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Let us introduce you to Course Match 2
In order to understand course match you need to know three terms. Utilities We re using utility here as an economic term. If you aren t already you ll be very familiar with this use by the end of the fall semester. You use utilities to express your relative desire for a specific section. Clearing Prices Course Match takes an aggregate look at everyone s relative utilities and assigns a Clearing Price to each course section. Budget Each student has an allocation of tokens that Course Match uses to buy a schedule. When purchasing sections for you, Course Match cannot exceed your budget. 3
Course Match works in three steps: First, you report your utilities to Course Match. <CLICK> Then, Course Match uses the relative utilities of all MBA students to establish a clearing price for each section. Once it knows the clearing prices it will buy the best possible schedule for you. <CLICK> Finally, shortly before classes start, a Drop/add period allows you to make final adjustments to your schedule. 4
The problem that Course Match is trying to solve is certainly not new, neither is the methodology employed by the system. But as you can see, this isn t a simple problem we are trying to solve for. What s new about Course Match is the computing horsepower employed to solve this problem. Thanks to cloud computing technology we now have that power and we re using it to your advantage. Course Match has a very simple goal to make as many students as happy as possible. Other solutions to this problem were less than optimal when completed there were many different outcomes that could have made some students better off without making others worse off. Unlike other programs of its kind, Course Match can guarantee that you will get the best possible schedule based on your reported utilities, budget and credit unit limit. 5
The best way to explain Course Match is to work from an example The data we are going to show you comes from an actual test of the system. Let s take a look at the utilities of one such student, we ll call her Jennifer, and the schedule Course Match eventually purchased for her. 6
By way of orientation, most of you will probably take some combination of fixed and flexible core classes during your first semester here at Wharton. We ll talk about each of these classes in more detail during our meeting later this week but for the purposes of Course Match, here is what you need to know. Fixed Core classes that you have not waived, we will register for you. Course Match will know that you are registered for these courses and will prevent you from assigning utility to course sections that meet at the same time. These fixed core courses will not appear at all in Course Match you need not assign utility to them. The courses on the right, you must assign utility if you want them added to your schedule. These include all flexible core courses and sections of communications. There are some specific rules concerning the communications sections that we ll discuss later. 7
In Course Match you can assign relative preference, again we call them utilities on a scale of 0 to 100 for as many course sections as you are eligible to take. When assigning relative utilities, a lot of people like to start with their topmost value then assign everything else relative to that. That s what Jessica did. Her most preferred section is Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship so she assigned a utility of 100 to that section. She then assigned utilities to other sections to indicate her relative interest in them. 8
Your utilities are weighted by a course s credit unit value. Multiply your utility for a section by the course s credit unit value and you get your weighted utility. A utility of 100 times one credit unit equals a weighted utility of 100. That weighted utility value is important to keep in mind when assigning utilities for ½ credit unit classes. More on that in a bit. 9
Again, utilities are relative in this case relative to the utility of 100 that Jessica assigned to her most preferred course. At utilities of 91 and 90, we see that Jessica has a strong interest in Negotiations. And, her interest in Strategic Brand Management is ½ as strong relative to that of her most preferred section. 10
Notice that you can assign utilities across multiple sections of the same course the system knows to give you a maximum of one section of that course this applies to crosslisted courses as well. 11
Course Match also knows which core classes you wouldn t take together for example if you assigned utilities to both MGMT611: Managing the Established Enterprise and MGMT612: Managing the Emerging Enterprise, Course Match would know not to give you both. But it won t keep you from taking multiple iterations of the OPIM or MKTG flex core requirements. There is a way to keep from getting more than one section of these different courses that we ll talk about in a minute. 12
You can also assign utilities for sections offered at the same time. Again, Course Match knows to give you only one section in a single timeslot. 13
Course Match allows you to input the maximum number of credit units you wish to take during a semester. It will never give you a schedule with more than that number of credit units. If you don t assign enough preferences or you clump your preferences into unworkable time slots, it could give you less than your maximum credit units. That is one of the reasons that we strongly suggest you assign utility to every section you could see yourself taking. This is very important: this maximum CU number relates only to the credit units you want Course Match to purchase for you. If you are registered for 3CU of fixed core classes and you want Course Match to purchase an additional 2.25CU for you so that you have a total of 5.25CU in the fall semester, this number should be 2.25CU. 14
Remember, Course Match is your personal scheduling agent. It buys courses for you based on the utilities you report, section clearing prices and your budget. To Course Match, your most preferred schedule is one that is feasible meaning one that presents no time conflicts, that fits within your credit unit maximum and budget of course tokens and that maximizes your utilities. Based on these constraints 1. Course Match will not give you more than one section of the same course 2. Course Match will not give you more than one section that meets at a given time 3. Course Match will not give you more CU than you request this set of courses is Jessica s most preferred schedule. If these five courses are within her budget, Course Match will buy this schedule for her. If not it will proceed to her next most desirable schedule. 15
