Predicting student performance: an application of data mining methods with an educational web-based system

TLDR

Web‑based educational technologies generate large amounts of user data that enable researchers to study learning behaviors and apply data‑mining techniques to uncover effective learning approaches. The study proposes a method to classify students and predict final grades using features extracted from logged data in an educational web‑based system. The authors design, implement, and evaluate multiple pattern classifiers on an online course dataset, then use a genetic algorithm to weight features and enhance prediction accuracy. Combining multiple classifiers and applying a genetic‑algorithm‑based feature weighting improves prediction accuracy by 10–12 % and can help instructors identify at‑risk students early in large classes.

Abstract

Newly developed Web-based educational technologies offer researchers unique opportunities to study how students learn and what approaches to learning lead to success. Web-based systems routinely collect vast quantities of data on user patterns, and data mining methods can be applied to these databases. This paper presents an approach to classifying students in order to predict their final grade based on features extracted from logged data in an education Web-based system. We design, implement, and evaluate a series of pattern classifiers and compare their performance on an online course dataset. A combination of multiple classifiers leads to a significant improvement in classification performance. Furthermore, by learning an appropriate weighting of the features used via a genetic algorithm (GA), we further improve prediction accuracy. The GA is demonstrated to successfully improve the accuracy of combined classifier performance, about 10 to 12% when comparing to non-GA classifier. This method may be of considerable usefulness in identifying students at risk early, especially in very large classes, and allow the instructor to provide appropriate advising in a timely manner.