ARUN SRI RAJENDRARAJAH

Allocator/Personalized Timetabling Project Report

Cardiff Metropolitan University

Prifysgol Fetropolitan Caerdydd

Student Allocator/Personalized Timetabling Project Report

Project Analysis The current Student and Staff timetable system has taken into consideration and produced a

Student Personalized timetable (SPT) using the Student Allocator provided by Scientia. As an

outcome, this will be more specific to the individual user rather than the existing generic timetable.

SPT accurate timetabling data for each individual.

Also as part of SPT project there was a requirement to investigate and change some of the existing

management process.

Timetabling System

Year Tutor

Admin

Student

Identify thechanges in Modules

Early ModuleSelection

Update Changes

Inform Changes

Inform Students

Submit Selection

decide

Add into the system

Contact Students

Gather Info

Update the system

Select Modules

Submit selections

Lecturer

*

-Update Minor changes

*

Identify the changes in Modules early – Year Tutor

Year tutors need to decide the whole curriculum: programmes, modules and assessments

for the following year as early possible. This gives the timetabling system and the student

enough time to gather information and make decisions accordingly.

Early Module Selection – Students

1st and 2nd year students should submit their choice of modules for the following academic

year at the end of term 2, so the student system can collect the data and update the

timetabling system. Also the academics should guide the student in choosing the best

options by conducting a workshop. This workshop should include past students to give their

feedback about the modules.

All the changes should be updated on the System – Administrator/Lecturer

All changes that affect the timetable should be updated to the SPT when the information is

available. Minor changes (Lecture cancelled, Classroom Changes) can be made by the

lecturers themselves and major changes should be sent to SPT department who are

responsible for making changes in the timetable.

Objects

Benefits

Project Benefits The purpose of the Student personalized timetable project was to give students and staff a much better user experience and to improve the old timetabling

system. The Cardiff Metropolitan Timetabling System has been with the institution approximately for the past 20 years. The current timetabling system

version 2.0 (Enterprise) was upgraded from the first version in 2006. Since then no improvement has taken place regarding the timetabling system.

Also developing the Student personalized timetable system and bringing into use will benefit both end users and instruction in many ways. This will create a

good reputation for Cardiff Metropolitan University from the students’ prospective.

User

Time Saving

End user control

Minimum Confusion

Information on the go

Financial

Increase Satisfactory

Loyalty

More users

Improved value of money

Enhanced Reputation

Organization Process

Introducing a latest system

Brings new out put

Reduce error rate

Reputation to the

organization

Organization Capabilitiy

Increased Students

Satisfaction/ Motivation

Improved technology

usability and skills

Increased Innovation

Benefit Title Benefit Description Benefit Owner

Benefit Risks Benefit Category

Suggested Measurement

Time Saving By bringing all new function and accurate information into one new system will reduce end users time consuming

User Measurable Total time spent by a user

End User Control By providing access to end users to customize and change events, gives the user to work according to the time schedule

User Data space can be mishandle by adding too many events

Measurable Numbers of customize timetable added to the system

Minimum confusion As all the details are more accurate and clear will lead to less confusion.

User Measurable Attending lectures on time Finding the correct classroom

Information on the go

Able to access all the information on mobile device

User Accessing mobile device while driving a vehicle can cause accidents

Quantifiable Quantity amount of users access the STP via mobile

Increased Satisfactory loyalty Complete STP will earn satisfactory loyalty for the organization

Organization (Finance)

Observable

More Users

Increases the number users relay on SPT. Student plans all the academic work according to the SPT.

Organization (Finance)

System maintenance and support cost can raise

Measurable Total number users use SPT a certain period of time

Improved value of money Current generic timetabling systems cost can be spent on bringing new SPT.

Organization (Finance)

Cost can be vary form the generic timetable

Measurable Total amount of money spent on the SPT.

Introducing a Latest System By applying SPT throughout the university Cardiff Metropolitan will become on the few universities to have its own SPT

Organization Risk of losing old system Observable

Reduce Error rate By giving Staff and students to manage their own personalized timetable will bring down the error rate keep continue to improve a better system

Organization Observable

Reputation to the organization Only few Universities around UK as a personalized timetable. By bring a STP to Cardiff met will give a good Reputation about the organization from other Universities and organization.

Organization Observable

Other Higher Education Provider’s Website

University College London (Recommended): https://timetable.ucl.ac.uk/tt/homePage.do

University College London has the most unique interface compared with other United Kingdom (UK)

Universities. It includes creating new customized personal timetabling system by selecting a

particular course and module. This system also allows guests to access the generic timetable and

print information. All modules can be searched by Department/ Subject Area or by module

information.

At the same time UCL has the highest number of full professors of any university in the UK and many

more students (26,000) compared to Cardiff Metropolitan University.

List of Other Universities researched (Bespoke) 1. Nottingham Trent University

2. University of Leicester

3. The University of Aberdeen

4. London Metropolitan University

5. University of Kent

6. University of Warwick

7. University of Oxford

8. Northumbria University

9. University of Bristol

10. King's College London

All the above higher education providers have their own (Bespoke) customized timetable, at the

same time I doubt most of them could be similar. Cardiff Metropolitan and London Metropolitan are

sharing few common features in between but London Metropolitan has a SPT features in their

timetabling system.

Out of all the above higher education providers’ king’s College London has the most simplicity

Student Personalized Timetabling system. It only requires ID number and module section. If Cardiff

Met only looking into creates just the SPT without considering any bellow user requirement King’s

College SPT system could be the perfect solution.

