The TA Assignment Problem with Open Tutorials

Abstract

We consider the problem of scheduling teaching assistants (TAs) to an open tutorial lab. Open tutorials provide an integrated framework of offering tutorials for multiple courses. Hence, assignment of teaching assistants raises several optimization challenges. We formulate the TA assignment problem as a minimum-cost network flow model with additional restrictions to distribute the tutorial workload among several TAs. Factors such as TA availability, course schedules, and expected student turnout are taken into account. The model takes advantage of certain jobs that do not require specific time scheduling. The output of the model yields a solution that can reach the most students possible. Furthermore, since these are generally small problems, solutions can be found in a timely manner using a general purpose integer programming solver.