Second-choice school list generation device, second-choice school list generation method, and program

Abstract

To provide a second-choice school list generation device that can generate a second-choice school list by taking an account of motivations for applying second-choice schools other than academic achievement scores and chances of acceptance.SOLUTION: A second-choice school list generation device includes: a database for storing first-choice schools, second-choice schools, academic achievement scores, and genders of past users in a group of past users representing users who took entrance examinations for schools in a prescribed school district in the previous year or earlier; a data acquisition unit for acquiring first-choice schools of current year's users representing users who will take entrance examinations for schools in the prescribed school district this year, the academic achievement scores of the current year's users, and the genders of the current year's users; and a second-choice school list generation unit for acquiring second-choice schools from the database for the group of the past users whose first-choice schools are the same as the current year's users', whose absolute difference in the academic achievement scores is a prescribed threshold or less, and whose genders match the current year's users', and generating a second-choice school list.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a device, a method, and a program for generating a list of schools to which a student can apply. [Background technology]

[0002] An example of prior art related to career guidance support is Patent Document 1. The career guidance support program in Patent Document 1 aims to support advanced career guidance, and displays a possible deviation value band based on multiple possible deviation value ranges for each school, each of which is assigned a pass / fail probability judgment for a predetermined deviation value range. The student deviation value band is displayed as a band showing the highest and lowest deviation values ​​from the student's past deviation values. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 6895164 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] Conventional career guidance support systems were unable to take into account motivations for taking multiple school applications other than deviation scores and the likelihood of passing, and therefore were unable to provide career guidance that took into account the user's various motivations for taking multiple school applications.

[0005] Therefore, the present disclosure aims to provide a device for generating a list of alternative schools that can generate a list of alternative schools while taking into consideration motivations for taking the exams at alternative schools other than deviation scores and chances of passing. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The alternative school list generating device of the present disclosure includes a database, a data acquisition unit, and an alternative school list generating unit.

[0007] The database stores the first-choice school, secondary schools, deviation scores, and gender of each past user in a group of past users who took exams for schools in a specified school category in the previous year or earlier.

[0008] The data acquisition unit acquires the first-choice school of the user this year who is taking an exam for a school in a predetermined school category this year, the deviation score of the user this year, and the gender of the user this year.

[0009] The alternative school list generation unit generates a list of alternative schools by retrieving from the database alternative schools in a group of past users who have the same first-choice school as the current year's user, whose absolute difference in deviation value is below a predetermined threshold, and who are of the same gender. [Effects of the Invention]

[0010] According to the disclosed device for generating a list of alternative schools, a list of alternative schools can be generated taking into consideration motivations for taking the exams at alternative schools other than deviation scores and chances of passing. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0011] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of the device for generating a list of schools to which a student has applied in the first embodiment. [Figure 2] 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the multiple application school list generation device of the first embodiment. [Figure 3] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example in which users with the same first choice school have different commuting distances. [Figure 4] A diagram showing example 1 of sorting a list of schools to apply to. [Figure 5] A figure showing example 2 of sorting the list of schools to apply to. [Figure 6] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of a computer. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0012] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail. Note that components having the same functions are assigned the same numbers, and redundant explanations will be omitted. [Example]

[0013] Other than the deviation value and chance of passing mentioned above, other reasons for applying to multiple schools include the following 1)-8).

[0014] 1) Test date If the exam date for your alternate school overlaps with the exam date for another alternate school, or with your first choice school, you will not be able to take either of them in the first place.

[0015] 2) Deadline for application If the deadline for applying to a school you have applied to and that you have been accepted to is later than the date of the results announcement for the school you are more interested in, you will have no choice but to apply to the school you have applied to and that you have been accepted to, so in some cases we do not recommend applying to that school because of the order of the deadline for applying and the results announcement date.

