As an essential element of higher education, course planning at the program level is a complicated multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem. In addition, a course planning process tailored to sustainable development is exceptionally important to sustaining the quality of academic programs. However, there is a scarcity of research on the program course planning problem at the operational level due to a diverse set of stakeholder requirements in practice. Motivated by the challenge, this study proposes an innovative MCDM model for sustainable course planning based on He-Xie management theory. In the introduced framework, the best worst method (BWM) can obtain the optimal weights of sustainability competencies, which are then embedded into the fuzzy filter ranking (FFR) method to generate the ranking of candidate courses by each course module, considering the connectivity between courses and the development of sustainability competencies. Finally, multi-choice goal programming (MCGP) is adopted to allocate each selected course to a semester, aiming to balance total credits and average difficulty level among semesters as much as possible. The practicability and reliability of the proposed course planning model is validated through a case study of an undergraduate accounting program. Results show that the proposed framework is a feasible tool for course planning. This research extends the existing literature on course planning by explicitly capturing the fuzzy nature of human decision making and avoids underestimation of the decision. The implications of the paper are not restricted to developing a sustainable course plan for an accounting program.
Curriculum planning is an important but complex and challenging decision-making problem at universities. There is a growing interest in curriculum planning problem. However, the body of research on curriculum planning process using analytical methods is still small. Additionally, prior research focused on planning of an individual curriculum or making study plan for students. Curriculum planning at the program level is an under-researched topic. A robust model has not been constructed to address curriculum selection and credit allocation problems simultaneously. To help educational leaders make the most appropriate curriculum plan corresponding to their goals with the highest level of utility achieved, this study presents a new decision support framework with integrated approach. In the proposed framework, based on the competency weights derived from the analytical hierarchy process method, the importance of each potential curriculum is evaluated using the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method. An exploratory estimation is made to calculate the contribution values of competency development by each curriculum taught at different levels. Finally, multichoice goal programming with utility function determines the curriculum to be provided and corresponding credits to minimize the aggregate deviations from predefined goals with multiple aspirations. An application to curriculum planning of an undergraduate supply chain management program is presented to validate the flexibility and practicality of the proposed approach. The implications of the study are not restricted to curriculum planning of supply chain management program.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.