Examination Scheduling for an Educational Institution that follows a Choice-based credit system

Abstract

Examination scheduling is a common as well as an important activity in an educational institution. In examination scheduling, courses are allocated a time slot in such a way that no student is assigned to attend more than one examination at a time. Further, the scheduling includes allocation of physical resources like exam room, invigilator to an examination without any conflicts. The complexity of an examination scheduling depends on many factors like nature of educational program, number of students, number of staff, time limit and availability of other resources. In this study, we developed a solution for examination scheduling in an educational system that follows a choice-based credit system. We used heuristic searching in multiple stages to arrive an optimal solution. We used Prolog, a logical programming language, SQL, PHP and HTML to develop this software. Also in this solution we limit ourselves to allocation of time slots to a course and we don’t include allocation of other physical resources like class rooms, invigilators.