COURSE AND CLASSROOM SCHEDULING - AN INTERACTIVE COMPUTER-GRAPHICS APPROACH

This paper introduces a new, interactive, computer graphics approach to the problem of constructing and modifying course and classroom schedules. The system demonstrates that graphics symbols on a computer display can represent schedule information. Manipulation of the icons is interpreted by the system as scheduling commands which automatically update the data base, test schedule constraints for feasibility, and immediately redisplay the newly modified information in graphic form. A course is moved in time and place (classroom) by the movement of the corresponding icon (rectangle) on the computer screen. The shape of the icon is a function of the type and length of the course. The system speeds and simplifies schedule development over present manual methods, and over the present use of traditional electronic spreadsheets, but does not completely automate the schedule process.