We don t expect you to keep all of this in your head. The user interface can calculate this for you. This next tool I am going to show you is probably the most important part of the Course Match interface. It s called the My Top Schedules tool. The Top Schedules tool allows you to see as many as 50 of your top schedules in order of preference. Enter the number of schedules you want Course Match show, click GO and it will show them in order of maximum utility. This What if tool allows you to see what would happen to your most preferred schedules if one or more sections is left out. And if you click this button here it will maximize the schedules tool. This will let you better visualize the various iterations of your schedule. Notice this number right here. This is the Schedule Value for Jessica s most preferred 16
schedule. The Schedule Value is simply the sum of weighted utilities of the classes shown in this schedule. This sequence of schedules is what matters most for Course Match because, remember, Course Match is going to buy your best possible schedule. If it can afford the schedule with the highest value great, that s what you ll get if not, it will go further down your list of top schedules until it finds the best one you can afford. Note that may not be in your top 50 depending on how you assign utilities. You can modify the schedule value and doing so, change your schedule simply by increasing or decreasing your utilities or by assigning utilities to two courses this is called making an adjustment. Adjustments allow you to express a shared utility, positive or negative, for the combination of two courses. 16
For example, Jessica s most preferred course is Legal Aspect of Entrepreneurship with a utility of 100. She also has a strong interest in the Venture Capital course, with a utility of 61. If Course Match added both courses to her schedule as is, the weighted utility these two classes would add to her schedule is 161. But if she could get both courses in her schedule it might be even more preferable, in which case she could add utility to the combination of the two classes. 17
Course Match lets you add a value up to 100 times the total number of credit units to a combination of two courses. In this example, we have two classes each worth 1 credit unit. So Jessica can add a utility of up to 200 to this combination. This adjustment, if made, would change Jessica s most preferred schedule 18
from this 19
to this. Course Match recognizes that if both sections of Venture Cap & Legal Aspects appear in Jessica s schedule, that combination would be worth an adjusted utility of 361 so it will try to add those two courses to her schedule. Note that her most preferred schedule no longer includes either section of Real Estate Investments because the first conflicts with the Venture Cap course and the second because Jessica has told Course Match she wants no more than five CU. This new schedule would be worth a utility of 591. Since we are dealing with relative utilities, if Jessica made this adjustment she would be telling Course Match that this schedule is considerably more preferable than the first schedule we looked at which had a utility or 401. Assigning adjustments can work both ways. You can tell Course Match that the combination of two courses has a lower utility. If you want only one of two sections and never both, you can tell Course Match that the combination is worth less than 0. In such a case, Course Match would never add the combination of those two sections to her schedule 20
Let s go back to Jessica s original top schedule, without the adjustments. Now assume that Jessica looks at this schedule and thinks, I d rather not be in class between 1:30 and 6:00pm on Monday. I could handle it on Wednesday, even Thursday but not Monday. If Course Match gives her Legal Aspects, she doesn t want that section of Real Estate Investments too. 21
So she adds an adjustment. In the add adjustment screen there is a radio button here at the bottom that states Never give me this combination Jessica selects the two courses by clicking the boxes next to them, then clicks on the box that states Never give me this combination. This assigns a combined utility of 2,000 to the pair. Really all you would need is an adjustment that makes the combination worth 1 but this accounts for students who may go a bit overboard with positive adjustments even though there is no incentive to do so since we are dealing with relative utilities. 22
Course Match changes her top schedule from this 23
to this. This illustrates another important point. Combinations operate by section, not course. Jessica still winds up with a section of Real Estate Investments, just at a different time. 24
On August 14 at 11:59pm Course Match will no longer allow you to change your utilities. This is when the system really gets to work. Using optimization algorithms, it establishes a clearing price for each section. In the most basic terms it looks at the relative demand for each section and the supply of seats in that section. If supply exceeds demand then the section price is set at 0, if demand exceeds supply the price of the course goes up until Course Match finds enough students whose utilities indicate they aren t willing to pay that premium. Once clearing prices are established Course Match uses your budget to buy your schedule. But not just any schedule. Course Match ensures that you are assigned your best possible schedule given your relative utilities, budget, credit unit maximum and course clearing prices. You can t do any better, and that s true for every student. 25
