A New Mathematical Model for Multisession Exams-Building Assignment

Abstract

The educational timetabling problem has been extensively investigated in timetabling literature. However, the problem of assigning exams to examination buildings has not been studied intensively by researchers. We were inspired by Open and Distance Education System exams of Anadolu University. Anadolu University Open and Distance Education System, which is used by approximately two millions of students and has more than two millions of graduates, is a well-known institution in Turkey. In this study, we propose a multi-objective mathematical model for multisession exam-building assignment problem. Objective functions of this model are to minimize the distance between consecutive session buildings for a given student, to maximize the number of occupants of buildings in every session and to minimize the variety of booklets for building in every session. Mathematical model has been found inadequate because students-examination building assignment in the Anadolu University Open Education system is a large size real life problem. Starting from this point of view, an order-based multi-objective heuristic algorithm is developed to solve this problem. The solutions obtained by the proposed algorithm are compared with the solution obtained by the mathematical modelling and the current state of the existing system.