Metaheuristic with Cooperative Processes for the University Course Timetabling Problem

This work presents a metaheuristic with distributed processing that finds solutions for an optimization model of the university course timetabling problem, where collective communication and point-to-point communication are applied, which are used to generate cooperation between processes. The metaheuristic performs the optimization process with simulated annealing within each solution that each process works. The highlight of this work is presented in the algorithmic design for optimizing the problem by applying cooperative processes. In each iteration of the proposed heuristics, collective communication allows the master process to identify the process with the best solution and point-to-point communication allows the best solution to be sent to the master process so that it can be distributed to all the processes in progress in order to direct the search toward a space of solutions which is close to the best solution found at the time. This search is performed by applying simulated annealing. On the other hand, the mathematical representation of an optimization model present in the literature of the university course timing problem is performed. The results obtained in this work show that the proposed metaheuristics improves the results of other metaheuristics for all test instances. Statistical analysis shows that the proposed metaheuristic presents a different behavior from the other metaheuristics with which it is compared.

University Education in Digital Humanities for Information Professionals

Purpose/Thesis: The article presents the concept of university course in digital humanities for future information professionals. Approach/Methods: The concept of university course in digital humanities draws on the author’s deep knowledge of digital humanities as well as the particular models of research project lifecycle. The concept consists of three elements: the description of educational aims, the graduate’s profile, and the learning outcomes. Results and conclusions: The author proposes that university course in digital humanities should be provided as a part of specialization within a Master program for information professionals. Classes will give students a basic knowledge of a given discipline in the humanities and the theoretical aspects of digital humanities, as well as its structure and history. Students will also learn about information and knowledge organization, digital sources used in humanities, information systems, digital collections, research data management, and scholarly editions. Graduates would be equipped to work at research institutions running digital humanities projects or providing research infrastructure for digital humanists, e.g. academic libraries, museums, archives, digital humanities centers and laboratories. Practical implications: The concept may be used to prepare a detailed program of specialization by faculties offering information science programs. Although the concept has been developed in the context of Polish higher education, it can be modified and adapted successfully in other countries, especially in the EU countries which, like Poland, need to meet the European Qualifications Framework. Originality/Value: Formal university course in digital humanities for information professionals is not very common. The concept of a specialization within a Master program proposed in this article fills this gap so that a new generation of librarians and other information professionals will become more proficient intermediaries between humanists and information.

Learning From Our Ancestors

This chapter reflects on the challenges of criterion-referenced final examinations in higher education within the context of Micronesian cultural realities and suggests alternative approaches that may contribute more constructively to student success. The first explores the transformative role that mentor relationships can have on both student engagement and purposeful and meaningful faculty-student interaction. The second appreciates the powerful contribution that connectivity plays as professors work to create a community of scholars within their university courses. And finally, the authors highlight the value of publishing as a pedagogic tool within a university course that elevates the process of research and writing making the work all the more important and meaningful to students. All three approaches are particularly meaningful due to the cultural relevance of each to Micronesian people.

Social Annotation for Power Negotiation

Social annotation and role-play are two pedagogical approaches that promote active, student-centred learning. In this paper, we report on how the two approaches were combined in a senior-level university course that aimed to reveal the multiple dimensions and complexity of policy development and decision-making for natural resource management. We begin with a review and analysis of social annotation and role-play as teaching strategies. We then describe their combined implementation in the senior-level course—including reflections from the course instructor and a student in the class—while situating our reflections within the context of an existing framework for critical social annotation. We conclude that when implemented together, and with careful preparation and clear expectations of student conduct, the complementary strengths of social annotation and role play offer unique opportunities to subvert hegemonic models of knowledge production and exchange. The addition of students’ role-played annotations enabled us to redefine whose knowledge and experience are worthy of consideration by giving voice to students as authorities alongside authors of texts and by filling in gaps in the perspectives presented in texts.

Developing a Model for the University Course Timetabling Problem: A Case Study

Over recent years, timetable programming in academic settings has become particularly challenging due to such factors as the growing number of students, the variety of lectures, the inadequacy of educational facilities in some areas, and the incorporation of teachers and students’ preferences into the schedule. Many researchers, therefore, have been formulating the problem of timetabling lectures using different methods. In this research, a multiobjective mixed-integer programming model was developed to provide a timetable for the postgraduate courses at the Industrial Engineering Department of Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch (IAUN). The proposed model minimized the violation of the lecturers and educational priorities, the student travel time between classes, and the classes’ surplus capacity. To convert the multiobjective model into a single one, the ε-constraint method was adopted, and the model’s accuracy and feasibility were examined through a real example solved by the CPLEX solver of GAMS software. The results approved the efficiency of this model in preparing a timetable for university lectures.