[0016] 3) Exam order Generally, it is considered desirable to schedule exam dates for alternative schools before the exam date for the first-choice school. It is assumed that students will become accustomed to the environment through the exams at alternative schools and be in good condition to take the exam for their first-choice school. Conventional career guidance support systems may not recommend alternative schools based on the order of exam dates.

[0017] 4) Location of the school In general, it is important for students to have a school within commuting distance. Since the first-choice school is determined by the student and their parents after careful consideration of location, this point is often taken into consideration. However, traditional career guidance support systems may not recommend alternative schools within commuting distance for students.

[0018] 5) Consideration of the complex examination system For example, in the case of high school entrance exams, the same high school may divide the exam into two dates, with the first exam being weighted more heavily on school records and the second exam being weighted more heavily on the score given on the day of the exam. National university exams also have different pass standards for the first and second semesters.

[0019] Students and parents want to decide which schools to apply to, taking into account the complex entrance examination system, in order to give themselves or their children the greatest advantage possible, but traditional career guidance support systems sometimes do not take these circumstances into consideration.

[0020] 6) School spirit Generally, students and parents tend to want to choose a school with a similar school atmosphere to their first choice school as their second choice school, but traditional career guidance support systems do not take the school atmosphere of the second choice school into consideration.

[0021] 7) Type of school: coeducational, boys' school, girls' school Generally, students and parents tend to want to choose a school as their second choice that is the same type of coeducational, boys' school, or girls' school as their first choice school, but with traditional career guidance support systems, there are cases where the type of coeducational, boys' school, or girls' school of the second choice school is not taken into consideration.

[0022] 8) School environment, school activities, extracurricular activities, etc. In addition to this, students and parents may also be motivated to decide on their preferred school or schools to apply to by factors such as the school's surroundings, school activities (classes, study abroad programs, events, supplementary classes, uniforms, etc.), and extracurricular activities. Conventional career guidance support systems do not take into account factors such as the school's surroundings, school activities, and extracurricular activities.

[0023] Conventional career guidance support systems cannot take into account the complex reasons for applying to multiple schools, as described in 1)-8) above, so in the end, students and parents cannot rely on the system and often decide which schools to apply to in consultation with career guidance counselors. Educational services such as correspondence courses and cram schools do not provide information on students who have taken exams in previous years. i) What level of academic ability? ii) What kind of students iii) Which schools should you choose as your first choice and as your second choice? iv) What were the results of the exam? In some cases, a huge amount of data is stored about the above. The alternative school list generation device of the first embodiment disclosed below can generate an alternative school list that takes into account the above-mentioned complex reasons for applying by utilizing the above-mentioned huge amount of data as a database.

[0024] The terms used in this specification are defined below.

[0025] <Schools in designated school categories> School category refers to the type of school, specifically, elementary school, junior high school, high school, secondary education school, university, graduate school, junior college, technical college, special needs school, kindergarten, vocational school, and miscellaneous school. The alternative school list generation device of this embodiment is a device that can be used without limiting the school category. For example, the alternative school list generation device of this embodiment can generate a list of alternative schools for junior high school entrance exams, and can also generate a list of alternative schools for high school and university entrance exams. In this embodiment, the term "school in a specified school category" refers to any of the schools listed above that require passing a relative evaluation test indicated by a deviation value for admission and that can be applied to in addition to other schools.

[0026] <Past users> A past user is a user who took an exam at a school in a specified school category in the previous year or earlier.

[0027] <This year's users> A current year user is a user who will take an exam at a school in a specified school category this year.

[0028] <First choice school> This refers to the school chosen by students and parents as their most preferred school. In this specification, if the same school has multiple entrance exams, each will be treated as a separate event. For example, if School A has a first and second entrance exam, choosing School A's first exam as your first choice will be treated differently from choosing School A's second exam as your first choice.

[0029] <Schools you can apply to> This refers to a school that a student or parent selects as their Nth choice (N is an integer greater than or equal to 2), a backup school, or a practice school. As with first-choice schools, if the same school has multiple entrance exams, these will be treated as separate schools.

