IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/jikmxx/v19y2020i01ns0219649220400092.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A New Optimization on Harmony Search Algorithm for Exam Timetabling System

Author

Listed:
  • Khaled Alomari

    (Department of Business Administration, Jadara University, Jordan)

  • Osama Almarashdi

    (#x2020;Department of Accounting, Jadara University, Jordan)

  • Ala Marashdh

    (Department of Business Administration, Jadara University, Jordan)

  • Belal Zaqaibeh

    (#x2021;Department of Software Engineering, Jadara University, Jordan)

Abstract

Preparing an optimal exam timetable in universities is challenging for head of departments, especially for colleges with multiple number of departments, courses, and students. Harmony search algorithm is used by many researchers to solve this problem but none of them could get an optimal solution. In this paper, a new algorithm which is called optimised harmony search algorithm with distributed selections is proposed by optimising the harmony search algorithm and the genetic algorithm. The new algorithm could satisfy hard, soft, and general constraints and generate an optimal exam timetable for a huge number of courses and students. The proposed algorithm is implemented and applied on Jadara University, the algorithm uses an upper triangular matrix to reduce relationships and memory usage, a three-dimensional matrix to ease the exams timetable management a deterministic number generators to eliminate timeslots conflicts, and backtracking algorithm to enhance the population selections. Lecturers and students’ feedback showed a good satisfaction as well the system results.

Suggested Citation

  • Khaled Alomari & Osama Almarashdi & Ala Marashdh & Belal Zaqaibeh, 2020. "A New Optimization on Harmony Search Algorithm for Exam Timetabling System," Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(01), pages 1-13, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:wsi:jikmxx:v:19:y:2020:i:01:n:s0219649220400092
    DOI: 10.1142/S0219649220400092
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219649220400092
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S0219649220400092?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sabar, Nasser R. & Ayob, Masri & Kendall, Graham & Qu, Rong, 2012. "A honey-bee mating optimization algorithm for educational timetabling problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 216(3), pages 533-543.
    2. Mohammed Azmi Al-Betar & Ahamad Tajudin Khader & Mohammed A. Awadallah & Mahmmoud Hafsaldin Alawan & Belal Zaqaibeh, 2013. "Cellular Harmony Search for Optimization Problems," Journal of Applied Mathematics, Hindawi, vol. 2013, pages 1-20, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Song, Kwonsik & Kim, Sooyoung & Park, Moonseo & Lee, Hyun-Soo, 2017. "Energy efficiency-based course timetabling for university buildings," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 394-405.
    2. Say Leng Goh & Graham Kendall & Nasser R. Sabar & Salwani Abdullah, 2020. "An effective hybrid local search approach for the post enrolment course timetabling problem," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 57(4), pages 1131-1163, December.
    3. Sabar, Nasser R. & Kendall, Graham, 2015. "An iterated local search with multiple perturbation operators and time varying perturbation strength for the aircraft landing problem," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 88-98.
    4. Lan Nguyen-Ngoc & Quyet Nguyen-Huu & Guido De Roeck & Thanh Bui-Tien & Magd Abdel-Wahab, 2024. "Deep Neural Network and Evolved Optimization Algorithm for Damage Assessment in a Truss Bridge," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-25, July.
    5. Goh, Say Leng & Kendall, Graham & Sabar, Nasser R., 2017. "Improved local search approaches to solve the post enrolment course timetabling problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 261(1), pages 17-29.
    6. Alejandro Cataldo & Juan-Carlos Ferrer & Jaime Miranda & Pablo A. Rey & Antoine Sauré, 2017. "An integer programming approach to curriculum-based examination timetabling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 258(2), pages 369-393, November.
    7. Janmenjoy Nayak & Bighnaraj Naik, 2018. "A Novel Honey-Bees Mating Optimization Approach with Higher order Neural Network for Classification," Journal of Classification, Springer;The Classification Society, vol. 35(3), pages 511-548, October.
    8. De Boeck, Liesje & Beliën, Jeroen & Creemers, Stefan, 2016. "A column generation approach for solving the examination-timetabling problemAuthor-Name: Woumans, Gert," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 253(1), pages 178-194.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wsi:jikmxx:v:19:y:2020:i:01:n:s0219649220400092. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/jikm/jikm.shtml .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.