A Decision Support System Application for Student-Project Team Formation Problem

Öz

Student-project allocation is a multi-criteria complex problem that requires the consideration of the preferences of students and academic advisers and grouping team members with different qualifications according to some project specifications. It is thus necessary to use information technologies in the process of forming project teams. In this study, a decision support system application running on a personal computer is developed for forming student-project teams. An integrated office software environment is thus presented where the users can organize problem data, perform allocations and report results. It is a two-phase allocation process in which the allocations of students and academic advisers are performed, respectively, using an integer programming-based approach. There are two integer programming models to allocate students and advisers to project teams using the corresponding criteria, respectively. The proposed application is illustrated using a real-life student-project allocation problem in an academic institution. The results are compared with the ones presented in the literature with respect to some performance parameters.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Student-project team formation,Integer programming,Mathematical programming,Decision support systems

Öğrenci-Proje Takımı Oluşturma Problemi için Bir Karar Destek Sistemi Uygulaması

Öz

Öğrenci-proje takımı oluşturma, öğrencilerin ve onlara danışmanlık yapacak öğretim üyelerinin tercihleri dikkate alınarak farklı niteliklere sahip takım üyelerinin birtakım proje kriterlerini sağlayacak şekilde bir araya getirilmelerini amaçlayan çok kriterli ve karmaşık bir problemdir. Bu nedenle, proje takımlarının oluşturulması sürecinde bilişim teknolojilerinin kullanımına ihtiyaç duyulmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, öğrenci-proje takımı oluşturma problemi için kişisel bir bilgisayarda çalışan bir karar destek sistemi uygulaması geliştirilmiştir. Böylelikle, temel ofis programları ortamında; problem veri setinin düzenlenebildiği, öğrenci-proje takımı oluşturma sürecinin gerçekleştirilebildiği ve elde edilen sonuca ilişkin raporların görüntülenebildiği bütünleşik bir yapı sunulmuştur. Öğrenci-proje takımı oluşturma süreci iki aşamadan oluşan ve birinci aşamasında öğrenci, ikinci aşamasında danışman atamalarının yapıldığı tamsayılı programlama bazlı bir yaklaşım kullanılarak gerçekleştirilmektedir. Burada iki tamsayılı programlama modeliyle öğrenci ve danışman öğretim üyeleri ilgili kriterlere göre proje takımlarına atanmaktadırlar. Önerilen yaklaşım, akademik bir kurumda gerçek bir öğrenci-proje takımı oluşturma problemine uygulanmıştır. Elde edilen sonuçlar, literatürde yer alan atama sonuçları ile çeşitli performans parametreleri açısından karşılaştırılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Öğrenci-proje takımı oluşturma,Tamsayılı programlama,Matematiksel programlama,Karar destek sistemleri

Kaynakça

1. Abraham, D. J., Irwing, R. W. and Manlove, D. F. (2007) Two algorithms for the student-project allocation problem, Journal of Discrete Algorithms, 5(1), 73-90. doi: 10.1016/j.jda.2006.03.006.
2. Alberola, J. M., Del Val, E., Sanchez-Anguix, V., Palomares, A. and Teruel, M. D. (2016) An artificial intelligence tool for heterogeneous team formation in the classroom, Knowledge-Based Systems, 101, 1-14. doi: 10.1016/j.knosys.2016.02.010.
3. Anwar, A. A. and Bahaj, A. S. (2003) Student Project allocation using integer programming, IEEE Transactions on Education, 46(3), 359-367. doi: 10.1109/TE.2003.811038.
4. Bacon, D.R., Stewart, K.A. and Anderson, E.S. (2001) Methods of assigning players to teams: A review and novel approach, Simulation & Gaming, 32(1), 6-17. doi: 10.1177/104687810103200102.
5. Baglarbasi-Mutlu, M., Sebatli, A. and Cavdur, F. (2018) Group Decision Making for Criteria Importance Determination in Student Project Team Formation Problems, 12th International Conference on New Challenges in Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, Ankara, 141.
6. Bahargam, S., Erdos, D., Bestavros, A. and Terzi, E. (2015) Personalized Education; Solving a Group Formation and Scheduling Problem for Educational Content, International Conference on Educational Data Mining, National University for Distance Education, Madrid, 488-491.
7. Blowers, P. (2003) Using student skill self-assessments to get balanced groups for group projects, College Teaching, 51(3), 106-110. doi: 10.1080/87567550309596422.
8. Borges, J., Dias, T. G. and Cunha, J. F. E. (2009) A new group-formation method for student projects, European Journal of Engineering Education, 34(6), 573-585. doi: 10.1080/03043790903202967.

