Purpose
The study has two main objectives. The first is to introduce three new examination policy practices: overbooked exam rooms, a substitute invigilator and an inheritance of the invigilation distribution. The second is the use of the examination model to determine the sustainability of the system against expected changes and to obtain long-term strategic information. This study aims to obtain managerial insights on the sustainability of the examination system with the newly introduced practices; it does not claim to propose solutions for large-scale problems.
Design/methodology/approach
This study introduces a multi-objective mathematical model that contains a couple of constraints that belong to new practices. To check the sustainability of the system, this study gets help from sensitivity analysis, which informs the decision-maker about how the results will react to parameter changes. The authors perform all experiments in the Python/Gurobi modeling environment.
Findings
The results demonstrate that the proposed practices are effective in the efficient use of resources. Also, this study shows that the examination model can be used as a stress test so that the weaknesses of the system can be identified and long-term strategic information can be obtained.
Originality/value
The contribution of this study is twofold: the introduction of examination policy practices that are overbooked exam rooms, a substitute invigilator and an inheritance of the invigilation distribution. Overbooked exam rooms aim to use resources effectively, taking into account the possibility of temporarily increasing the exam room capacity. The substitute invigilator protects the examination process against sudden events. The inheritance of the invigilation distribution helps to ensure fairness; and the use of the examination model to obtain managerial insights on expectations. This allows testing the validity of existing policies and making necessary changes, taking into account possible changes in the system. In this respect, it differs from the studies in the literature and fills an important managerial gap.
Disasters are tragic events that cause losses. The curiosity of people to feel sadness and pain motivates disaster tourism. Each disaster region has the potential for disaster tourism, which offers various benefits. This chapter covers the evaluation of the disaster tourism potential of countries with the fuzzy-TOPSIS method. The criteria affecting the disaster tourism potential as the number of dead, injured, affected, and homeless people were weighted according to the evaluations of the decision-makers. Disasters that occurred worldwide between 1980-2022 were analyzed with the criteria weights based on the countries where they occurred. Decision-makers mostly evaluated the number of deaths and homeless as more effective in affecting the desire to visit a disaster area and the attractiveness of the region. Among 90 countries, it has been determined that Sri Lanka and the Russian Federation are the two countries with the highest disaster tourism potential as to the number of losses/disasters, while Ethiopia is the country with the lowest disaster tourism potential.
This study addresses the curricular practical training rotation problem, which is a type of staff assignment problem. Many educational institutions require theoretical knowledge to be complemented by practical training. Although the details of the implementation differ from institution to institution, it is necessary to prepare a rotation plan that determines how long the trainees will practice in which unit in which training period. Because of the complexity of the problem and humanistic reasons, the manual rotation plan can not reach the optimal level that satisfies all stakeholders and takes time. This study defines a general Curricular Practical Training Rotation Planning Problem specific to the curriculum-based trainee assignment process carried out in a university department and proposes an integer mathematical model for its solution. It is one of the important contributions of this study. It also provides a methodological approach to identify the most appropriate rotation strategy that will satisfy stakeholders. The methodological approach followed is a structure that can be adapted to different perspectives. The study has the potential to guide practitioners and researchers in the field and to lead a rich literature that will be formed with different side constraints and purposes to the problem.
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