Abstract:
A system and method for optimizing a course catalog. The method comprises: retrieving, from a database, a plurality of optimal study paths selected by a plurality of students, wherein each of the plurality of optimal study paths is a combination of courses and their order during a plurality of study terms; determining an estimated attendance for each of a plurality of courses designated in the plurality of optimal study paths; assigning class hours to each of the plurality of courses based on the estimated attendance; optimizing the assignment of class hours of the plurality of courses, wherein the optimization maximizes a number students registered to their respective study paths; and generating an optimal course catalog based on the optimized assignment of class hours.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/079,578 filed on Nov. 14, 2014 and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/102,608 filed Jan. 13, 2015, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. 
     
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0002]    The present disclosure relates generally to creating plans for obtaining educational degrees, and more particularly for creating course catalogs according to students&#39; selected study paths. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    As society moves towards increasingly specialized professions, there is also a rising need for new job candidates to achieve higher education requirements. Typically, this includes a bachelor&#39;s degree, or its equivalent, from an accredited higher education institution. In some countries, such as the United States of America, higher education can be an expensive choice which, coupled with financial uncertainty, may prove risky for a university candidate. 
         [0004]    It is estimated that roughly nineteen billion ($19B) US Dollars are spent annually on excess credits, which students are not required to achieve in order to graduate. This excess spending often occurs due to complicated registration processes and prerequisite courses which may not be evident early on in a candidate&#39;s choice of a curriculum. While this is a clear disadvantage for students, it also presents a challenge to institutions. It is estimated that roughly half of candidates in the United States do not graduate within 6 years from entering college. 
         [0005]    One particular issue for ensuring prompt graduations is that there is no way to efficiently determine the optimal study path for any particular student from the beginning of college. The number of potential combinations of courses that any given student may undergo during his or her course of study is astronomical. Even in smaller programs with limited numbers of courses offered, the number of potential combinations of courses over the course of a multiple year degree can easily be in the millions. As a result, students may begin taking courses without a clear study path in mind, thereby leading to undesirable results ranging from cramming in courses toward the end of their studies to ultimately missing important classes and delaying graduation. As a result, the completion time and costs are more than what the students initially planned for. For example, currently only about 50% of the students compete their degree within 6 years and about 30% of the community colleges&#39; students graduate within 3 years. 
         [0006]    Existing solutions for planning study paths are very limited and in most cases such solutions do not guide or prevent students from taking incorrect courses. An example for such solution is a degree auditing that provides a list of requirements for a student&#39;s major or minor such as, for example, required courses, minimum numbers of credits, research or other non-classroom requirements, and so on. At best the degree auditing solution would prevent enrollment of students in courses which the students have not met the prerequisites for. For example, a student may be prevented from enrolling in Calculus II if that student has not yet taken Calculus I. 
         [0007]    The existing solutions do not, however, guide a student&#39;s study path based on broader goals such as a student&#39;s career or educational plans. Moreover, such solutions do not factor in scheduling per semester based around a student&#39;s employment or other particular requirements. As a result, such solutions are not capable of ensuring correct curriculum choices for student study paths based on student goals and other restrictions. 
         [0008]    Furthermore, currently a career advisor or counselor at best may advise on profession options that may fit the student&#39;s interests. However, due to the number of course combinations and schools in which a student may obtain the qualifications to practice the profession, a career advisor cannot provide the student with an optimal study path that ensures the student&#39;s graduation based on the student&#39;s goals and educational requirements. 
         [0009]    Additionally, existing solutions cannot accurately predict attendance levels for various courses. Such an inability to predict attendance frequently leads to problems such as failing to have enough teachers and/or sections open to allow maximum attendance and interfering with students&#39; study paths by preventing students from taking courses that are key to the study paths at the desired times. Alternatively, this inability to predict attendance may lead to overbooking of courses, thereby needlessly wasting educational resources such as teachers and classrooms. 
