Using Spectral Clustering for Finding Students' Patterns of Behavior in Social Networks

Abstract

The high dimensionality of the data generated by social net- works has been a big challenge for researchers. In order to solve the problems associated with this phenomenon, a number of methods and techniques were developed. Spectral clustering is a data mining method used in many applications; in this paper we used this method to find students' behavioral patterns performed in an elearning system. In ad- dition, a software was introduced to allow the user (tutor or researcher) to define the data dimensions and input values to obtain appropriate graphs with behavioral pattens that meet his/her needs. Behavioral pat- terns were compared with students' study performance and evaluation with relation to their possible usage in collaborative learning.