Advantages of Top Down Approach

1
Top Down Academic Advisors Apprentice
Michael Bailes, supervised by Prof Paul Bailes

• Need for Academic Advisors Apprentice
• Academic advising is time consuming, monotonous
  and error prone.
• Automation of the academic advising process will
  save academic time and reduce the likelihood of
  error in the academic advising process.

State Machine

• Transitions
• Select The course is selected by the user. NOT
  Selected -gt Selected
• Unselect The course is unselected by the user.
  Selected -gt NOT Selected
• All prerequisites satisfied user Selects courses
  that fill the prerequisites for this course. NOT
  Can Do -gt Can Do
• At least one prerequisite not satisfied User
  unselects a course required as a prerequisite by
  this course. Can Do -gt NOT Can Do
• Can satisfy prerequisite user Selects a course
  for which this is a possible prerequisite. NOT
  Must Do -gt Must Do.
• Can not satisfy prerequisite user Unselects a
  course for which this is a possible prerequisite,
  or satisfies it by selecting an alternate
  prerequisite course. Must Do -gt NOT Must Do.

• Advantages of Top Down Approach
• Calculates prerequisites based on final year
  subjects (selected by user).
• Allows students to choose their final year
  specializations (more relevant than generic first
  year subjects) and then choose the subjects they
  need to satisfy their final year requirements.

• States
• The state machine for course offerings has eight
  states. These are the permutations of three basic
  state variables, namely Can Do, Must Do, and
  Selected.
• Can Do the course currently has its
  prerequisites filled
• Must Do the course can fill an existing
  prerequisite requirement from another Selected
  course offering
• Selected the course is currently selected by the
  user to be studied in this semester.

• Challenges of Top Down Approach
• Creation of a suitable state model from which a
  clear and intuitive user interface is derived,
  and
• efficient implementation of that interface.