A Novel MCDM Approach Based on OPA-WINGS for Policy Making in Undergraduate Elective Courses

Abstract

This research develops a novel MCDM approach that combines the ordinal priority approach (OPA) and a weighted influence nonlinear gauge system (WINGS), for policy making about undergraduate programs and specifically elective courses. We interviewed eight professors at the School of Engineering, Universidad Catolica del Norte, who are highly engaged in organizing elective courses to obtain their prioritization criteria for offering them to undergraduate students. We proposed and applied an MCDM approach based on OPA-WINGS to rank criteria that make the process of planning future electives courses to offer more straightforward. We found that scientific thinking, Industries’ needs, and the School’s research lines are the main criteria for designing a new elective class. We conducted a sensitivity analysis to demonstrate de robustness of the suggested measures. This work illustrates how OPA-WINGS can improve decision-making for offering elective courses. The results indicate that Industries’ needs and School’s research lines strongly impact undergraduate programs’ direction.

Keywords

• multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM)
• ordinal priority approach (OPA)
• weighted influence nonlinear gauge system (WINGS)
• policy making
• undergraduate program