[0030] The functional configuration of the alternative school list generation device 1 of this embodiment will be described below with reference to Figure 1. As shown in the figure, the alternative school list generation device 1 of this embodiment includes a database 10, a data acquisition unit 11, an alternative school list generation unit 12, an acceptance probability calculation unit 13, an exam date overlap determination unit 14, a region narrowing down unit 15, a sorting unit 16, and a display unit 17. Note that the display unit 17 may be replaced with a transmission unit.

[0031] The operation of each component will be described in detail below with reference to FIG.

[0032] <Database 10> The database 10 stores in advance the first-choice school, alternative schools, deviation scores, and gender of each past user in the group of past users. The database 10 may also store the pass / fail results of the past users' exams (which may be used in steps S12 and S16). The database 10 may also store the most recent exam dates for each school (which may be used in steps S14 and S16). The database 10 may also store in advance one or more of the following information: deviation score changes, qualification acquisition information, school report scores, extracurricular activities, etc.

[0033] <Data Acquisition Unit 11> The data acquisition unit 11 acquires the user's first-choice school for this year, the user's deviation score for this year, and the user's gender for this year (S11). Optionally, the data acquisition unit 11 may also acquire the schools that the user has applied to as alternatives listed in their most recent mock exam for this year (this may be used in step S16). The data acquisition unit 11 may also acquire one or more pieces of information such as deviation score changes, qualification acquisition information, school report scores, and extracurricular activities.

[0034] <School Application List Generator 12> The alternative school list generation unit 12 generates a list of alternative schools by obtaining from the database 10 alternative schools in a group of past users who have the same first-choice school as the current year's user, whose absolute value of the difference in deviation value is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, and who are of the same gender as the current year's user (S12). The alternative school list generation unit 12 may also generate a list of alternative schools by obtaining from the database 10 alternative schools in a group of past users who, in addition to the above conditions, are similar in one or more of deviation value change, qualification acquisition information, school report score, and extracurricular activities.

[0035] The deviation value referred to here is preferably the deviation value from the most recent mock exam, as this properly reflects the current academic ability of the user this year. The deviation value of a past user used for comparison is preferably from the same period as the deviation value of the current year's user.

[0036] If the threshold τ of the absolute value |Δ| of the difference Δ in deviation values ​​is set to, for example, τ=2, then the condition |Δ|≦2 is met, and past users within the range of the deviation value of the current year user ±2 will be extracted. For example, if the deviation value of the current year user is 61, the data of past users with deviation values ​​of 59-63 will be used to generate the list of schools to which they have applied.

[0037] The list of alternative schools is typically generated in the fall or winter when applications begin to be collected, but this is not limited to this. For example, the list may be generated based on the deviation scores of mock exams taken in the summer or spring of the year in which the exam is to be taken.

[0038] For example, the reasons for using the user's gender to generate a list of schools to which they have applied are as follows.

[0039] I) If the student's first choice school is a coeducational school, the student may choose an all-boys school or an all-girls school depending on their gender. If the student does not choose a school that is appropriate for their gender, they will not be able to receive appropriate career guidance.

[0040] II) Men and women may consider different points important when choosing schools to apply to, and may have different reasons for applying.

[0041] The alternative school list generating unit 12 may generate the alternative school list by narrowing it down to a group of past users who were accepted into their first choice school.

[0042] For example, in the case of "2) the order of taking the exams" mentioned above as one of the reasons for wanting to apply to multiple schools, it is conceivable that the order of taking the exams was appropriate, allowing the student to become familiar with the environment and take the exam for their first-choice school in good condition, which resulted in them being able to win admission to their first-choice school. In this sense, it can be said that the group of past users who were accepted into their first-choice school should be used as a reference more than the group of other past users.

