Beginner help - making class assignment

[khall56]

Hi,
I feel there should be a way to automate this, I'm just not seeing it.
I have a list of participants, each have chosen 5 out of 8 possible classes.

Classes are offered multiple times over 2 days, 4 classes at a time.

I have the class times and schedule.

My goal is to assign 'students' to their classes, avoiding timing conflicts.

I don't want 'student 1' to be scheduled for two classes at the same time.

I know schools do this so there must be a process already figured out.
Any help is appreciated -

Kimm

 

[khall56]

I realize I may need to provide more info:

In my worksheet, I have a list of participants in Col A.
Col B - I (row 1) list all the classes available.

Each participant ranked their top 5 choices across the row with their name.

I have this:
Participant Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4 Class 5 Class 6 Class 7 Class 8
student 1 1 5 3 4 2
student 2 4 2 1 5 3
student 3 2 1 4 5 3
etc.

Each class can have a maximum of 25 participants (and will be offered 3 times)
Each participant will 'get' all five of their classes.
Classes are held in 5 sessions, 4 classes per session.
Each class is offered only once per session.

Problem: how to assign participants to classes so they have no schedule conflicts.

I think it may have to be done day by day or session by session, I'm not sure, but this is similar to High Schools creating Student Schedules.
So the concept is out there, just not sure how to make it work in Excel.

Thanks.