Content area
The timetabling of classes is a major education management activity, with the complexity of the process being highest for tertiary-level institutions, especially where students and program numbers as well as classroom requirements are growing. The pioneering development of a microcomputer-based timetabler using expert system technology for a Hong Kong tertiary institution with a very dynamic academic environment is described. The knowledge, strategies, and heuristics of a small, centralized group of schedulers were modeled and subsequently represented in a readily available expert system shell which runs on a standard IBM-type microcomputer. The broad feasibility of such expert-level timetablers and more generally the application of this knowledge-based systems approach are discussed.