Dependency Evaluation and Visualization Tool for Systems Represented by a Directed Acyclic Graph

Abstract

There is a dearth of data visualization tools for displaying college degree-planning information, especially course prerequisite and complex academic requirement information. The existing methods for exploring degree plans involve a painstaking what-if analysis of static data presented in a convoluted format. In this paper, we present a data visualization tool, named as Dependency Evaluation and Visualization (DEV) chart, to visualize course prerequisite structure and a dynamic flowchart to guide students and advisors through all possible degree requirement completions. DEV chart uses an adjacency matrix of a directed acyclic graph to store a course structure for a degree into a database. Since DEV chart is created dynamically by updating data associated with each node of the directed graph, it provides a mechanism for adding an alert system when prerequisite conditions are not met, and hence the user can visualize the available courses at each step. Similarly, DEV chart can be used with project planning where nodes represent tasks and edges represent their dependencies.

A Decision Support System for Undecided and Exploratory Students

“…Their work includes visualization of all of, one of, or either or logical relationships of courses offered at University of British Columbia. Samaranayake and Gunawardena (2020) introduced a graphical data visualization tool that enables students and advisors to easily understand course prerequisite structure and to readily determine paths that lead to the satisfaction of degree requirements.…”