[0043] In addition, if the alternative school list generation unit 12 obtains the alternative schools that the user has listed in the most recent mock exam this year using the option described above, it may generate the alternative school list excluding the alternative schools listed in the mock exam.

[0044] The purpose of generating a list of alternative schools is to identify suitable alternative schools that have been overlooked, so if a student has listed alternative schools on their mock exams, they do not necessarily need to be included in the list of alternative schools.

[0045] <Possibility of passing calculation section 13> The success probability calculation unit 13 calculates the success probability of each of the alternative schools in the alternative school list based on the deviation value of the user this year and the deviation value of each of the alternative schools in the alternative school list (S13). The success probability may be included as one of the pieces of information in the alternative school list, or may be used for sorting, which will be described later. Any conventionally known method may be used to calculate the success probability.

[0046] <Exam Date Overlap Judgment Section 14> The exam date overlap determination unit 14 refers to the latest exam date in the database 10 and determines whether or not the exam dates of the alternative schools in the list of alternative schools overlap, and whether or not the exam dates of the alternative schools and the first choice school overlap (S14).

[0047] Since past users have also selected schools to which they applied so that their exam dates would not overlap, if the exam dates have not changed between the past and the current school year, there will be no overlapping exam dates this year. However, in reality, schools often change exam dates for various reasons. There are cases where a multiple application pattern that was possible in the past is no longer possible this year due to exam date changes.

[0048] In order to correctly determine whether or not there are overlapping test dates, the database 10 stores the most recent test dates for each school.

[0049] <Regional Refinement Section 15> The area narrowing unit 15 narrows down the list of schools to which the user has applied this year based on the area category to which the user's address belongs or the area category of the location of the educational service the user will attend this year (S15).

[0050] For example, as shown in Figure 3, if the first choice school for a given current year user x, past user p, and past user q is all school A, the commuting range for past user p (the area inside the dashed circle in the figure), the commuting range for past user q (the area inside the long dashed circle in the figure), and the commuting range for this year user x (the area inside the solid circle in the figure) may differ.

[0051] In such a case, School B, which is within the dashed circle and was selected as a secondary school by past user p, and School C, which is within the long dashed circle and was selected as a secondary school by past user q, will be listed in the secondary school list, but it is possible that they may be outside the commuting range of user x this year.

[0052] Therefore, it is preferable to narrow down the list of schools to which the user is currently applying by the region to which the user's address ε belongs (the area inside the circle indicated by the dashed line in the figure). Note that the location of the educational service (such as a cram school) that the user is attending this year may be used instead of the user's address this year.

[0053] The area divisions may be divisions that are uniquely defined by the educational service, or divisions that are defined based on city, ward, town, village, etc.

[0054] <Sorting section 16> The sorting unit 16 sorts the list of schools to which the applicants have applied in accordance with the sorting request (S16). Suitable sorting keys include, for example, the number of successful applicants (in descending order), the test date (earliest order), and the probability of passing (highest order).

[0055] An example of a list of alternative schools sorted in descending order of the number of successful applicants is shown in Figure 4. In the example shown in the figure, the first-choice school, School A, is included in the alternative school list (see the shaded row in the figure), but this is not limited to this, and the first-choice school may be omitted.

[0056] Figure 5 shows an example of a list of alternative schools sorted by earliest exam date. In the example shown, the left side of the table lists the first-choice and alternative schools that the user has listed in their mock exams this year, and the right side of the table displays the list of alternative schools suggested by the system. In the example shown, the exam dates for School A, the first-choice school, and School α, the alternative school suggested by the system, overlap. In addition, the exam dates for School B, the alternative school specified by the user, and School β, the alternative school suggested by the system, overlap, and the exam dates for School D, the alternative school specified by the user, and School δ, the alternative school suggested by the system, overlap.

