An Instruction On Course Timetable Scheduling Applying Graph Coloring Approach

Research Article
Narayan Poddar and Basudeb Mondal
DOI: 
http://dx.doi.org/10.24327/ijrsr.2018.0902.1567
Subject: 
science
KeyWords: 
Graph Coloring, Course Timetable Scheduling, Hard Constraints, Soft Constraints, Course Conflict Graph.
Abstract: 

In any educational institution, the two most common academic scheduling problems are course timetabling and examination scheduling. A schedule is desirable which combines resources like teachers, subjects, students, classrooms, and teaching- learning aids in a way to avoid conflicts satisfying various essential and preferential constraints. The timetable scheduling problem is informed to be NP Complete but the similar optimization problem is NP Hard. Hence a heuristic approach is proposed to find a nearest optimal solution within reasonable running time. Graph coloring is one such heuristic algorithm that may deal timetable scheduling satisfying changing requirements, evolving subject demands and their combinations. This study shows application of graph coloring on multiple data sets of any educational institute where various types of constraints are applied. It emphasizes on degree of constraint satisfaction, even distribution of courses, test for uniqueness of solution and optimal conclusion. When multiple optimal solutions are available then the one satisfying maximum discriminating conditions is chosen. This paper only focuses on College Course Timetabling where both hard and soft constraints are considered. Its objectives at properly coloring the course conflict graph and transforming this coloring into conflict-free times, lots of courses. Course Conflict graph is constructed with courses as vertices and edges drawn between conflicting courses i.e. having common students