Create A Graphical User Interface (GUI) Timetable Generating System

Time-Tables have versatile application and most they are very important for any university administration. Time-Table informs the students and teachers when and where to be, the availability of the rooms and the availability of the teachers. But, the traditional time-tables which is manually is a very tedious task and is almost always inconvenient. This study aims at generation of course schedules automatically in a manner which ensures that they are optimal and thorough with little or no redundancy. It involves taking basic constraints and the structure of a time-table and incorporating them into the computer using graphical user interface (GUI). This system would serve as an ideal platform for making it easy by providing the administrator with an interactive interface for the time-table generation for all courses and departments.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                          INTRODUCTION

1.1                            BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Timetabling concerns all activities with regard to producing a schedule that must be subjective to different constraints. Timetable can be defined as the optimization of given activities, actions or events to a set of objects in space-time matrix to satisfy a set of desirable constraints. A college timetable is a temporal arrangement of a set of lectures and classrooms in which all given constraints are satisfied. Creating such timetables manually is complex and time-consuming process according to S. Abdullah (2007).

The existing system drafts a time-table by taking into consideration that each lecture contained one class of students, one professor, and a certain number of time slots which could be chosen freely. Initially it was mostly applied to schools. The problem in schools being relatively simple because of their less complex class structures, classical methods, such as linear programming approaches could be used conveniently. However, bearing in mind the cases of higher secondary schools and universities, which contain complex class-structures, increases the complexity of the problem. The existing system generates a lot of paperwork and is not flexible as changes can be difficult to make (Elvis Ye, 2007).

By automating this process with computer assisted timetable generator can save a lot of precious time of administrators who are involved in creating and managing course timetables. Since every college has its own timetabling problem, the commercially available software packages may not suit the need of every college. Hence we have developed practical approach for building a timetabling system, which can be customized to fit to any colleges timetabling problem.

This computer method of timetabling is thus found derisory to handle the problem, predominantly because of the vast number of variables and multiple functions (Elvis Ye, 2007).

The study aims at building a computerized timetabling system using graphical user interface (GUI) which would prove to be instrumental in reducing the high cost and slow turnaround involved in generation of near-optimal time-table.

1.2                                    PROJECT STATEMENT

In educational sector, timetable development process starts when each Head of Department provide the following information to be used for timetable scheduling. The information provides the modules with dates, time and venues suitable in a particular semester. Back in the days when technology was not in wide use, lecture timetables were manually created by the academic institution. Every school year, tertiary institutions are faced with the tedious task of drawing up academic timetables that satisfies the various courses and the respective examination being offered by the different departments.

There are still serious problems like generation of high cost time tables are occurring while scheduling and these problems are repeating frequently. Most educational institutions have resorted to manual generation of their timetables which according to statistics takes much time to get completed and optimal. Even at the optimal stage of the manually generated timetable, there are still a few clashes and it is the lecturer that takes a clashing course that works out the logistics of the course so as to avoid the clash. Therefore there is a great requirement for an application distributing the course evenly and without collisions.

This study is on a computerized method of timetabling using graphical user interface which was introduced to replace the manual method of timetabling.

1.3                      AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main aim of this work is to building a computerized timetabling system which is simple, easily understandable, efficient and portable application, which could automatically generate good quality timetables within seconds using graphical user interface (GUI). The objectives are:

1. 1. To build a Java based software used to generate timetable automatically using a graphical user interface.

1. 1. To propose system will help to generate time table automatically also helps save the

• • To make faculty not to worry about their

1. 1. To build a comprehensive timetable management solution for Colleges which help to overcome the challenges in current

1.4                                  PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this work is to have an error-free, fast, clash-free and complete computerized timetabling system.

• • APPLICATION OF THE STUDY

Time tables are used in different places such as: Sports Timetabling, Employee Timetabling and academic timetabling (Various academic timetabling includes: School timetable, Lecture timetable, Examination timetable and assignment timetable).

1.6                                                     SCOPE OF PROJECT

Creating a graphical user interface time table system is used for each class and teacher, in keeping with the availability calendar of teachers, availability and capacity of physical resources (such as classrooms, laboratories and computer room) and rules applicable at different classes, semesters, teachers and subjects level. Best of all, this Timetable Generation System tremendously improves resource utilization and optimization.

1.7                                         SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study is of numerous  important   to schools and any other places where timetable is used in different ways:

• • It will help in directing the students in their best time for all their activities

• • It will also help to eliminate late coming and wrong venue direction

• • It will ease of the stress of the designing time table manually.

• • Using a computerized system in this situation would be very efficient especially in information storage.
    • • CONSTRAINTS / LIMITATIONS

     

     

The major constraints identified in the course of this work are as follows:

• • There are many schools that have no technological facilities in the school. Implementation of this system in such a situation becomes a problem.

• • There may also be staffs in the school that do not have knowledge on proper usage of computer. If this system is installed it would be cumbersome for him/her to operate the computerized system.

Recommended solution to these problems is that there should be a room for proper training of personnel who cannot operate computers properly. Also, government should help provide technological facilities in those schools in the rural areas that have little or no level of technology.

1.8                                                  DEFINITION OF TERMS

TIMETABLE: This can be defined as the optimization of given activities, actions or events to a set of objects in space-time matrix to satisfy a set of desirable constraints.

AUTOMATED: Less independent of human direction and utilizes techniques of automation.

SYSTEM: A combination of parts organized in a whole working together to achieve a common purpose.

DATA: This is a raw and unprocessed facts and figures obtained from experiments, research, surveys etc. used to develop something or make decision. RECORD: To write down event so that it can be remembered.

COMPUTER: This is an electronic device that accepts raw facts as data and processes it to give useful information.

INFORMATION: Data that has been processed.