[0057] In the example shown in the figure, the left side is the user-specified column and the right side is the system-proposed column, making it easy to see overlapping test dates, but if a different sorting method is used, it may be difficult to see overlapping test dates. Therefore, if the result of the test date overlap determination in step S14 indicates overlapping test dates, it would be even more effective to add an alert message to the list of schools to which the applicant has applied that there are overlapping test dates.

[0058] <Display section 17> The display unit 17 displays the sorted or unsorted list of alternative schools (S17). As mentioned above, the display unit 17 may be replaced with a transmission unit. For example, if the educational service is a correspondence course business, and the alternative school list is to be viewed via the web, the generated alternative school list is transmitted to a user terminal (not shown).

[0059] <Additional Notes> The functions performed by the components described herein may be implemented in circuitry or processing circuitry, including general-purpose processors, application-specific processors, integrated circuits, ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits), a CPU (a Central Processing Unit), conventional circuits, and / or combinations thereof, programmed to perform the described functions. A processor includes transistors and other circuits and is considered to be circuitry or processing circuitry. A processor may also be a programmed processor that executes programs stored in memory.

[0060] In this specification, a circuitry, unit, or means is hardware that is programmed to realize or performs the described functions, which may be any hardware disclosed herein or any hardware known to be programmed to realize or perform the described functions.

[0061] If the hardware is a processor considered to be a type of circuitry, the circuitry, means, or unit is a combination of the hardware and software used to configure the hardware and / or processor.

[0062] The various processes described above can be implemented by loading a program that executes each step of the above method into the recording unit 10020 of the computer shown in Figure 6 and operating the control unit 10010, input unit 10030, output unit 10040, etc.

[0063] The program describing the processing contents can be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, which may be, for example, a magnetic recording device, an optical disk, a magneto-optical recording medium, a semiconductor memory, or any other suitable recording medium.

[0064] The program may be distributed, for example, by selling, transferring, lending, etc. a portable recording medium such as a DVD or CD-ROM on which the program is recorded. Furthermore, the program may be stored in a storage device of a server computer, and then transferred from the server computer to another computer via a network, thereby distributing the program.

[0065] A computer that executes such a program may first temporarily store the program recorded on a portable recording medium or transferred from a server computer in its own storage device. Then, when executing a process, the computer reads the program stored on its own recording medium and executes the process in accordance with the read program. Alternatively, the computer may read the program directly from a portable recording medium and execute the process in accordance with the program. Furthermore, the computer may execute the process in accordance with the program each time a program is transferred from a server computer to the computer. The server computer may not transfer the program to the computer, but may instead execute the process through a so-called ASP (Application Service Provider) service, which realizes the processing function by issuing an execution instruction and obtaining the results. Furthermore, the server computer may execute the process on a terminal using a so-called SaaS (Software as a Service) service, which allows users to use part of the server computer along with the program. In this embodiment, the program includes information used for computer processing that is equivalent to a program (such as data that is not a direct instruction to the computer but has properties that define computer processing).

[0066] Furthermore, in this embodiment, the device is configured by executing a predetermined program on a computer, but at least a part of the processing contents may be realized by hardware.

Claims

1. A database that stores the first-choice school, secondary schools, deviation scores, and gender of each past user in a group of past users who took exams for schools in a predetermined school category in the previous year or earlier; a data acquisition unit that acquires the first-choice school of the user this year who is taking an exam for a school in the predetermined school category this year, the deviation score of the user this year, and the gender of the user this year; and a concurrent application school list generation unit that generates a concurrent application school list by acquiring from the database schools that have been applied to in a group of past users who have the same first-choice school as the current year user, for whom the absolute value of the difference in deviation value is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, and who are of the same gender as the current year user. A device for generating a list of schools to apply to.

2. 2. The device for generating a list of schools to which a student has applied according to claim 1, The database comprises: The pass / fail results of the test taken by the past users are stored, The concurrent application school list generation unit Generate a list of schools to which the user has applied by narrowing down the list to the group of past users who have been accepted into the first-choice school. A device for generating a list of schools to apply to.

