index.html

---
layout: default
title: Home
---
<a class="button is-medium is-rounded has-text-white" href="{{ '/final.html' | prepend: site.baseurl }}" style="background-color: rgb(1, 40, 85);">
  <span class="icon is-medium" style="margin-right:5px;"><i class="fas fa-graduation-cap"></i></span>
  Course Selection
</a>
<div class="mt-4">
  <h3 class="title is-3">About</h3>
  <p>
    TLDR; This project aims to look at course prerequisites in a graphical way.
    Links will be represented as arrows and courses will be represented as nodes.
  </p>
  <p>
    The original purpose of this site was to explore different ways
    prerequisites of university courses can be explored. Unfortunately, due to
    the nature of the project, I was unable to attain permission to use the
    course data of my university,
    <a href="https://www.usfca.edu/">University of San Francisco</a>.
  </p>
  <br/>
  <p>
    While the data of this site needs to change, this does not mean the
    motivation behind this site has changed. Throughout my semesters at the
    <a href="https://www.usfca.edu/">University of San Francisco</a>, I have
    nearly always struggled with registration whether it be a prerequisite,
    hold, waitlist, and/or restriction. While I cannot fix some of these issues,
    I can do my best to alleviate mishaps or miscalculations on my own part.
  </p>
  <br/>
  <p>
    Specifically, I want to focus on prerequisites. This is an easily avoidable
    issue when registering. Advisors have been extremely helpful in this regard.
    However, I personally never had the easiest time navigating my university's
    registration page. I feel like a visual representation would have been
    irreplaceable when I was registering for courses, especially for those last
    minute changes to a planned schedule and back up schedule. This is
    especially true since I tend to process things better as simple
    visualizations or images rather than a blurb of text.
  </p>
  <br/>
  <p>
    In the first paragraph I mentioned that I was unable use the course data for
    my own university. Fortunately, the
    <a href="https://illinois.edu/">University of Illinois</a>
    has
    <a href="https://courses.illinois.edu/cisdocs/">public API access</a>
    to their catalog and schedule. More information about how it was used can be
    seen on this
    <a href="{{ "/data.html" | prepend: site.baseurl }}">page</a>.
  </p>
</div>
<div class="mt-4">
  <h3 class="title is-3">Future Work</h3>
  <p>
    As you might suspect, I would love to be able to work with the data from my
    own university. This would be much more personal project for me.
    However, since I am unable to do so, I am still hoping the ideas will still
    be interesting to evaluate.
  </p>
  <br/>
  <p>
    Currently corequisites, "or" vs "and", and complex requirements are not
    considered. This begins to complicate the graph, so this is offered as
    details on demand. I would love feedback on how these
    relationships can be properly represented. For example, a node with many
    outdegrees seems to imply a high number of prerequisites. However, this
    would not be the case if it was a choice between each of the outdegrees (or
    as opposed to and). One option is colored links but it does not resolve
    more complex prerequisites such as class A and class B or class C and class
    D.
  </p>
  <br/>
  <p>
    I have no intention of this site ever becoming a full end to end solution
    for registering and applying for courses. However, it would be amazing if
    this could be part of a larger system to help visualize requirements for a
    given major. This would likely entail a list of required courses (or perhaps
    remaining courses). These would serve as the root(s) for the filtering
    search. In that same regard, it would interesting to divide the nodes by the
    years a student is intended to take a course or perhaps by upper and lower
    division. This would result in a more linear and "locked" graph. This would
    likely utilize forceX to snap certain course types.
  </p>
  <br/>
  <img src="{{ "/assets/images/link1.png" | prepend: site.baseurl }}" alt="Linear Linking" />
  <br/>
  <p>
    Another interesting idea would be to use this graph to supplement a course
    plan. As a student begins to complete courses, the graph could start showing
    which courses can be taken next with colors.
  </p>
  <br/>
  <p>
    One last idea is to invert the entire graph. The use of this also changes.
    Instead of showing what is needed to take a course, it flips to become an
    opportunity graph. It will instead represent what courses you have the
    opportunity to take given the courses that you have already taken.
  </p>
</div>