The Usefulness of Dynamic Programming in Course Allocation in the Nigerian Universities

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.

Geometric Programming Approximation to Dynamic Programming

“…In the proposed method, not only that we were able to obtain the optimal allocation policy using our developed method but the optimal cost involved in making such a decision. The sample problem was adapted from Amuji et al (2017) and we were able to obtain the optimal allocation of courses to lecturers to be (0.1, 0.2, 1, 3). This means that there should be pairing of course to different cadres of lecturers in second and third year; then, in the fourth year, lecturers in each cadre should get one course each and in the fifth year they should get 3 courses each).…”

Application of Game Theory in the Nigerian Electoral System

“…The mathematical foundation of the Theory of Competitive Games was laid by von Neumann [4] and it was through the collaboration of von Neumann and Morgenstern that economists learned of this tool for analysing economic problems. The history of the adaptation and development of game theory was traced to [5,6] even though the mathematical and general foundation of the body of knowledge was attributed to [1]. In reality, some people always expect the worst but this is not in isolation from rationality.…”

“…The lecturers try to protect the integrity of their institutions by maintaining a high level of standard and reputation for their institutions while the students try at all costs to make good grade points. Both the lecturers and the students employ different strategies to achieve this [1]. Other researchers applied Game theory to model a cyber-security problem.…”

“…A game is an interaction of two decision-makers with defined rules and regulations that each player must observe and at the end of the game each player either gains or suffers a loss, see [1]. The reward could either be gains or losses.…”

Course Allocation Among Lecturers Using Python

“…Lecturers who work at postsecondary institutions like universities are the biggest guide and also the most influential factor contributing to student achievement. Therefore, course allocation among lecturers is an important aspect to be focused on, and this can be seen from works that have been done previously (Amuji et al, 2017;Badri, 1996;Gunawan & Ng, 2011& Shohaimay et al, 2016.…”