SFG-GP: An effective tutoring system for goal programming

Most educational software packages for management science/operations research (MS/OR) introduced in the 1980s were designed mainly to obtain model solutions efficiently. As an effective teaching (or learning) aid, MS/OR software should be designed as a drill and practice program to encourage the student’s participation in solving a model. It should also provide clear explanations of the solution procedure. Consequently, educational MS/OR software should adopt a solution algorithm that can help students learn MS/OR models more effectively, rather than simply achieving computational efficiency. Thus, MS/OR software should ask questions, compare answers of the students and experts, and provide explanations to enhance students’ understanding of MS/OR techniques. To demonstrate these features, the authors developed SFG-GP (Signal Flow Graph Method of Goal Programming) which not only encourages students to participate in solution procedures, but also provides necessary explanations using predetermined sentences.