Managing the Hyflex Scheduling Activity Using Excel Dynamic Arrays

Larry J. LeBlanc (), Thomas A. Grossman () and Michael R. Bartolacci ()
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Larry J. LeBlanc: Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37203
Thomas A. Grossman: Business Analytics & Information Systems, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94611
Michael R. Bartolacci: Berks, Information Sciences & Technology, Pennsylvania State University, Reading, Pennsylvania 19610

INFORMS Transactions on Education, 2024, vol. 24, issue 3, 201-219

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the rapid adoption of remote teaching modalities including “hyflex” where students attend some class sessions in person and some online. Managing the hyflex course requires faculty to quickly generate several reports and to update these reports rapidly when the authorities adjust the rules, students add/drop, or the number of course sessions is changed. The creation of these reports is tedious and error-prone, so they need to be automated. However, the nature of the task precludes traditional Excel programming approaches. We use Excel’s new “dynamic array” capabilities (which are available only in Excel 365) to automate the creation and updating of the reports needed to manage the hyflex course. We show how to program the reports, and we discuss the importance of taking an iterative approach to creating effective, error-free cell formulas. To help the reader acquire genuine access to the dynamic array functions, we provide a practical tutorial on the principles and new concepts of dynamic arrays, explain how they relate to legacy array functions, and present selected dynamic array functions including SEQUENCE, FILTER, and XLOOKUP.

Keywords: scheduling; hyflex; dynamic arrays; Excel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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