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Distribution of Students' Assistance Among SUCs Using Analytic Network

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DOI: 10.12691/jitl-3-1-4

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Journal of Innovations in Teaching and Learning, 2023, Vol. 3, No. 1, 19-22
Available online at http://pubs.sciepub.com/jitl/3/1/4
Published by Science and Education Publishing
DOI:10.12691/jitl-3-1-4

Optimizing Allocation and Distribution of

Students’ Assistance Among SUCs
Using Analytic Network Process (ANP)
Queeny Eliza D. Saludares*, Rhoda A. Namoco

University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines, Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines
*Corresponding author:

Received March 22, 2023; Revised April 25, 2023; Accepted May 07, 2023
Abstract This study proposed an ANP model as a decision-making tool to aid in allocating and distributing the
students’ assistance among the respective colleges and the SHS department of the university. The criteria considered
were (1) the total population of students for each college/department, (2) the availability of technology for online
classes such as analog phones, smartphones, tablets, laptops, or desktop computers; and (3) the availability of
internet connections such as broadband, direct subscription line (DSL), mobile data, piso-wifi/net or no internet
connections. Consequently, priority proportions for each college/ department that would be a basis for allocating
student assistance were obtained. Super Decisions software was utilized to generate the result of the ANP model.
Lastly, to evaluate the robustness of the results, a sensitivity analysis was conducted.
Keywords: analytic network process, optimization, allocation, student assistance
Cite This Article: Queeny Eliza D. Saludares, and Rhoda A. Namoco, “Optimizing Allocation and
Distribution of Students’ Assistance Among SUCs Using Analytic Network Process (ANP).” Journal of
Innovations in Teaching and Learning, vol. 3, no. 1 (2023): 19-22. doi: 10.12691/jitl-3-1-4.

learning through its Flexible Learning Program (FLP). To

1. Introduction
A good education is one of the most important things an
individual can pursue. In the Philippines, the government
actively seeks to expand access and participation in higher
education by ratifying Republic Act 10931 or the
"Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act."
This law has built-in mechanisms encouraging increased
participation in the program from all socioeconomic
classes, especially the poor [1]. Even with free tuition and
miscellaneous expenses, it would still require a significant
amount of money to take an education, and is strongly felt
by low-income families [2]. To address this problem,
government and private organizations assist students in
different forms, such as scholarships, grants, financial aid,
and loan programs. Different types of student assistance
use varying indicators and priorities and the COVID-19
outbreak of 2020 caused significant disruption to the
world. Schools worldwide shifted to online learning to
continue education during the pandemic. Though the
intention is good, like in other countries, the
implementation of online learning poses some challenges
and one of the most apparent issues is access to
technology which puts the marginalized at a disadvantage
[3].
One of the Higher Education Institutions in the
Philippines is the University of Science and Technology
of Southern Philippines (USTP) has implemented online
ensure students stay caught up while implementing the
Flexible Learning Program, the University developed
student assistance in communication/load allowance and
tablets for qualified students. The program aims to
prioritize students with no gadgets and no internet access
due to limited resources at home. However, it is
challenging for the administrator to allocate the resources
to different colleges and the SHS department of the
university due to the limited resources and varying needs
of the colleges/department. The decision-making process
for granting student assistance can be inaccurate and
inefficient since it involves a lot of factors to consider,
which can lead to undeserving students receiving
assistance or denying assistance to deserving students. The
problem that often occurs in decision-making is due to
inaccuracies and ignorance of decision-makers [4].
Multi-Criteria Decision-Making problems are common
in higher education, such as resource allocation,
performance evaluation, budgeting, scheduling, and
student selection. MCDM has attracted increasing
attention over the past 20 years from both a conceptual
and a practical perspective. There has been significant
growth in the number of published applications that use a
formal approach to problem structuring combined with an
analytic method for multicriteria analysis [5]. The
analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and analytic network
process (ANP) are some of the multi-criteria decision-
making methods widely used to solve various issues in the
real world due to the consideration of complex and
20 Journal of Innovations in Teaching and Learning

