Modelling an Academic Curriculum Plan as a Mixed-Initiative Constraint Satisfaction Problem

Abstract

This paper describes a mixed-initiative constraint satisfaction system for planning the academic schedules of university students. Our model is distinguished from traditional planning systems by applying mixed-initiative constraint reasoning algorithms which provide flexibility in satisfying individual student preferences and needs. The graphical interface emphasizes visualization and direct manipulation capabilities to provide an efficient interactive environment for easy communication between the system and the end user. The planning process is split into two phases. The first phase builds an initial plan using a systematic search method based on a variant of dynamic backtracking. The second phase involves a semi-systematic local search algorithm which supports mixed-initiative user interaction and control of the search process. Generated curriculum schedules satisfy both academic program constraints and user constraints and preferences. Part of the challenge in curriculum scheduling is handling multiple possible schedules which are equivalent under symmetry. We show to overcome these symmetries in the search process. Experiments with actual course planning data show that our mixed-initiative systems generates effective curriculum plans efficiently.