Design of an Interactive Scheduling Heuristic-Based Application

Scheduling classes is an essential and challenging task due to academic rules and constraints imposed by the system. Previous studies have tackled the problem of class scheduling, but teacher schedule and course preference have not been incorporated. The usability of previous software developed were also not established. This study aims to create an automated tool that will minimize the time and errors the department heads encounter in creating a faculty schedule. The Interactive Scheduling Heuristic-based Application (ISHA) was developed using a user-centered design approach. Seventeen department administrators were interviewed to determine the tasks involved in the scheduling process, the constraints, and best practices. The contents of the software were determined from the outcome of a task analysis. The system was designed to be embedded in the web application and the algorithm itself when autogenerating a schedule. The algorithm prevents schedules from overlapping with one another. The usability of the application was assessed using efficiency by comparing the speed of scheduling with and without the tool. ISHA was able to ease the burden of the department heads in preparing a schedule that considers all the constraints imposed by the system. The scheduling task had been shortened, less prone to errors, and had been more oriented with the capabilities of the department heads.