         [0010]    It would therefore be advantageous to provide a solution that would overcome the deficiencies of the prior art by generating an optimized course catalog. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0011]    A summary of several example embodiments of the disclosure follows. This summary is provided for the convenience of the reader to provide a basic understanding of such embodiments and does not wholly define the breadth of the disclosure. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated embodiments, and is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of all embodiments nor to delineate the scope of any or all aspects. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more embodiments in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later. For convenience, the term “some embodiments” may be used herein to refer to a single embodiment or multiple embodiments of the disclosure. 
         [0012]    Certain embodiments disclosed herein include a method for optimizing a course catalog. The method comprises: retrieving, from a database, a plurality of optimal study paths selected by a plurality of students, wherein each of the plurality of optimal study paths is a combination of courses and their order during a plurality of study terms; determining an estimated attendance for each of a plurality of courses designated in the plurality of optimal study paths; assigning class hours to each of the plurality of courses based on the estimated attendance; optimizing the assignment of class hours of the plurality of courses, wherein the optimization maximizes a number students registered to their respective study paths; and generating an optimal course catalog based on the optimized assignment of class hours. 
         [0013]    Certain embodiments disclosed herein include a system for optimizing a course catalog. The system comprises: a database; a processing unit; and a memory, the memory containing instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, configure the system to: retrieve, from the database, a plurality of optimal study paths selected by a plurality of students, wherein each of the plurality of optimal study paths is a combination of courses and their order during a plurality of study terms; determine an estimated attendance for each of a plurality of courses designated in the plurality of optimal study paths; assign class hours to each of the plurality of courses based on the estimated attendance; optimize the assignment of class hours of the plurality of courses, wherein the optimization maximizes a number students registered to their respective study paths; and generate an optimal course catalog based on the optimized assignment of class hours. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0014]    The subject matter disclosed herein is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the disclosed embodiments will be apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
           [0015]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of a system utilized to describe the various embodiments; 
           [0016]      FIG. 2  is a flowchart illustrating determining potential study paths based on student goals according to an embodiment; 
           [0017]      FIGS. 3A-3C  are screenshots illustrating interactive study path planning according to an embodiment; 
           [0018]      FIG. 4  is flowchart illustrating optimizing a study path based on student constraints and preferences according to an embodiment; 
           [0019]      FIG. 5  is a screenshot illustrating study path optimization according to an embodiment; 
           [0020]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating optimizing a course catalog based on optimized study paths according to an embodiment; 
           [0021]      FIG. 7  is a screenshot illustrating a an optimized course catalog generated based on optimized study paths according to an embodiment; 
           [0022]      FIG. 8  is a flowchart illustrating generating a connected study path according to an embodiment; and 
           [0023]      FIG. 9  is a screenshot illustrating a connected study path according to an embodiment. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0024]    It is important to note that the embodiments disclosed herein are only examples of the many advantageous uses of the innovative teachings herein. In general, statements made in the specification of the present application do not necessarily limit any of the various claimed embodiments. Moreover, some statements may apply to some inventive features but not to others. In general, unless otherwise indicated, singular elements may be in plural and vice versa with no loss of generality. In the drawings, like numerals refer to like parts through several views. 
         [0025]      FIG. 1  is an exemplary and non-limiting schematic diagram of a system  100  utilized to describe the various disclosed embodiments. The system  100  includes at least one processing unit  110  such as, for example, a central processing unit (CPU). The processing unit  110  is coupled via a bus  105  to a memory  120 . In an embodiment, the memory  120  further includes instructions that, when executed by the processing unit  110 , configure the system to perform the methods described in more detail herein. The memory may be further used as a working scratch pad for the processing unit  110 , a temporary storage, and so on. The memory  120  may be, but is not limited to, a volatile memory such as random access memory (RAM), or a non-volatile memory (NVM), such as Flash memory. The processing unit  110  may be communicatively connected to an input device  150  for permitting a user to modify a study path or course catalog. The processing unit  110  may be further communicatively connected to a database  130 . The database  130  may contain information related to a plurality of courses, such as a catalog containing each course and each class section of each course. In an embodiment, the database  130  further includes credential information of students. 
