FOR INFORMATION
?
S.94-11
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
Office of the Vice-President, Academic ?
MEMORANDUM
To: ?
Senate
From:
?
J.M. Munro, Chair, Senate Committee on Academic Planning
Subject: ?
Report - Final Exam Scheduler
Date:
?
January 27, 1994
The Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies was asked by Senate to review exam
scheduling. As a result of that process, SCUS recommended that the University move to a
system that makes the exam schedule available at the time students register for courses.
The plan to implement this new exam scheduler was received by SCAP for information on
January 26, 1994 and is attached for the information of Senate.
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY ?
MEMORANDUM
TO:
Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies
?
FROM:
Diane Whiteley (3211)
Director, Records & Registration
SUBJECT:
New Final Exam Scheduler -
?
DATE:
January 26, 1994
Plan for Implementation
In its meeting of June 29, 1993, SCUS approved the proposed Final Exam Scheduler as set forth
in SCUS 93-8. Since then, the Systems Section of the Registrar's Office in consultation with Dr.
Cameron has designed the production version of the new scheduler based on Dr. Cameron's
prototype. We plan to implement the new final exam scheduler for the Summer 1994 semester.
Implementation for Summer 1994 means that the schedule will be published in February 1994 in
the tabloid, "Course Timetable & Registration Instructions."
For the committee's information I shall briefly describe the salient features of the new scheduler,
noting some of the constraints associated with the implementation of the new scheduler.
1.
The most significant benefit of the new scheduler is that it allows publication of the final exam
schedule before registration begins. Thus, the new scheduler satisfies the university community's
desire to have a conflict-free final exam schedule published at the same time as the timetable each
semester. Publishing the schedule early will allow students and faculty greater flexibility in
planning their semesters.
2.
The new scheduler will produce a conflict-free final exam schedule for day courses and for
evening courses. The final exams for evening courses will be scheduled in the evening but not
necessarily on evening of the week that the course meets. Evening exams will continue to be
scheduled in the evening in recognition of the fact that many students enrolled in evening courses
are employed full-time during the day and would find it difficult to attend exams scheduled in the
day. Rather than scheduling the exams on the evening of the course - a manual process that would
create conflicts, the scheduler will be used to schedule conflict-free evening exams by scheduling
them freely throughout all evenings of the exam period.
3. Exams for distance education courses will be scheduled manually as they are currently.
Roughly speaking, the algorithm for the new scheduler produces a conflict-free exam schedule by
0
??
scheduling the exams for courses taught at the same time into the same exam timeslot. Distance
education courses are problematic for the new scheduler because there is no course time on which
to base assignment of an exam timeslot. Thus, exam times for distance education courses will be
arbitrarily assigned in the evenings in the first seven days of the exam period. Manual scheduling
of these exams has the same disadvantage as the current system. That is, students enrolled in a
combination of regular day or evening courses and distance education courses may not have
conflict-free exam schedules. However, since the new scheduler allows for publication of the
exam schedule before registration begins, students in distance education courses will be able to
avoid conflicts by adjusting their class schedules. Note that it is the student's responsibility to
check the exam schedule in order to avoid exam conflicts. Nevertheless, when students cannot
avoid conflicts, the Distance Education Office has agreed to assume responsibility for resolving
exam conflicts that arise because the exam for a distance education course conflicts with one of a
student's other final exams.
4.
When required, the new scheduler will have the capability of scheduling one exam for multiple
sections of a course. In order to handle this problem the scheduler will choose one of the sections
as the
primary
section. The exam timeslot will be chosen on the basis of the course time for that
primary section. Thus, because the exam time for other sections of the course will be based on the
course time for the primary section, students who enroll in the other sections cannot assume that
their exam schedules will be conflict-free. In any case, it is the student's responsibility to check
the exam schedule in order to avoid exam conflicts.
5.
Since exams are scheduled before registration for the semester begins based on the time of the
course, special requests for exam times cannot be accommodated.
6.
Once the schedule has been published, an exam may be canceled by an instructor. If a change in
the time of an exam is required, the instructor of the course must obtain the permission of the Chair
of the department and the agreement of all the students enrolled in the course. Since there is no
guarantee that the Schedules Section will be able to book a room at the preferred time proposed, it
is strongly recommended that the instructor consult with the Schedules Section on possible times
for the exam before securing the documentation necessary for the change. Documentation of the
students' agreement to the change will consist of a current classlist with the proposed time for the
exam clearly written at the top of each page of the classlist. All students enrolled in the course
must sign that classlist.
2
7.
As I noted above, roughly speaking, the algorithm for the new scheduler groups courses taught
at the same time and assigns them the same exam timeslot. In all the tests on actual data the
scheduler has successfully produced a conflict-free exam schedule in 10 days (40 timeslots) which
is the length of the normal exam period. However, since there are
45
possible unique timeslots in
which day courses may be taught and only 30 unique exam timeslots for day exams, it is possible
that the scheduler could
"
run out
"
of exam timeslots and be unable to produce a conflict-free exam
schedule. If that scenario occurs, there are several solutions that could be considered.
8.
The algorithm for the new scheduler does not produce a balanced schedule, that is, one in which
approximately the same number of students write exams on each day of the exam period.
Although the Systems Section will modify the algorithm to do some balancing, the new scheduler
will not fully balance the schedule in the way that the existing scheduler does. Consequently, there
may be a great number of students writing exams on some days of the exam period. As a result,
there may be a problem in assigning rooms for the numbers of students writing. Some possible
solutions are to dispense with alternate seating on those days when seating is a problem, to seat
two exams in the same room at the same time using alternate seating or to set up the gym as a
location for writing exams.
9.
The scheduler produces an exam schedule that is as conflict-free as possible given the
constraints imposed by the need to schedule joint exams for multiple sections and exams for
distance education courses. Since the exam schedule is for the most part conflict-free, in the
immediate future no exam conflict-checking will be done when students register in courses. Thus,
it will be important to emphasize that it is the student's responsibility to check the exam schedule in
order to avoid exam conflicts. The telephone registration system will be modified as soon as
practicable to include exam conflict-checking and the reporting of a student's exam schedule on
inquiry.
C J. Hall, Assistant Director, Schedules
F. Larsen, Director, Systems
A. Tanchak, Manager, Systems
I
S
3
