IE 515 Case Study

Instructor/Course Assignment Case Study

The assignment of workers to tasks is a necessary management function in most organizations. In this case study students will formulate and solve mathematical models to assign tasks to workers based on requirements/competency/preference profiles. The department chair of the History department at Cardinal College wants to determine the teaching assignments for the upcoming academic year (Fall and Spring semesters). The department has 25 instructors and 20 different courses taught in 175 total sections (see Table 1). Each instructor has indicated their preference to teach each of the 20 courses (1=strongly do not want to teach this course; 2=prefer not to teach this course; 3=prefer to teach this course; 4=strongly want to teach this course) as shown in Table 2. In addition, the past instructor evaluation scores are used to determine which instructors received favorable teaching scores in each course. The students in each course rate the instructor on a 5-point scale (1=poor to 5=excellent). The average instructor evaluation scores have been categorized and are shown in Table 3 (1=average evaluation score less than 2.0; 2= average evaluation score between 2.00 and 2.99; 3= average evaluation score between 3.00 and 3.99; 4= average evaluation score between 4.00 and 5.00). Table 3 can be thought of as each courses preference for each of the instructors. Note each instructor has only taught a subset of the 20 courses, i.e. none of the instructors have experience teaching all 20 courses. A value of zero (0) in the Table 3 Course preference matrix indicates the instructor has not taught this class. Each instructor is assigned 7 course sections in the upcoming academic year with a maximum of 4 course sections in a semester. An excel file with the following data tables has been posted to Blackboard. Table 1. List of History course sections to be taught each semester of upcoming academic year Table 2. Instructor preference scores for each course Table 3. Course preference scores for each instructor

Table 1. List of History course sections to be taught each semester of upcoming academic year.
Course 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 #Fall sections 3 5 5 8 5 6 0 1 5 5 4 8 2 7 8 5 4 4 2 1 #S pring sections 1 4 5 8 3 6 1 2 6 8 6 8 2 5 6 4 5 4 0 3

Table 2. Instructor preference scores for each course.

Instructor 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 1 1 3 4 3 2 1 1 2 1 4 1 2 1 3 1 1 1 1 4 2 4 1 2 1 2 4 4 1 1 4 2 1 1 1 3 2 2 1 4 1 2 3 1 3 1 1 1 4 4 2 3 1 1 3 2 1 1 1 3 1 4 1 1 4 1 3 1 1 4 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 4 3 4 1 1 4 2 1 1 3 1 2 3 1 3 2 4 1 4 1 1 1 1 4 2 1 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 2 1 4 3 3 4 1 2 3 1 4 1 1 3 2 1 6 1 1 3 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 4 2 1 2 1 1 2 1 3 2 4 3 3 3 4 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 4 1 3 1 1 3 1 4 1 3 3 1 1 4 1 4 1 1 8 2 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 9 1 3 3 2 1 1 4 1 4 3 1 1 2 3 2 4 3 4 1 4 4 1 1 1 4 Course 10 4 1 1 1 1 4 4 2 1 1 1 3 3 3 1 1 2 3 1 1 1 1 3 3 4 11 1 1 4 1 1 4 1 4 3 3 2 1 3 1 4 4 2 1 3 4 4 3 2 2 4 12 4 1 1 1 1 1 4 2 3 1 2 4 1 4 1 1 2 3 3 2 3 1 1 4 2 13 2 2 1 4 1 2 1 1 1 2 2 3 2 1 4 3 3 1 3 1 1 1 4 1 3 14 1 4 1 4 4 1 1 1 3 1 3 1 4 4 3 1 1 3 1 4 3 2 2 1 1 15 1 3 1 1 1 2 1 4 2 1 1 1 3 1 4 2 3 4 1 1 4 1 4 4 2 16 1 1 3 3 1 1 2 3 1 1 1 4 1 1 3 1 2 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 3 17 1 2 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 2 2 3 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 4 1 1 1 3 3 18 4 4 4 1 1 1 1 3 2 4 1 1 4 4 4 2 4 3 1 2 4 4 4 4 4 19 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 4 1 1 1 20 2 1 3 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 3 1 3 4 1 4 4 1 1 4 1 1 1 4

Table 3. Course preference scores for each instructor.

Course 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 1 0 3 4 4 0 4 0 4 3 3 0 3 4 0 0 0 0 3 0 3 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 3 1 0 3 2 1 0 2 1 0 3 3 1 2 1 2 0 1 0 0 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 0 2 4 4 0 3 0 3 3 0 4 3 0 3 3 4 3 0 4 4 0 0 0 5 3 3 4 3 3 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 4 3 4 0 0 0 3 6 3 1 0 3 3 3 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 3 2 1 3 1 2 0 7 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 3 0 3 8 0 0 1 0 2 0 1 3 0 2 1 2 1 0 1 2 2 2 0 0 9 2 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 2 0 2 1 0 1 1 0 1 10 0 4 4 0 4 3 4 0 3 0 4 4 3 0 4 0 4 4 0 0 11 1 3 0 2 0 2 0 0 2 0 3 3 1 0 3 0 1 0 2 0 Instructor 12 13 0 2 3 0 3 1 3 0 3 2 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 3 0 3 1 0 2 0 2 2 0 3 0 0 1 0 1 2 0 14 0 4 0 4 3 4 0 3 3 4 0 3 0 3 0 3 4 3 0 4 15 1 0 2 1 2 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 2 0 2 0 2 16 3 2 0 3 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 0 2 0 3 0 0 3 3 0 17 0 2 0 0 4 3 4 0 3 4 1 1 2 0 4 3 2 2 0 1 18 0 0 0 3 3 0 3 0 4 4 0 3 0 4 3 0 4 4 0 4 19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 3 0 0 1 0 3 0 3 1 0 2 1 0 3 0 0 2 2 0 0 21 2 1 1 1 0 3 0 2 2 0 2 1 0 3 3 2 1 1 0 1 22 3 0 3 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 2 3 0 1 0 3 0 4 0 0 23 0 4 0 2 1 1 0 0 3 4 4 0 0 4 4 0 0 1 0 0 24 3 2 0 1 3 3 0 0 1 3 3 3 0 0 2 0 2 1 0 0 25 0 4 4 4 0 1 0 3 3 3 1 2 4 0 1 2 1 2 0 3

For each problem state your assumptions. Show your recommended solution and discuss any interesting/unusual occurrences. Discuss any practical limitations of your solution. Problem 1 Formulate and solve a mathematical model to assign course sections to instructors such that the total instructor preference score is maximized. Problem 2 Formulate and solve a mathematical model to assign course sections to instructors such that the total course preference score is maximized. Discuss differences between this assignment and your problem 1 assignment. Problem 3 Formulate and solve a mathematical model to assign course sections to instructors such that BOTH the instructor preference scores and course preference scores are considered. Discuss differences between this assignment and your problem 1 and problem 2 assignment. Problem 4 Using your basic formulation from problem 1 (i.e. maximizing the total instructor preference score), formulate and solve models which incorporate the following additional considerations for determining an assignment. Discuss differences between this assignment and your problem 1 assignment. Consider each of the following changes independently. no instructor can have any new course preparations (i.e. a course they have not taught before) in the upcoming academic year at least 80% of the instructors must have at least 1 new course preparation in the upcoming academic year no more than 40% of the instructors can teach more than 1 section of any course in the upcoming academic year