What Should Students Pay for University Course Readings?: An Empirical, Economic, and Legal Analysis

The digital transformation of knowledge dissemination and academic publishing have sparked copyright disputes in the educational sector related to the scope of fair dealing. This study contributes (a) an empirical basis for such discussions by analyzing 3,391 course syllabuses (2015–2020) from 34 Canadian universities, and (b) a potential resolution to the disputes to which this analysis is applied. Among the reading types, 26.6% of the syllabuses had readings from academic sources, while 8.3% of the syllabuses had media articles and trade book chapters (with some overlap). The syllabus data are used to calculate a per-page royalty charge, which is used to demonstrate a proposed three-step syllabus rule to avoid double-chargingstudents for academic materials (amounting to 90.1% of readings by pages), while fairly compensating professional authors and their publishers (9.9% of readings by pages). The three-step syllabus rule provides a sound rationale for charging each student $1.40 per year to cover royalty charges for readings assigned in Canadian university courses.

Akadémiai etika és integritás – gondolatok egy új egyetemi tantárgy margójára

Academic Ethics and Integrity – Thoughts on a New University Course. The study discusses the origin and the necessity for the subject Academic Ethics and Integrity by presenting the highlights of professional discourses of the Hungarian and Romanian language area. The cited literature shows that in the last decades’ research ethics and integrity have been breached in many ways. The crisis management strategy involves the enactment of a law that introduces Academic Ethics and Integrity as a compulsory university subject. The present study delineates the topics related to the subject (e.g. questions regarding the integrity of researcher/teacher and publishing activity; legal documents, presentation of the organizations), but the most important scope was to adjust the topics of the subject to the particular situation of the faculties of theology. Thus, the new compulsory subject offers freedom to raise awareness about the meaning of theology and its role in society and academic setting. Lastly, it is argued that the subject gives excellent space for debating and construing questions of intellectuality in the 21st century. Keywords: academic ethics, integrity, intellectuality, research ethics in theology, ALLEA code

Effective Solution of University Course Timetabling using Particle Swarm Optimizer based Hyper Heuristic approach

The university course timetable problem (UCTP) is typically a combinatorial optimization problem. Manually achieving a useful timetable requires many days of effort, and the results are still unsatisfactory. unsatisfactory. Various states of art methods (heuristic, meta-heuristic) are used to satisfactorily solve UCTP. However, these approaches typically represent the instance-specific solutions. The hyper-heuristic framework adequately addresses this complex problem. This research proposed Particle Swarm Optimizer-based Hyper Heuristic (HH PSO) to solve UCTP efficiently. PSO is used as a higher-level method that selects low-level heuristics (LLH) sequence which further generates an optimal solution. The proposed approach generates solutions into two phases (initial and improvement). A new LLH named “least possible rooms left” has been developed and proposed to schedule events. Both datasets of international timetabling competition (ITC) i.e., ITC 2002 and ITC 2007 are used to evaluate the proposed method. Experimental results indicate that the proposed low-level heuristic helps to schedule events at the initial stage. When compared with other LLH’s, the proposed LLH schedule more events for 14 and 15 data instances out of 24 and 20 data instances of ITC 2002 and ITC 2007, respectively. The experimental study shows that HH PSO gets a lower soft constraint violation rate on seven and six data instances of ITC 2007 and ITC 2002, respectively. This research has concluded the proposed LLH can get a feasible solution if prioritized.

No syllabus, no problem

The intimate relation people have with food provides unique opportunities for teaching. In this field report, I will describe and reflect upon the method of student-centred learning I use in a first-year university course entitled Food, Agriculture & Society. The aim of the course is to provide students with a broad understanding of how food and agriculture have shaped society and can contribute to a more sustainable future. Consistent with food pedagogy, a premise of the course design is that the intimate relation students have with the food they eat reflects their personal values and responsibility for their choices. An innovative element of my approach is that I co-create the syllabus. The course starts by writing the word “Food” on the blackboard. I then facilitate a multi-step process with students to co-create the syllabus. For most of the course, students lead the preparation and delivery of lectures on their selected topics. In this report, after describing the course design, I reflect upon my approach in relation to the tenets of food pedagogy, as well as discuss student feedback and my experience of teaching the course.