Students and Staff feedback My survey took place on Llandaff Campus. It looked at the needs and expectations from a Student

Personalized Timetable (SPT), as I expected, the majority of the participants strongly agreed that

changes should take place in the current system. 53% of students strongly agree that they require a

Personalized Timetable. As a student I know how hard is to organize time. One of the major

challenges faced by student is dealing with the volume and pace of the workload.

(http://elenalpm.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/top-10-problems-faced-by-university-studentst/)

Issues with the Current System

The current student timetabling system only has read only functionality, which only allows the

student to view their timetable throughout the academic year. Also generic timetabling system does

not allow users to print the timetable or make any changes as required.

Only a few common issues had been pointed out by the survey participants.

Inaccurate Information

Unable to plan events

Course work reminders

Mobile accessible

Notification if any changes took place

All the above issues can be fixed by implementing a new personalized timetabling system. It is

important that the university facilities are of a high standard and do what is best for the organization

and the students.

6%

0%

18%

23%

53%

Need Of Personal Timetable

Strongly Disagree Disagree Indifferent Agree Strongly Agree

User Requirements By adding the following features to the Student Personalized Timetable (SPT) will help to minimize

end users prolonged timetabling session. It’s not necessary to include every feature on the first

version of the system, but improvements can be made in the near future as and required.

User Customization

The current generic timetable does not give students the option to choose which modules it displays

it shows all available modules for the course (see below). This may cause confusion and also users

need more time to adopt the system.

By Introducing the new SPT, it will allow all end users (Students/Staff) to make changes to the

default timetable: including rearranging class times, creating event reminders, Group Events and

Printing/Downloading.

Mobile Accessibility

Accessing SPT via Mobile devices online and offline also shows the alerts and reminders in the

device. Offline allows the user to access the recent timetable although it doesn’t update the latest

information. This will be very useful. This feature will be helpful for the end users.

Advantages

Access SPT from anywhere

Less time consuming

Quick update

Mobile notification

Coursework/Event Reminder

As soon as the assessment brief is uploaded to Blackboard by the module leader, the system

automatically updates the deadline and creates a reminder for the students. This feature helps

students keep up to date and plan academic work accordingly. In special scenarios, a few students

might get extensions or allowances (e.g.:-Disability). The event reminder feature also should have

end user customizing options, so the user can create/update information.

Navigation (Optional)

First year students/new staff facing difficulties locating the right lecture rooms/labs in the first few

months. By providing this feature to end users makes it much easier to locate the lecture room. This

is a rare feature in other higher education providers also.

This can be done by: - Navigation map or Augmented reality

Frequent Update

All the changes related to the timetable should be updated as soon as possible. Changes in class

date, time, changes in room and class cancelations should be updated to the SPT system and made

visible to the end users.

Also some modules can have 1 lecture a day and if that got cancelled as the current generic

timetable does not update the changes for a day unless the lecturer informs the entire cohort via

email. In this scenario student who turns up to the lecture without checking their student email will

have had a wasted journey and feel disappointed at this experience.

But we should also consider giving lecturers access to make necessary changes in the SPT. This would

be the best way to keep the system accurate.

Training and Support

Training can be a challenging task for the institution, because it’s important to continue to provide

training and support to newcomers. Form newcomers user experience and feedback can improve

the SPT system and add changes into the system. So I approached Cardiff Metropolitan University’s

training and support team to collect more information about the training and support. Their

suggestion is to give training to students and staff online by creating a video or a presentation.

However over the phone/email support also should be always available for the end users. Training

and Support can be reasonably expensive and time consuming for both providers and end users.

Feedback Elaine Griffiths (Head of Timetabling Department)

Current Timetabling system (Overall View)

Schools Update Data

Student Record System

Filter Data

Application

Publish

Available to view

Form Elaine’s point of view, she’s been facing difficulties working on the whole timetabling system,

she strongly believes that the current system is causing many problems and needs to be changed in

the future. Student Record System data is not accurate enough and at the same time it contains

irrelevant data so every time Elaine has to filter the data and allow it into the website.

At the same time late module selection increases the workload for the timetabling department. As

the schools fail to submit the module selections before the deadline and constantly changing the

module selections delays the process.

Conclusion To conclude, the timetable has, and will continue to be a major building block for any organization. It

establishes order, influences the students’ academic term and beyond. Every university student’s

ultimate goal is to get good grades at the end of the academic year, time management plays a

crucial part working towards that. (http://www.fluent-time-management.com/why-is-time-

management-important.html )

The majority of students/staff strongly agree that a new personalized timetable will be very helpful

to achieve their targets (Good grades and Time management) throughout the academic year. Even

though the cost and time consumption matters from the institution’s point of view, it’s important to

provide high standard facilities to the students/staff.

Moreover, the generic timetable does not provide enough information and help to the end users.

According to the survey most participants do not appreciate the generic timetable. They all were

strongly demanding a new change in the timetabling system.

At the same time, I have noticed that all the departments (Timetabling Department, Schools,

Student Record System and the Administrator) which contribute towards timetabling system

function isolatedly. As they do not have a deep understanding about the whole system and the

process, they have been doing their job in daily basis without any improvements. If the SPT project

successfully moves to the final stage I believe that the staffs who have been working on the current

timetabling system need to be trained again. To produce a better timetabling system throughout

Cardiff Metropolitan University, all the departments related to the timetabling system need to

communicate and follow a new process.