Web-based Advising System Using Fuzzy Logic

Abstract

Currently, universities in the United States begin to consider on-line advising services in order to promote E-learning programs. In response to this trend, we are developing a web-based advising system that incorporates standard expert system technologies: symbolic reasoning and fuzzy reasoning. We studied that symbolic reasoning by itself may enable advices based on many factors, such as degree requirements, prerequisites, student transcript, course announcements, course catalog, seat availability, and student weekly schedule. We further studied that the reasoning based on fuzzy logic increases the quality of the generated advice by using additional factors with uncertainties, such as possible future course offering, course preferences, and course priority. Web technologies make this system better accessible to students who live remotely, and to those who only take correspondence or on-line courses. A logic programming engine and Apache Tomcat are used for this implementation.