StudyPlanCriterion

A study plan criterion is an assembly of specifications on the basis of which the system should elaborate a study plan. TheStudyPlanCriterion class is a representation of a study plan criterion.

It is the individual student who is assumed to state the specifications of a study plan criterion previous to the system’s elaboration of a study plan.

Figure 4.3:Logical model of theStudyPlanCriterionclass and its associations to theStudent,TechnicalPackage,TechnicalLine,TechnicalFieldand Spe-cializationclasses.

According to figure 4.3 a student may have one or more study plan criteria.

The student may specify that he wants to complete a specific technical package. It is possible to determine which technical package a given student is currently signed up for, however, if the student ponders switching to another technical package it may be very relevant to specify the technical package considered.

Likewise, a Master of Science student may specify which technical line he wants to obtain.

For a given student is possible to ascertain which technical line the student is presently signed up for, however, if the student ponders switching to another technical line it may be crucial to specify the technical line considered.

The student may furthermore – if a technical line is specified – choose to follow a recommended course of study by specifying a technical field or a specialization.

TheStudyPlanCriterionclass has the following attributes:

Attribute Name Description

Name The name of the study plan criterion

chosen by the student.

AllowPointBlockCourses Specifies whether or not point block-ing courses may be scheduled.

RecommendedPlacementCogent Specifies whether the recommended placement of courses should be re-spected or ignored.

AllowForTechnicalPrerequisites Specifies whether technical prerequi-sites for courses should be respected or ignored.

The student may specify a desired workload by means of an amount of credit points which should be obtained within a period (figure 4.4). This may be done either generally per period type or for specific periods.

4.1 Data Requirements 45

Figure 4.4:Logical model of the associations between theStudyPlanCriterionclass and theWorkloadPeriodandWorkloadPeriodTypeclasses.

AStudyPlanCriterionobject may be linked to one or moreWorkloadPeriodobjects which represent the student’s desired workload in specific periods. Moreover, a StudyPlanCrite-rionobject may be linked to one or moreWorkloadPeriodTypeobjects which represent the student’s default desired workload in different period types. Confer the subsections “Work-loadPeriod” and “WorkloadPeriodType” below for an in-depth description of these classes.

Figure 4.5:Logical model of the associations between theStudyPlanCriterionclass and theKeyword,StudyType,LanguageandLecturerclasses.

Fields of interest may be specified in the form of keywords (figure 4.5).

The student may choose also to consider courses offered to study types distinct from the student’s own study type. One could for instance imagine that a Bachelor of Science student would choose also to consider courses offered to Master of Science students.

Selection of one or more languages is possible. A Danish student may e.g. select both “Danish”

and “English” as languages.

In the same way one or more lecturers may be deselected (all lecturers are considered selected by default). A student may e.g. choose to deselect a lecturer if he does not like the lecturer’s way of teaching or the like.

Figure 4.6:Logical model of the association between theStudyPlanCriterionand Courseclasses. Moreover, a logical model of the association class Study-PlanCriterionCourse.

The student can explicitly choose one or more courses which should be scheduled at some time during the course of study (figure 4.6). These courses may be scheduled at any time during the course of study. Likewise, the student can also deselect any number of courses which means that these courses will never be scheduled (unless this clashes with other criteria). This

property is represented by the StudyPlanCriterionCourse association class introduced in figure 4.6.

TheStudyPlanCriterionCourseassociation class has the following attribute:

Attribute Name Description

AdditionalChoice Specifies whether the course should be scheduled at some time during the course of study or never.

Figure 4.7:Logical model of the association between theStudyPlanCriterionand StudyPlanCriterionCoursePeriodclasses. Moreover, a logical model of the associations between the StudyPlanCriterionCoursePeriod class and thePeriodandCourseclasses.

A student may choose to manually schedule one or more select courses in a specific period which corresponds to the traditional, manual study planning (figure 4.7). Likewise, the stu-dent can manually deselect courses in a specific period meaning that these courses will not be scheduled in that period.

TheStudyPlanCriterionCoursePeriodassociation class has the following attribute:

Attribute Name Description

AdditionalChoice Specifies whether the course should be scheduled in the specific period or not.

As described in sections 3.4 and 3.5, students must prepare one or more projects during their studies. In order to execute a more rational study planning the student may choose to specify the workload of each project in different time intervals (figure 4.8). For example the student might want to specify the workload of a 12.5 point project as follows:

Interval Points 1 – 20% 5.0 21 – 80% 5.0 81 – 100% 2.5 TheProjectWorkloadclass has the following attributes:

Attribute Name Description

FromPercent Specifies the lower bound of the workload interval e.g. 20%.

ToPercent The upper bound of the workload interval e.g.

80%.

4.1 Data Requirements 47

Figure 4.8:Logical model of the association between theStudyPlanCriterionand ProjectWorkloadclasses. Moreover, a logical model of the associations between theProjectWorkloadclass and theTechnicalPackageProject, StudyTypeProjectTypeandPointclasses.

WorkloadPeriod

A workload period describes the workload – i.e. the minimum and maximum number of credit points – desired by the student in a specific period (figure 4.9). For example a student may specify a desired workload of 15 to 25 points for the 13-week period in the spring 2003.

Furthermore, a student may deselect specific modules in a period. This means that no courses will be scheduled in these modules during the period. If a student wants to play tennis every Tuesday afternoon he or she can deselect the module(s) on Tuesday afternoons of the week schedule. In DTU terms that would be the module 4A – confer section 2.2.2 for a description of the week schedule used at DTU.

A workload desired for a specific period takes precedence of the workload desired generally in periods of the same type (confer subsection below).

Figure 4.9:Logical model of the associations between theWorkloadPeriodclass and thePeriod,ModuleandPointclasses.

WorkloadPeriodType

A workload period type describes the workload – i.e. the minimum and maximum number of credit points – desired by the student in specific period types (figure 4.10). This is the general setting which is used for all periods of the selected period type unless it is overruled by aWorkloadPeriodobject introduced in figure 4.9.

For example a student may specify a default desired workload of 25 points for all 13-week periods and a workload of 5 points for all 3-week periods. However, suppose the student

wants to go on summer holiday in June 2003 and thus he will specify a desired workload of 0 points in the 3-week period in June 2003. This will then overrule the general setting and no courses will be scheduled for this period.

A student may deselect chosen modules in a specific period type. This means that no courses will be scheduled in these modules for all periods of this particular period type.

Now, consider again the above-mentioned example with the student who wants to play tennis every Tuesday afternoon. Suppose the tennis lessons are rescheduled from Tuesday afternoons to Thursday afternoons for the second half of the year 2003. The student will then specifically reselect the Tuesday afternoon module(s) and deselect the Thursday afternoon module(s) for the specific periods during the second half of the year 2003. No courses will then be scheduled for Thursday afternoons until 2004 where the previous setting is restored.

Figure 4.10:Logical model of the associations between the WorkloadPeriodType class and thePeriodType,ModuleandPointclasses.