "Backup" solves this dilemma. It directs the computer to fill the problem assignment with a qudified, previously assigned student if someone can be found among the unassigned students to fill the newly created vacancy. In searching for someone to fill the problem assignment, the computer first considers the most recently assigned student. It then checks his qualifications and course schedule for compatibility with the proposed reassignment, and tries to find a suitable replacement for him. Tf any of these criteria make the reassignment impossible, the computer tries the next most recently assirrned student. etc. until a revlacement is successfullv made or &I the end bf the assiened Ltudent list is reached. " I n the proceeds to the next assignment.
Output
Conclusion
This program was run after the student help assignments had been made manually at the beginning of spring semester, 1969. The manual and computer assignments were similar--in fact, the computer and manual assignments were identical in 50% of the cases. The computer was relied upon for the Fall, 1969 assignments, and the performance was more than adequate. The most serious criticism was that a few students on assistantships were assigned one more or a few less hours/week than their contracts called for. Also, several students made changes in their schedules after their work assignments were posted on the first day of classes. I n both cases, revision of the computer assigned employment was easy. The computer assignment is faster and saves time in every way. The average CPU time is 38 see on an IBM 360/50. The computer output can be posted very shortly after the students' schedules have been confirmed. Previously there was a lag of one or two days. The secretarial time used in key punching the iuput data is compensated by having the computer print the assignment lists rather than compiling them by hand. By either method, the student work applications must be thoroughlv - checked to avoid misiuformation. The authors wish to express their thanks to Mr. C. Edwin Dean, Chairman of the Computer Science Department at B.Y.U., for encouragement and technical assistance. Appreciation is also expressed to Karl A. Miller, Edwood L. Loveridge, John L. Lyman, Denzel L. Fillmore, Wesley Parrish, and Janan Mary Hayes for writing major portions of the program. The authors also thank the Brigham Young University Computer Research Center for the use of their facilities during the development of the program. "
The computer produces six lists. I n the first, each student employee is listed along with the courses and professors to which he is assigned. If he is involved in a laboratory the days and times it is taught are given. The hours of work per week for each course are also found here. This list is posted for student use. Each laboratory along with the students assigned and the directing professor is given on another list. If no student was available to fill an opening, it is indicated here. The next list is identical in form, but applies only to the' grading assignments. Each professor's
Volume 47, Number 2, February 7 970
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