         [0026]    In an embodiment, the processing unit  110  may comprise, or be a component of, a larger processing unit implemented with one or more processors. The one or more processors may be implemented with any combination of general-purpose microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate array (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), controllers, state machines, gated logic, discrete hardware components, dedicated hardware finite state machines, or any other suitable entities that can perform calculations or other manipulations of information. 
         [0027]    The processing unit  110  and/or the memory  112  may also include machine-readable media for storing software. Software shall be construed broadly to mean any type of instructions, whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise. Instructions may include code (e.g., in source code format, binary code format, executable code format, or any other suitable format of code). The instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the processing system to perform the various functions described herein. 
         [0028]    In some embodiments, the system  100  may be part of a cloud-computing infrastructure, an application server, a web server, and the like. In such embodiments, users (e.g., students) of the system  100  may access the system remotely via, for example, a web browser. 
         [0029]      FIG. 2  is an exemplary and non-limiting flowchart illustrating determination of potential study paths towards degrees based on student goals in accordance with an embodiment. In S 210 , a student&#39;s credential information is collected. Credential information relates to a particular student and may include, but is not limited to, an identification number, a list of courses and/or credits the student has completed, any remedial course requirements of the student, a given name, a surname, and so on. 
         [0030]    In S 220 , at least one goal of a student is received, wherein the at least one goal is related to the study path to be determined. A goal of the user may be, but is not limited to, a profession, a subject in which to major, a subject in which to minor, or an interest area, and so on. In an embodiment, a user may select the at least one goal from among several goals. In a further embodiment, information respective of each goal may be provided to the user during selection. The information respective of each goal typically contains information to help a student select a goal that he or she will be happy with. The information respective of each goal may be, but is not limited to, average income for a profession, employability of graduates with a selected major or minor, a list of professions within an interest area, and so on. 
         [0031]    In some embodiments, a focus area may be further displayed respective of each goal. A focus area is an area of interest related to the user&#39;s goal and may be, but is not limited to, a concentration for a major, a specialty in a profession, and so on. Selecting goals and information respective thereof are described further herein below with respect to  FIG. 3A . 
         [0032]    In S 230 , information related to a plurality of courses is obtained from a database (e.g., the database  130 ). The information collected may be based on which courses will be required for the at least one goal given the student&#39;s credential information. For example, if a first student&#39;s major is Mechanical Engineering, the first student may be required to take courses such as Calculus I, Thermodynamics, and Mechanics. The plurality of courses may cover a plurality of study terms. The information may include hours during which each course is taught (e.g., Mondays from 6 P.M. to 8 P.M.), a midterm exam date of each course (e.g., October 11), a final exam date of each course (e.g., December 9), a start date for each course (e.g., August 28), an end date for each course (e.g., December 2), and so on. 
         [0033]    In S 240 , a plurality of potential study paths is generated over the plurality of study terms respective of the plurality of courses. Each study path is a combination of courses and an order in which to take the courses during the plurality of study terms. An exemplary and non-limiting study path is described further herein below with respect to  FIG. 3B . The study paths are determined to ensure that any prerequisite course is taken at least one term before the student enrolls in an advanced course that requires the prerequisite course. The study paths may also be determined to include any remedial classes. In an embodiment, S 240  may further include performing degree auditing on each study path. In an embodiment, any study paths that fail the audit (i.e., do not make the student eligible to meet his or her goals) are not included in the generated plurality of study paths. 
         [0034]    In S 250 , the plurality of study paths may be the saved in a database for future usage, e.g., to process a request from a different student with the same goals or to optimize catalogs. In some embodiments, S 250  may further include displaying the plurality of study paths on a display as a time diagram over the plurality of study terms. An exemplary and non-limiting time diagram is described further herein below with respect to  FIG. 3B . 
         [0035]    In S 260 , at least one optimal study path from the plurality of potential study paths is determined. The optimal study path is determined based on goals, constraints, and preferences set by the user. The process for determining the optimal study path is discussed herein below with respect to in  FIG. 4 . 
