Impact of course timetabling on learning quality: sustaining an optimized stress level to stimulate enhanced comprehension

Abstract

This paper aims to improve students’ learning performance by optimizing their mental stresses in learning through proposing a new course timetabling method. This new method is based on two hypotheses that formulate the link between course timetabling and learning experience: i) a student’s learning performance is superior when the student is subject to moderate stress; ii) an individual’s mental capacity varies during a day according to Circadian Rhythm. The student’s mental stress in taking a course is defined as a function of their mental capacity and the workload required by the course. The workload is determined by utilizing a multi-criteria prioritization technique—Analytic Hierarchy Process. As a result, the timetabling problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming model, which is tested on an engineering program to produce a student-centered timetable for its scheduled courses. This new method differs from traditional course scheduling and timetabling approaches, which are usually tackled as a constrained optimization problem with an objective to optimize a given set of criteria, such as student and faculty preferences, walking distances between consecutive classes, classroom utilization and operating expenses.