interrelated relationships between decision elements and technical team of the implementation of the online
the ability to apply quantitative and qualitative attributes platform.
simultaneously [6]. For instance, in the study of Lusdoc
and Namoco [7] where they proposed a method using 2.1. Identification of the Criteria and
AHP to provide assistance to incoming first-year high
school students in deciding what special program in arts
Alternatives
major to take. The results of the study show that most of The allocation of student assistance will be distributed
the students shift to another specialisation due to the late to the six colleges and the senior high school of the
realisation of their field of interest. Hence, the proposed university which are the alternatives of the ANP model.
method may be used to provide assistance to incoming The main criteria in the allocation of student assistance
first-year high school students in deciding what SPA were determined based on the consolidated survey data
major to take to avoid shifting majors after their first year conducted by the university as agreed upon by three
in high school. selected decision-makers. The survey results are shown in
While AHP and ANP have been combined with other Table 1. The first criteria are the population of students in
methods in solving multicriteria problems, there are still each college/department. Second is the technology
some studies that utilize ANP method alone. In the study available to students for online learning such as analog
of Gashaw and Jilcha [8], they developed a risk phones, smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktop computers,
assessment model to prioritise the risks of railway or no gadgets at all. Lastly, internet access available to
construction projects. A fuzzy analytic network process students for online learning such as broadband, DSL,
(FANP) is employed to rank project risks based on the mobile data, pisonet/pisowifi, or no internet access.
likelihood of project risks and their impact on cost and
time. The study results help practitioners and decision- Table 1. Survey Results
makers understand the main risks of the Ethiopian railway College/Department
construction projects and take proactive actions CEA CITC CSTE CSM COT SHS
Criteria
accordingly. In the study of Zarei, et. al [9], they Population
developed an Analytic Network Process (ANP) model to Number of Students 3152 1819 993 929 1704 223
assist policymakers in identifying and prioritizing Technology
allocation indicators, which are being used or should be Analog phones 25 32 23 42 8 10
used to distribute drugs in short supply among different Smartphones 934 1460 632 317 335 167
provinces. The model encompasses the interactions Tablets/iPad 49 53 22 16 6 17
between various indicators and efficiency, equity, and Laptops 331 348 54 114 25 24
effectiveness paradigms. Accordingly, a set of clusters and Desktop computer 127 125 11 21 22 17
elements, which were associated with the allocation of No Gadgets 22 45 23 10 5 5
drugs in short supply in Iran’s pharmaceutical system, Internet Connection
were detected to develop the model and were then Broadband 230 354 77 73 41 100
compared in pairs in terms of a specified factor to show
the priorities. In another study of Marttunen, et. al [5], DSL 227 330 75 120 44 40
they applied ANP to analyze the decision factors of relief Mobile data 714 1330 448 203 290 75
allocation. The ANP is used to resolve priority weights of No Internet 64 269 149 68 20 8
factors and order of importance. The result was applied to Others (pisowifi/pisonet) 80 128 16 56 6 17
Taipei City Street Trees and Park Facilities Mobile Patrol
System – Disaster Reporting and Decision Support 2.2. Structuring the Problem
Subsystem” to produce recommendations for allocation
ratio of relief resources by district and road which provide In this study, the ANP model was constructed using the
decision support for disaster relief commander and unit SuperDecisions software. The five colleges and the senior
heads. Lastly, the study of Tripathi and Vidyathi [10] high school department constituted the alternatives; the
employed ANP proposed a task allocation model using population of students for each college, the type of
ANP for cloud resources where the resources were technology and the internet connection available to
allocated to the task in efficient and justified proportions. students formed the criteria.
This study seeks to determine the criteria and priority
weights that influence the allocations of the student and
eventually generate the priority proportion allocation of
student assistance for each college and the SHS
department of USTP.

2. Methodology
The problem of allocating student assistance among
colleges/departments of the university involves a group of
decision-makers composed of focal persons from the
administration, the deans/heads of the colleges, and the Figure 1. Cluster and Elements in Super Decisions(R)
 Journal of Innovations in Teaching and Learning 21

2.3. Pairwise Comparison of the Criteria The priority function in the Super Decisions can also
generate weights of assessment criteria as shown in
The pairwise comparison questionnaire was formulated Figure 2.
on the basis of Saaty’s scale (1-9) as shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Fundamental scale of absolute numbers
Intensity of
Definition Explanation
Importance
Equal Two activities contribute equally to
1
importance the objectives
2 Weak or slight
Moderate Experience and judgment slightly
3
importance favor one activity over another
4 Moderate plus
Strong Experience and judgment strongly
5
importance favor one activity over another.
6 Strong plus
Very strong
An activity is favored very strongly
or
7 over another; its dominance is
demonstrated
demonstrated in practice.
importance
8 Very very strong
The evidence favoring one activity
Extreme
9 over another is of the highest
importance
possible order of affirmation.
If activity i has one of the above nonzero numbers
Reciprocals of
assigned to it when compared with activity j, then j
above
has the reciprocal value when compared with i
Measurements When it is desired to use such numbers in physical
from ratio to applications; alternatively, often one estimates the
scales rations of such magnitudes by using judgement. Figure 2. Summary of Priorities in Super Decisions