         [0036]    In S 270 , information of the at least one optimal study path is displayed to the user. The displayed information may include the courses for each term, information about each course, prerequisites for one or more courses, the expected completion time, the expected budget, and so on. In an embodiment, if the user is satisfied with the determined optional study path, a registration process may be initiated. 
         [0037]      FIG. 3A  is an exemplary and non-limiting screenshot  300 A illustrating a drop down box featuring a plurality of potential goals  310  according to an embodiment. A search bar  320  allows a user to input a goal. In an embodiment, potential search results may be automatically populated as potential goals  310  in real-time. In another embodiment, the search results may be based on the type of goal  330 . In the example shown in  FIG. 3A , the type of goal selected is “Profession,” and the user has entered “Psyc” into the search bar  320 , thereby triggering a list of potential goals  310  that are professions related to “Psyc.” 
         [0038]      FIG. 3B  is an exemplary and non-limiting screenshot  300 B of a user interface for displaying a study path in accordance with an embodiment. In the example shown in  FIG. 3B , the profession of “Clinical Psychologist” was selected as the ultimate career goal, and two study paths were determined for arriving at that career goal—a Master of Arts in Psychology for one educational goal, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology for the other educational goal. The educational goals are seen in the “Goals” box  350 . Each study path includes a plurality of courses  340 . In an embodiment, connections between courses (such as prerequisite courses) may be shown. The paths begin at the first trimester of 2015, labeled T1-15. The illustration further shows possible career opportunities  360  and how each path leads to a certain career opportunity. 
         [0039]      FIG. 3C  is an exemplary and non-limiting screenshot  300 C of a user interface for displaying a study path in accordance with an embodiment. In this example, a goal of “Business” major was selected (as seen in “Goals” box  350 ), with two possible focus areas—law and human resources. Based on this goal, a plurality of courses  340  needed to achieve the goal are displayed. Additionally, potential careers  360  utilizing the “Business” major and the possible focus areas are displayed. 
         [0040]      FIG. 4  is an exemplary and non-limiting flowchart S 260  illustrating optimizing a study plan by determining at least one optimal schedule according to an embodiment. In S 410 , the plurality of study paths is received. In an embodiment, S 410  may further include performing degree auditing to ensure that the determined plurality of study paths will result in achieving the student&#39;s goals. In an embodiment, the received plurality of study paths may be generated as described further herein above with respect to  FIG. 2 . 
         [0041]    In S 420 , at least one of a student&#39;s constraints and/or preferences is received. A constraint is a restriction on the study path that may be, but is not limited to, a total time to complete education (e.g., 4 years), an educational budget (e.g., $150,000), and so on. Each constraint may be assigned a priority. If two constraints conflict, then the constraint with the higher assigned priority would be utilized first. For example, a student may want to prioritize completing his degree in 4 years (i.e. a typical college course load) rather than take summer courses at a lower cost and completing his degree in 3 years. 
         [0042]    A preference is a particular inclination of the user that may be used to guide selection of courses when multiple courses can be utilized to achieve the student&#39;s goals. A preference may be, but is not limited to, favoring or disfavoring particular days of the week (e.g., favoring classes on Monday through Thursday but disfavoring classes on Friday), particular times (e.g., not beginning class before 10 A.M.), whether the course is offered online, favored instructors, areas of interest (e.g., sports, art, reading, writing, etc.), and so on. In an embodiment, each preference may be assigned a priority. If two preferences conflict, the higher priority preference would be utilized first. In a further embodiment, all preferences have a lower priority than all constraints such that, if a constraint and a preference conflict, the constraint will be utilized first. 
         [0043]    In S 430 , scheduling information related to a plurality of courses included in the study plan and offered during a plurality of study terms are retrieved. The scheduling information may include days of the week in which a course is presented, location of a class of the course, hours during which each course is taught (e.g., Mondays from 6 P.M. to 8 P.M.), a midterm exam date of each course (e.g., October 11), a final exam date of each course (e.g., December 9), a start date for each course (e.g., August 28), an end date for each course (e.g., December 2), and so on. In an embodiment, the scheduling information may be retrieved from a database (e.g., the database  130 ). The study terms are the semesters in which the student plans to attend the school (e.g., all semesters between Fall of 2015 and May of 2019). 
