This is a big one!
Many counselors know the frustration of working with the conflict matrix, having to manually examine it and then having to find solutions.
The traditional and out of date conflict matrix is not really helpful in that it only shows you the conflict intersections, but doesn’t give a good indication of where to start from, to make the changes that are needed, since the master scheduler, students and courses are so interdependent and integrated with each other.
When looking at the conflict matrix, what often appear to be solutions in fact do not work out to be good solutions; because you are working with conflict intersections you can only pursue one intersection at a time and this does not give you a complete picture of the totality of solutions available, across the board for all the scheduled courses. This is like looking the tip of an iceberg, and from that, making your assumptions of what the rest of the iceberg should look like underneath; you can only guess at the size, form and structure below.
After you fix one course conflict intersection, you move on to the next, so what happens is that counselors spend a lot of time in this maze, chasing at solution in a ‘giant course scheduler labyrinth’.
A typical USA schedule has many billions of possible permutations and trying to negotiate that with a conflict matrix is like trying to sail without any GPS or compass. Just because you are sailing and moving does not necessarily mean that you are making progress in the right direction and for this you need the proper tools – AUTOMATED SOLUTION MATRIX.
So what we have done with the quantum leap jump is to improve upon the conflict matrix, and created a SOLUTION MATRIX.
This solution matrix differs from the conflict matrix in many ways. As the name indicates, it transcribes the conflict matrix into solutions and only works with solutions. It is also multidimensional, breaking through the chains of working on a one or two dimensional level.
The Solution Matrix works with all the intersections at the same time and in parallel. It is fully incorporated, for example, as in a group discussion - in a group the collective wisdom will always be higher than that of any individual person in that group. And so it is like talking to every person in a group, rather than focusing on one or two people in the group before moving onto the next. This is very much a democratic way to making sure that the solutions benefit the group in totality rather than the singletons, doubletons and tripletons. In a similar way, the Solution Matrix taps into the collective wisdom of your scheduler information.
The conflict matrix usually only focuses on singletons and doubletons. Our Solution Matrix surpasses singletons and doubletons and can move up to trippletons, quadruples and more without any hesitation.
The Solution Matrix is built into the intelligence of the program and does everything for you automatically. This is in line with our vision to get you through your master scheduling season as easily, smoothly, quickly, and as enjoyably as possible, so you can go and enjoy your holidays.