TITLE:
The Usefulness of Dynamic Programming in Course Allocation in the Nigerian Universities
AUTHORS:
Harrison O. Amuji, Geoffrey U. Ugwuanyim, Chukwudi J. Ogbonna, Hycinth C. Iwu, Bridget N. Okechukwu
KEYWORDS:
Multi-Stage Decision Problem, Dynamic Programming, Serial Decision Problem
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Optimization,
Vol.6 No.4,
December
29,
2017
ABSTRACT: Having lectured in some universities and polytechnics in Nigeria, the
researchers observed problems in course allocations. There are no lay-down
techniques on how courses should be allocated with respect to the minimum and
maximum credit a lecturer should carry in a semester. Many lecturers were overloaded
while others were under-loaded. For this reason, dynamic programming model was developed for
allocating courses among lecturers in the Nigerian universities using the
Department of Statistics, Federal University of Technology Owerri, as a case
study. From our analysis, we observed that among all the optimal allocations
discovered in the study, the best optimal allocation policy was achieved at the
point (1, 2, 1, 2). Allocation of courses in this order will yield an optimal
credit hour of 12 per lecturer per semester.