Table 3 shows that DM has given technology the

The set of responses provided by each decision-maker highest priority (0.47423), closely followed by the
was fed into the ANP model. The consistency property of population (0.37640) and lastly, internet connection
the comparison matrix should be less than 0.1 and the (0.14937). Among the subcriteria of Technology, no
comparisons are acceptable, otherwise, the comparisons gadgets have the highest priority (0.42158) followed by
need to be revised. The decision-makers' individual analog phones (0.37536) as shown in Figure 2.
priorities were aggregated using geometric means to This implies that the students’ situation with regard to
determine their collective opinion on allocating student the availability of gadgets were given more importance,
assistance. especially among those with no gadgets or those using
The group comparisons were synthesized to generate analog phones only.
the collective priority scores for allocating student
assistance to the respective colleges/department. After all Table 4. Synthesized Result of Allocations of Student Assistance
the comparisons were done, sensitivity analysis was Name Normals
conducted on the collective opinion to investigate the most CEA 0.264847
sensitive parameters in the consensus model. By testing CITC 0.301719
the model's output under various scenarios and CSTE 0.147544
assumptions, we have identified the critical inputs and CSM 0.13983
understand how changes in these variables impact the COT 0.104036
overall results. SHS 0.042023

Consequently, Table 4 shows the synthesized result of

3. Results and Discussions the allocation proportions of student assistance to the
respective colleges/department where CITC has the
The problem in the allocation of student assistance was highest priority allocation (30.17%), followed by CEA
constructed in the Super Decision software using the ANP (26.48%), CSTE (14.75%), CSM (13.98%), COT
method where aggregated pairwise comparisons of the (10.40%), and SHS (4.20%).
three experts were used as inputs. Furthermore, Sensitivity analysis helps identify the
Table 3. Aggregated Cluster Comparisons with Respect to
most critical criteria that need to be carefully considered.
Alternatives Figure 3 shows node sensitivity with respect to the
Priorities
element analog. In the graph, the point at p = 0.5 is the
DM 1 DM 2 DM 3 Aggregated
original value by default. The values of p above 0.5, the
Main Criteria importance of the node goes up and below it, the
CI = CI = CI =
0.05156 0.06852 0.07069 importance goes down. This implies that once analog is
Population 0.19580 0.74287 0.14276 0.37640 important enough, it causes a rise in CSM overtaking
Technology 0.49339 0.19388 0.74829 0.47423 CSTE, CITC, and CEA. The change in node Analog
Internet 0.31081 0.06325 0.10895 0.14937 importance will bring up CSM to number 1 in the ranking
 22 Journal of Innovations in Teaching and Learning
which would change the rankings of the other alternatives
since CSM has the highest number of Analog users. This
means that one must carefully think when giving priorities
to this node as it has a big influence on the results.
Figure 3. Node Sensitivity for Analog
4. Conclusion and Recommendations
Allocation is a difficult decision problem. It becomes
even more complex when it involves intangible factors.
With student assistance, it is usually directed to those in
need however, it is difficult to judge between what factors
influence each other. The different decision-makers
inevitably have subjective judgments about the problems,
leading to inconsistency in allocation. ANP is very
suitable to analyze the interdependence of decision factors
of student assistance allocation. Furthermore, integrating
the opinions of a group to determine the importance of
different factors leads to a standardized weighting system
that would make the allocation of student assistance more
consistent and fairer while taking into account all
important factors.
In this study, the ANP method was employed to address
decision problems in allocation on a specific objective.
Nonetheless, this tool is applicable to any community
decision-making problem where expert judgment is
required and accessible.
© The Author(s) 2023. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Finally, the techniques used in this study are subjective
by nature and rely on subjective judgments and opinions.
Thus, the final decision represents the personal opinions
of the experts/decision-makers as shaped by their
knowledge, skills, and experiences. Therefore, it is
important to be transparent about the subjective nature of
techniques and mitigate potential errors by ensuring that
the experts/decision-makers have a diverse range of
perspectives and expertise in providing clear criteria for
decision-making.
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