9. Borrego, M., Karlin, J., McNair, L. D. and Beddoes, K. (2013) Team effectiveness theory from industrial and organizational psychology applied to engineering student project teams: A research review, Journal of Engineering Education, 102(4), 472-512. doi: 10.1002/jee.20023.
10. Cavanaugh, R., Ellis, M., Layton, R. and Ardis, M. (2004) Automating the process of assigning students to cooperative-learning teams, American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition, 9, 1-14.
11. Cavdur, F., Sebatli, A., Kose-Kucuk, M. and Rodoplu, C. (2018) A two-phase binary-goal programming-based approach for optimal project-team formation, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 1-18. doi: 10.1080/01605682.2018.1457480.
12. Cavdur, F., Sebatli, A. and Kose-Kucuk, M. (2019) A group-decision making and goal programming-based solution approach for the student-project team formation problem, Journal of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture of Gazi University, 34(1), 505-521. doi: 10.17341/gazimmfd.416511.
13. Cutshall, R., Gavirneni, S. and Schultz, K. (2007) Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business uses integer programming to form equitable, cohesive student teams, Interfaces, 37(3), 265-276. doi: 10.1287/inte.1060.0248.
14. Delson, N. J. (2001) Increasing team motivation in engineering design courses, International Journal of Engineering Education, 17(4/5), 359-366.
15. Dye, J. (2001). A constraint logic programming approach to the stable marriage problem and its application to student-project allocation, Bsc Honours project report, University of York Department of Computer Science, York.
16. Fitzpatrick E., Askin R. and Goldberg J. (2001) Using student conative behaviors and technical skills to form effective project teams, 31st Annual Frontiers in Education Conference, Reno, NV, 3, S2G, 8-13. doi: 10.1109/FIE.2001.964039.
17. Iwama, K., Miyazaki, S. and Yanagisawa, H. (2012) Improved approximation bounds for the student-project allocation problem with preferences over projects, Journal of Discrete Algorithms, 13, 59-66. doi: 10.1016/j.jda.2012.02.001.
18. Manlove, D. F. and O’Malley, G. (2008) Student-project allocation with preferences over projects, Journal of Discrete Algorithms, 6(4), 553–560. doi: 10.1016/j.jda.2008.07.003.
19. Oakley B., Felder R. M., Brent R. and Elhajj I. (2004) Turning student groups into effective teams, Journal of student centered learning, 2(1), 9-34.
20. Power, D.J. and Sharda, R. (2009) Decision Support Systems, Springer Handbook of Automation, Nof, S. Y. (Ed.) Springer Science & Business Media, Berlin, Heidelberg, 1539-1548. doi: 10.1007/978-3-540-78831-7.
21. Proll, L.G. (1972) A simple method of assigning projects to students, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 23(2), 195-201. doi: 10.1057/jors.1972.29.
22. Sahin, Y. G. (2011). A team building model for software engineering courses term projects, Computers & Education, 56(3), 916-922. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2010.11.006.
23. Saraç, T. ve Özçelik, F. (2013) Ders proje gruplarının oluşturulması için bir matematiksel model, Journal of Industrial Engineering (Turkish Chamber of Mechanical Engineers), 24(1-2), 2-11.
24. Sprague Jr, R.H. and Carlson, E.D. (1982) Building effective decision support systems, Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference. doi: 10.1016/0167-8051(82)90033-X.
25. Wesner J.W., Amon C.H., Bigrigg M.W., Subrahmanian E., Westerberg A.W. and Filipski K. (2007) Student team formation and assignment in a multi-disciplinary engineering design projects course: a pair of suggested best practices, International Journal of Engineering Education, 23(3), 517-526.
26. Yannibelli, V. and Amandi, A. (2012) A deterministic crowding evolutionary algorithm to form learning teams in a collaborative learning context, Expert systems with applications, 39(10), 8584-8592. doi: 10.1016/j.eswa.2012.01.195.