DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A COMPUTERIZED STUDENTS TIME TABLE SYSTEM
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ABSTRACT
This project examines the general and well-established research into the timetable scheduling problem. Lecture timetable system is a system of scheduling lecture time and available resources so as to maximize such resources. It is one of the most important yet time consuming task done periodically in any academic institution of learning. The work contained in this project not only summarizes the voluminous literature but also contributes through analysis as well as providing a benchmark for the objective comparison of future research in this area. This chapter begins with a discussion of the concepts, terminology and general research direction in the broad are of scheduling.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The term timetable can be defined as the optimization of given activities, actions or events to a set of objects ion space-time matrix to satisfy a set of desirable constraints. A key factor in running an educational center or basically an academic environment is the need for a well-planned and clash free timetable.
In the early days, timetable scheduling was done manually with a single person or some group involved in the task of scheduling it with their hands, which takes a lot of effort and time. Scheduling even the smallest number of data, can take a lot of time and the case is even worse when the amount of data to deal with increases. In such cases a perfectly designed is reused for the whole generation without any changes, proving to be dull in such situation. Some cases that can cause problems is when the number of employers or workers is weak resulting in reschdulig of the time table or they will need to fill those empty seats urgently. Another reason for the difficulty is because of the great complexity of the construction of size of lectures and examinations, due to the scheduling size of the lectures and examination period and high number of constraints and criteria for allocation which is usually circumvented with the use of little strict heuristics based on solution from previous year (Jose, 2008).
In designing a timetable data are collected from various departments in each faculty for the preparation. The timetable process is done in three phases name; data collection from departments, where each department will supply the various courses which will include the course title, course code, contact hour (lectures and practical), course unit and the lecturer to take them. The second phase is the analysis of the provided data where the data supplied by the departments are analyzed with the available space (hall size). The last phase is the lecture timetable scheduling. Based on the analysis, the lecture timetable is produced. In scheduling the lecture timetable there are constraints that should be put or taken into consideration, the following are; no student can attend more than one lecture at a time, no lecturer and teach more than one course per-time and lecture hall cannot be assigned to more than one particular course at a time. Any academic timetable must have a number of requirement and should satisfy the desires of all entities involved simultaneously as possible. The timings of events must be such that nobody has more than one event at the same time (Roberts, 2002).
Therefore to be able to create a timetable that will satisfy all this constraints there is need for a computerized method of departmental lecture timetable software which will be able to generate a complete timetable automatically without stress or issues.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The manual solution of the timetabling usually requires many person-days of work. It takes much time to get completed an optimal, even at the optimal stage of the manually generated timetable, there are still a few clashes and it is the lecturer that takes a clashing course that works out the logi stics of the course so as to avoid the clash, The available system currently builds or generates a set of timetable, but most times have issues with generating a clash-free and complete timetable. the tedious tasks of data introduction and revision of usually incomplete solutions are the bottle-necks in this case (Luisa et-al, 2006).
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purse of this work is to generate a simple, easily, understandable and efficient program using an effective and optimal algorithm which automatically generates good quality timetables through the use of computer software.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY:
The significance of the study to the students and lectures is to create a timetable that will reduce the issues that occurs due to clashes on the timetable. The significance of the study to the administration Officers is to provide a comprehensive timetable management solution which will help to overcome the challenges in current system and also save time.
Also, the significance of the study to the university at large is to aid efficient execution of academic activities.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The work is particularly focused on tackling the school lecture timetabling problem and will consider varying requirements depending on the type of courses, lecturers, rooms and laboratory associated with a concerned department.
1.6 DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The study covered only the department of vocation Education (Computer Education Unit) due to some limitations. The constrains are as follows;
- Finance: Funds to run around for the data requirements was identified and this hindered further research.
- Time Constraint: It was not possible to extend the research to other departments due to the time this research work was required.
- Complexity: Extending the research to all departments within the institution would lead to complications resulting in unavailability of research.
Some other limitations that may hinder the functionalities of the system are;
- Wrong data input by the technical user
- Wrong constrains specification
- Incomplete data from data collaborations
1.7 ASSUMPTION OF STUDY
The assumptions and dependencies are as follows:
- Users and the administrator are accustomed to the paper-based system and would require training to use the computerized application.
- The system is dependent on the availability of an Apache Tomcat Server to run.
- We assume that system users adhere to the system’s minimum software and hardware requirements.
1.8 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS
TIMETABLE: It is a plan of the times when a particular events are to take place
CLASH: To be in opposition or disagreement
ALGORITHM: It is a set of instructions, typically to solve a problem or perform a computation. They are unambiguous specifications for performing calculations, data processing, automated reasoning and other task.
SYSTEM: A system is a set of interacting or independent component parts forming a complex or intricate whole. Every system is delineated by its spatial and temporal boundaries, surrounded and influenced by its environment, described by its structure and purpose and expressed in its functioning.
DATABASE: It is a structured set of data held in a computer, especially one that is accessible in various ways.
JAVA SCRIPT: java script often abbreviated as JS is a high – level, interpreted programming language. It is a programming language used in promoting web pages.
CSS: It is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in html. It is a simple mechanism for adding style (e.g fonts color, spacing ) to web documents.
PHP: PHP is an acronym for hypertext processor; it is a server side scripting language, especially suited for the creation of dynamic web pages.
USER: User is a system, application, request or person that can use a computer or software to perform a specific task.