         [0044]    In S 440 , at least one optimal study path is computed respective of the plurality of study paths, the at least one constraint and/or preference, and the course information. In some embodiments, S 440  includes eliminating from the received study paths all paths that do not meet the constraints in order of the constraints&#39; respective priorities. For example, if the first priority constraint is a completion time and the second priority constrain is the budget, then first all the paths having a completion time higher than the input completion time are eliminated. Then, from the remaining study paths, all paths that cost more to complete than the input budget are removed. The remaining set of study paths are sorted or further eliminated based on the input preferences. For example, if one of the preference includes disfavoring classes on Friday, then all paths that include classes on Friday are filtered out. In an embodiment, the remaining potential study paths are sorted based on their best match to the at least one preference. The best match study path is the optimal study path. 
         [0045]    In S 450 , at least schedule of courses is generated for each study term based on each of the at least one optimal study path. 
         [0046]    In S 460 , the schedule of courses and/or the determined optimal study path are returned and/or displayed to a user. In one embodiment, the optimal study path is automatically modified whenever circumstances change. For example, circumstances may have changed when a new schedule is published and/or a selected course will not be delivered in the coming term. Alternatively or collectively, the determined optimal study path may be interactively modified by the user as discussed in more detail with respect to  FIG. 8 . 
         [0047]      FIG. 5  is an exemplary and non-limiting screenshot  500  illustrating a user interface displaying an optimal schedule, according to the constraints of having no more than  4  days of classes and of having Friday and Saturday free of classes. 
         [0048]      FIG. 6  is an exemplary and non-limiting flowchart  600  illustrating generation of an optimized course catalog for an institution according to an embodiment. In S 610 , a plurality of study paths respective of all expected students is retrieved. In an embodiment, the plurality of study paths may be retrieved from a database (e.g., the database  130 ). Each study path may be determined as described further herein above with respect to  FIGS. 2 and 4 . 
         [0049]    In S 620 , an estimated attendance for each term in which the course is offered is determined. The attendance may be estimated based on factors such as, but not limited to, expected numbers of students in the institution during various study terms, a number of students whose optimal study paths suggest taking the course during the particular term, and so on. 
         [0050]    In S 630 , the schedules for all classes provided by the academic institution are received. In an embodiment, the schedules are provided by the different departments of the academic institution. This allows for further optimization of the catalog across different departments. A schedule of a class includes at least the class hours assigned to each course. Class hours may be, for example, every other Monday from 4 P.M. to 6 P.M. and Thursdays from 11 A.M. to 1 P.M. In an embodiment, S 630  may further include determining a number of classes for each course based on at least a parameter (for example, two sections of the same class). The parameter may be determined based on the estimated attendance for the course during the term. 
         [0051]    In S 640 , the assignment of class hours is optimized to maximize the number of students who are able to complete their respective study paths. In an embodiment, optimization may be performed by minimizing the number of empty seats in each class. Minimizing the number of empty seats may be performed based on, e.g., an estimated number of students attending the class, study paths of students, and comparing the estimated number to a number of planned seats for the class. A notification may be generated to add or remove seats for the class respective of the performed comparison. In an embodiment, optimization is performed by minimizing the overlap between class hours of courses which are taken in the same term according to a study path. 
         [0052]    In S 650 , the optimized assignment is compared to a proposed assignment. The proposed assignment may be created by a group of faculty members based on, e.g., faculty availability, classroom availability, and so on. 