Your budget of Course Tokens is good for one semester. Unused tokens do not carry over. If you get everything you want at a comparably low price congratulations. If getting all you want means spending every last token, that s OK too. You start with 4,000 tokens. In the fall semester, that 4,000 is adjusted downward based on the number of fixed core credits you are required to take. We register you for these courses, you don t need to spend course tokens to get them so if you have to take 3CU of fixed core this fall you will have 1,900 tokens with which to bid for the remainder of your schedule. If you waive flex core nothing happens to your tokens because you aren t automatically registered for them. Immediately before it purchases your schedule, Course Match will add to your budget a semi random value. I say semi random only because no two students in the same year will get the same amount added to their budgets. These tokens will be added in very small increments we re talking tenths of a token. This is how Course Match breaks ties. No one will see the amount added to your budget until after Course Match has completed its run. 26
As a second year, because you need to get classes to compete your major and course requirements you get an additional 1,000 tokens 26
Let s take a look at what Course Match bought for Jess based on her utilities, a credit unit maximum of 5 and a budget of 5000 tokens. For the purpose of this exercise we ve removed all adjustments so we are only focused on the utilities you see here. The last two columns show the clearing price for each section and the stars indicate the sections added to her schedule. As we ve established, Course Match will buy your best possible schedule given your relative utilities, budget, credit unit maximum and course clearing prices. We established before that based on these preferences, Jessica s most preferred schedule had a value of 401. The schedule Course Match bought for her has a value of 387. Let s break that down. Jessica s most preferred class had a relatively low clearing price and was added to her schedule. 27
Jessica s most preferred section of Negotiations was very expensive. Remember, her budget is 5,000 tokens. If Course Match bought this class for her it couldn t afford her most preferred class. But she reported that she likes another section of the course nearly as much and it was much less expensive. So Course Match added it to her schedule. Notice here that Jessica reported no difference in utility between these two sections of Negotiations, leaving the system the flexibility to purchase either the cheaper of the two or the one that fit best into her schedule. 28
Jessica s most preferred Real Estate course conflicts with the Venture Capital course. Course Match recognizes that the second most preferred section of Real Estate Investments and the Venture Capital section together are worth more to her than the first section of Real Estate alone so it so it adds the two courses that maximize her schedule s value. 29
Now that you ve seen how the system works I want to go back and highlight something I touched on earlier. Remember what I said about weighted utilities. Your utilities are weighted by a course s credit unit value. Multiply your utility by the course s credit unit value and you get your weighted utility. Well let s say that instead of Jessica s most preferred section being Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship it s Entrepreneurship, a.5 credit unit course that meets Mondays and Wednesdays at 9:00am meaning that it conflicts with nothing else in her schedule. Jessica s weighted utility for that course would be 50. 30
Now assume that by some miracle the clearing price for every one of these courses is 0. Does Jessica get Entrepreneurship? No. With a value of 352, this would be Jessica s most preferred schedule. If Course Match gives Jessica Entrepreneurship it would create for her schedule has a utility of 350. What could Jessica do to get Entrepreneurship? Well, in this case she could report that she wants a maximum of either 5.5CU or 4.5CU. She could also decrease the utilities assigned to other courses or create an adjustment that increases the utility of Entrepreneurship along with that of another course this could work to her advantage when pairing two.5cu courses. 31
I know that many of you are thinking: What are the best strategies for entering in my utilities? Turns out that Course Match has some very simple strategic advice Don t be strategic! Report your true utilities. Remember, Course Match is YOUR scheduling agent. Once again, you will get your best possible schedule given your relative utilities, budget, credit unit maximum and course clearing prices. Reporting anything but your true relative utilities puts you at a disadvantage. You only need to focus on YOUR preferences. You do not have to worry about anyone else. 32
Sometimes though, your preferences change and you ll want to make a last minute adjustment. The drop/add period will allow you to do that. The drop/add period will begin as soon as schedules are reported. The first two days after schedules are reported as defined by an email from us in the MBAPO will be used as a buffer period. During this time you may enter the add drop system and place as many drop and add requests as you like. During this buffer period the system will not allow course and time conflicts for example if you try to add an additional section of Negotiations the system will generate a message informing you that if it can get you that other section of negotiations at the end of the buffer period then it will drop you from the section you presently own. The same holds for courses that meet at the same time. When the buffer period expires all of the drop requests will be automatically processed, the system will then randomize all add requests and process them based on the resulting randomized order. Those add requests that are not successful will generate waitlists which will operate on a first come first serve basis (regardless of class year) following the buffer period. 33
This is the timeline. If you did not sign up to take a waiver exam you will get access to Course Match tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday). We ll send you an informational email including a link to this presentation and a link to Course Match. If you did sign up to take a waiver exam we will be rolling in access to Course Match throughout the week. Every student will have access by Friday, August 9. By that date you will also have the results of any waiver or placement exams you may have taken. Course Match will know how many fixed core classes in which you are enrolled that s how it will know how many tokens to give you. It will also keep you from assigning preference to course sections that meet at the same time as your fixed core classes. This will keep you from spending tokens on classes you can t take. Course Match will further prohibit students from assigning preference to ACCT612 or FNCE612 unless you have either submitted the appropriate credentials or passed the appropriate exam. You have until August 14 at 11:59pm to set and adjust your preferences. Course Match runs beginning on August 15 and schedules are reported on August 21. The drop/add period begins immediately following. 34
