Generate student course schedules based on prerequisites with GPT and Google Sheets

Create a Fall 2025 course schedule for each student based on what they’ve already completed, catalog prerequisites, and term availability (Fall/Both). Reads students from Google Sheets → asks an AI agent to select exactly 5 courses (target 15–17 credits, no duplicates, prereqs enforced) → appends each student’s schedule to a schedule tab.

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🧠 Summary

• Trigger: Manual — “When clicking ‘Execute workflow’”
• I/O: Google Sheets in → OpenAI decisioning → Google Sheets out
• Ideal for: Registrars, advisors, degree-planning prototypes

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✅ What this template does

• Reads: StudentID, Name, Program, Year, CompletedCourses (pipe-separated CourseIDs) from Sheet1
• Decides: AI Scheduling Agent chooses 5 courses per student following catalog rules and prerequisites
• Writes: Appends StudentID + Schedule strings to schedule worksheet
• Credits target: 15–17 total per term
• Catalog rules (enforced in the agent prompt):
  • Use Fall or Both courses for Fall 2025
  • Enforce AND prereqs (e.g., CS-102|CS-103 means both)
  • Priority: Major Core → Major Elective → Gen Ed (include Gen Ed if needed)
  • No duplicates or already-completed courses
  • Prefer 200-level progression when prereqs allow

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⚙️ Setup (only 2 steps)

1) Connect Google Sheets (OAuth2)

• In n8n → Credentials → New → Google Sheets (OAuth2), sign in and grant access
• In the Google Sheets nodes, select your spreadsheet and these tabs:
  • Sheet1 (input students)
  • schedule (output)

> Example spreadsheet (replace with your own):
> - Input: .../edit#gid=0
> - Output: .../edit#gid=572766543

2) Connect OpenAI (API Key)

• In n8n → Credentials → New → OpenAI API, paste your key
• In the OpenAI Chat Model node, select that credential and a chat model (e.g., gpt-4o)

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📥 Required input (Sheet1)

• Columns: StudentID, Name, Program, Year, CompletedCourses
• CompletedCourses: pipe-separated IDs (e.g., GEN-101|GEN-103|CS-101)
• Program names should match those referenced in the embedded catalog (e.g., Computer Science BS, Business Administration BBA, etc.)

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📤 Output (schedule tab)

• Columns:
  • StudentID
  • Schedule → a selected course string (written one row per course after splitting)

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🧩 Nodes in this template

• Manual Trigger → Get Student Data (Google Sheets) → Scheduling Agent (OpenAI)
  → Split Schedule → Set Fields → Clear sheet → Append Schedule (Google Sheets)

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🛠 Configuration tips

• If you rename tabs, update both Get Student Data and Append Schedule nodes
• Keep CompletedCourses consistent (use | as the delimiter)
• To store rationale as well, add a column to the output and map it from the agent’s JSON

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🧪 Test quickly

1. Add 2–3 sample student rows with realistic CompletedCourses
2. Run the workflow and verify:
   • 5 course rows per student in schedule
   • Course IDs respect prereqs & Fall/Both availability
   • Credits sum ~15–17

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🧯 Troubleshooting

• Sheets OAuth error: Reconnect “Google Sheets (OAuth2)” and re-select the spreadsheet & tabs
• Empty schedules: Ensure CompletedCourses uses | and that programs/courses align with the provided catalog names
• Prereq violations: Check that students actually have all AND-prereqs in CompletedCourses
• OpenAI errors (401/429): Verify API key, billing, and rate-limit → retry with lower concurrency

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🔒 Privacy & data handling

• Student rows are sent to OpenAI for decisioning. Remove or mask any fields you don’t want shared.
• Google Sheets retains input/output. Use spreadsheet sharing controls to limit access.

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💸 Cost & performance

• OpenAI: Billed per token; cost scales with student count and prompt size
• Google Sheets: Free within normal usage limits
• Runtime: Typically seconds to a minute depending on rows and rate limits

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🧱 Limitations & assumptions

• Works for Fall 2025 only (as written). For Spring, update availability rules in the agent prompt
• Assumes catalog in the agent system message is your source of truth
• Assumes Program names match catalog variants (case/spacing matter for clarity)

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🧩 Customization ideas

• Add a Max Credits column to cap term credits per student
• Include Rationale in the sheet for advisor review
• Add a “Gen Ed needed?” flag per student to force at least one Gen Ed selection
• Export to PDF or email the schedules to advisors/students

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🧾 Version & maintenance

• n8n version: Tested on recent n8n Cloud builds (2025)
• Community nodes: Not required
• Maintenance: Update the embedded catalog and offerings each term; keep prerequisites accurate

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🗂 Tags & category

• Category: Education / Student Information Systems
• Tags: scheduling, registrar, google-sheets, openai, prerequisites, degree-planning, catalog, fall-term

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🗒 Changelog

• v1.0.0 — Initial release: Sheets in/out, Fall 2025 catalog rules, prereq enforcement, 5-course selection, credits target

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📬 Contact

Need help customizing this (e.g., cohort logic, program-specific rules, adding rationale to the sheet, or emailing PDFs)?

• 📧 [email protected]
• 🔗 Robert Breen — https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-breen-29429625/
• 🌐 ynteractive.com — https://ynteractive.com