         [0053]    In S 660 , an optimal course catalog is determined based on the optimized assignment and the proposed assignment. The catalog containing each course and each class of each course respective of the optimized assignment of class hours may be displayed. In some embodiments, a second course catalog is received. The second course catalog may be, for example, a catalog previously used by the institution. A system such as system  100  is configured to determine a discrepancy between the generated optimal course catalog and the received second course catalog. For example, the catalogs may be stored as structured databases. In such embodiments, it is possible to compare the values of corresponding data elements. Upon detecting a discrepancy between the catalogs, the system may generate a notification to a user of the system. 
         [0054]      FIG. 7  is an exemplary and non-limiting screenshot  700  of a user interface displaying a course catalog in accordance with an embodiment. In screenshot  700 , an alert  710  is presented on the user interface to indicate issues regarding some courses in “Economics”. For example, “ECN 423,” a course named “Economics of Education”, currently offers more seats than students anticipated to attend. It would therefore be a better use of resources to offer fewer seats in the course “ECN 423.” 
         [0055]      FIG. 8  is an exemplary and non-limiting flowchart  800  illustrating providing an interactive display for planning a study path towards a degree according to an embodiment. In S 810 , at least one desired goal is displayed. A goal of the user may be, for example, a profession, a subject in which to major, a subject in which to minor, or an interest area. In an embodiment, information respective of the at least one goal may also be displayed. The information respective of the at least one goal may be, but is not limited to, average wage for a profession, employability of graduates with a selected major or minor, a list of professions within an interest area, and so on. 
         [0056]    In S 820 , a plurality of courses for a plurality of study terms respective of the at least one desired goal is displayed. In S 830 , a plurality of courses respective of the at least a desired goal and the plurality of study terms is displayed. In S 840 , a connecting path between the plurality of courses that connects to at least one of the at least the desired goal is displayed. In S 850 , a user modification is received. The user modification may be, but is not limited to, adding a class, dropping a class, and so on. In S 860 , The user modification is incorporated. In an embodiment, the incorporation may further include adjusting the optimal study path of the student so as to incorporate the change while maintaining the user&#39;s goals. In an embodiment, the modification can be in response to changes made to at least one of the course&#39;s schedules. The changes to the schedules are automatically incorporated in to the study path. 
         [0057]    It should be appreciated that the ability to interactively change the determined study paths allow the user to trade-off between various goals prior to and post registration. As a non-limiting example, the interactive modification allows a user to easily assess implications of switching a degree (lost credit hours and delay in graduation). 
         [0058]      FIG. 9  is an exemplary and non-limiting screenshot  900  of a user interface for providing an interactive display for planning a study path according to an embodiment. In this exemplary screenshot  900 , the student&#39;s courses between Fall of  2015  and Fall of  2017  are displayed. Courses  910  making up course schedules are displayed for each semester. Links  920 - 1  and  920 - 2  between courses serve to visually indicate a prerequisite course and the advanced course which requires the prerequisite course be completed. In some embodiments, an advanced course may be linked to a plurality of prerequisite courses. 
         [0059]    The various embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented as hardware, firmware, software, or any combination thereof. Moreover, the software is preferably implemented as an application program tangibly embodied on a program storage unit or computer readable medium consisting of parts, or of certain devices and/or a combination of devices. The application program may be uploaded to, and executed by, a machine comprising any suitable architecture. Preferably, the machine is implemented on a computer platform having hardware such as one or more central processing units (“CPUs”), a memory, and input/output interfaces. The computer platform may also include an operating system and microinstruction code. The various processes and functions described herein may be either part of the microinstruction code or part of the application program, or any combination thereof, which may be executed by a CPU, whether or not such a computer or processor is explicitly shown. In addition, various other peripheral units may be connected to the computer platform such as an additional data storage unit and a printing unit. Furthermore, a non-transitory computer readable medium is any computer readable medium except for a transitory propagating signal. 
         [0060]    All examples and conditional language recited herein are intended for pedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principles of the disclosed embodiment and the concepts contributed by the inventor to furthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions. Moreover, all statements herein reciting principles, aspects, and embodiments of the disclosed embodiments, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass both structural and functional equivalents thereof. Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include both currently known equivalents as well as equivalents developed in the future, i.e., any elements developed that perform the same function, regardless of structure.