As your academic advisor, we can and should meet to discuss what you want to get out of the academic experience here at Wharton. We ll go into more detail about what that means in our presentation later this week but right now it s crunch time. We need to get you registered for your fall semester and in order to do that we need to get you up to speed on Course Match. If you have waived quite a bit of the fixed core, we should definitely talk because you really have to know this system from day one. For those of you who have waived a few elements of the fixed core and intend to fill those vacant slots in your schedule, we suggest that you make a one on one appointment to meet with an academic advisor before Course Match runs on August 15. You can make an appointment by visiting the MBA Program SPIKE site spike.wharton.upenn.edu/mbaprogram and clicking the link titled Academic Advisor Appt. Scheduler. Now, unfortunately we are not going to have enough appointment space to meet with every one of you before August 15 but don t worry, we ll be hosting a series of Office Hours. 35
If you have a few questions, come to Office Hours and we ll go over those questions in a group setting. We ll also show you some tips at the end of this presentation that should make using Course Match this time around a lot easier. Once Course Match has run and we re into the rest of Pre Term and the fall semester then please, set up time to come in and let s talk about your academic plan but again, from now through August 15 it s all about getting you guys ready for Course Match. OK? We ve broken down office hours into sections and posted this entire schedule (including meeting room locations) to the MBAProgram spike site. 36
Now let s talk a bit more about your practical application of Course Match. Most of you will be registering for two or three credit units of coursework this fall semester and much of that coursework will take place within the fixed core. If you are one of the many students who plans to take ACCT611 or 613 this fall along with FNCE611 or MGMT611 or MGMT612 all of which we will discuss in the academics presentation here is how you may wish to assign your utilities. First though, the locks you see here are courses you are not eligible to take. If you see a lock on a course like ACCT612 in this case it would mean you did not submit the appropriate credentials or pass the waiver exam and so you are not eligible to take the course. It could also mean you ve already taken the course. If you feel as though you have a lock placed on a course section in error, please let us know. Now, let s say you want to take ACCT611 and you see that there are three sections of it available in Course Match to which you can assign preference a section at 9:00am, 10:30am and 12:00pm. If you really want to take ACCT611 in the fall semester you should assign utility for every one of these sections remember Course Match knows to only give you one section. Let s say you have absolutely no preference between the sections in this case you might assign each section a value of 100 and let Course Match choose. You could also tell Course Match that there is relatively little difference between the Courses but all things being equal, you d really prefer the 10:30am section. That might look something like this. 37
Or if you re really not a morning person You could then go on to assign utilities to other sections remember there is no limit in the number of utilities you may assign. The biggest restriction you ll note on your utilities during your fall semester is around the Communications sections. Remember how I said that if you assign a course a utility value of 0 then you will never get said course? Well during the fall semester you are required to take a section of communications, WHCP611. You cannot assign a utility lower than 1 to any section of WHCP611, if you try to do so the system will change your utilities to ensure that every section of WHCP611 that you can take has a value of 1 before it runs and you may wind up with a schedule other than what appears in your top schedules (so don t decrease the value of the WHCP611 courses) you can raise the utility of sections if you like in order to tell course match when you would prefer to take the course. Also, your schedule will always make room for a communications course for example if you tell Course Match your max is 5CU that may get bumped to 5.25CU. Now, remember what I said about Course Match knowing what classes you can and cannot take together? If you learn about the course offerings and decide you want to take ACCT in the fall semester, you want to take ACCT613 but if you can t get into the course you are willing to take ACCT611 you can tell that to Course Match. Same thing with Management. It doesn t hurt to give yourself a backup plan. We ll go into more detail around these strategies during our Office Hour sessions. 37
If you are among those who gets access tomorrow start using the system and asking questions. Those of you who won t get access until later in the week don t worry you are at no disadvantage, it does not matter when you assign utility provided you do so before August 14 at 11:59pm. Also, for those of you who get access tomorrow don t be shy about letting a classmate who may not have access peek over your shoulder he or she can gain no competitive advantage by knowing your reported utilities. If you don t have access but want to see what s available in Course Match so that you can begin to think about your utilities, research courses or ask questions, head over to the MBAPO SPIKE site in the Quick Links section you can download an excel sheet that will show you every course available in Course Match. 38
Come to an Office Hours presentation last year we found that most of you have the same or similar questions relating to Course Match. You can learn a lot from one another office hours are often more productive than one on one meetings because you ll hear answers to questions you didn t even think to ask. 39
That s Course Match. Questions? 40