3. 2. The device for generating a list of schools to which a student has applied according to claim 1, and an acceptance probability calculation unit that calculates the acceptance probability of each of the alternative schools in the alternative school list based on the deviation value of the user for the current year and the deviation value of each of the alternative schools in the alternative school list. A device for generating a list of schools to apply to.

4. 2. The device for generating a list of schools to which a student has applied according to claim 1, The database comprises: It remembers the latest exam dates for each school, and a test date overlap determination unit that determines whether or not test dates of the alternative schools overlap among the list of alternative schools, and whether or not test dates of the alternative schools overlap with those of the first choice school. A device for generating a list of schools to apply to.

5. 2. The device for generating a list of schools to which a student has applied according to claim 1, and a region narrowing unit that narrows down the list of schools to which the user is currently applying based on the region to which the user's address belongs or the region to which the educational service provider the user is currently attending is located. A device for generating a list of schools to apply to.

6. 4. The device for generating a list of schools to which a student has applied according to claim 3, The database comprises: It remembers the latest exam dates for each school, an exam date overlap determination unit that determines whether exam dates of the alternative schools in the list of alternative schools overlap, and whether exam dates of the alternative schools and the first choice school overlap; and a region narrowing unit that narrows down the list of schools to which the user is currently applying based on the region to which the user's address belongs or the region to which the educational service provider the user is currently attending is located. A device for generating a list of schools to apply to.

7. 2. The device for generating a list of schools to which a student has applied according to claim 1, The database comprises: The pass / fail results of the test taken by the past users are stored, A sorting unit that sorts the list of schools applied to in descending order of the number of successful applicants A device for generating a list of schools to apply to.

8. 2. The device for generating a list of schools to which a student has applied according to claim 1, The database comprises: It remembers the latest exam dates for each school, A sorting unit sorts the list of schools to which the applicants have applied in order of the earliest exam date. A device for generating a list of schools to apply to.

9. 4. The device for generating a list of schools to which a student has applied according to claim 3, A sorting unit sorts the list of schools to which the applicants have applied in order of likelihood of success. A device for generating a list of schools to apply to.

10. 2. The device for generating a list of schools to which a student has applied according to claim 1, The data acquisition unit Obtain the schools that the user applied to this year and listed in their most recent mock exams, The concurrent application school list generation unit Generate the list of schools to which the user has applied this year, excluding schools that the user has applied to in the most recent mock exam. A device for generating a list of schools to apply to.

11. 2. The device for generating a list of schools to which a student has applied according to claim 1, The database comprises: It stores one or more of the following: deviation score changes, qualification acquisition information, school report scores, and extracurricular activities, The data acquisition unit Acquire one or more of the deviation value change, the qualification acquisition information, the school report score, and the extracurricular activities; The concurrent application school list generation unit A list of alternative schools is generated by obtaining from the database alternative schools in a group of past users who have the same first-choice school as the current year user, whose absolute value of the difference in deviation value is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, whose gender matches, and whose deviation value change, qualification acquisition information, school report score, and / or extracurricular activities are similar to those of the current year user. A device for generating a list of schools to apply to.

12. A method for generating a list of alternative schools executed by a device for generating a list of alternative schools, including a database that stores the first-choice school, alternative schools, deviation scores, and gender of each past user in a group of past users who have taken exams for schools in a predetermined school category in the previous year or earlier, comprising: A step of acquiring a first-choice school of the user this year who is a user taking an exam for a school in the predetermined school category this year, a deviation score of the user this year, and a gender of the user this year; and generating a list of schools that the user has applied to in addition to the current school from the database, in a group of past users who have the same first-choice school as the current school user, whose absolute value of the difference in deviation value is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, and whose gender matches the current school user. How to generate a list of schools to apply to.

13. A program that causes a computer to function as the device for generating a list of alternative schools according to any one of claims 1 to 11.

Images