Use data mining to identify factors affecting students' academic failure
Subject Areas : Multimedia Processing, Communications Systems, Intelligent Systems
Mehdi Afzali
1
,
Mahmood Najafi
2
,
Mahmood Moradi
3
1 - 1. Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Zanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan, Iran
2 - Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Islamic Azad University of Zanjan, Zanjan Iran
3 - Assistant Professor, Department of Information Science and Dentistry, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
Keywords: Educational Data Mining, academic failure, Decision trees, Association rules, Clustering,
Abstract :
Knowledge extraction is one of the most significant problems of data mining. The principles raised in if-then format can be turned into real numbers in each section- as values which could be included in dataset. The suggested method in the present dissertation is application of decision tree algorithms, clustering and forum rules for extraction of final rules. In the suggested method, extraction of rules is defined as an optimization problem and objective was obtaining a rule of high confidence, generalization and understandability. The suggested algorithm for extraction of rules was obtained from and tested based on a dataset of educational failure of 256 art school students living in Zanjan. The results suggested that the j48 algorithm in decision tree and accuracy of 0.95 is the choice for the dataset of educational failure. Data clustering was done by K-Main algorithm with confidence coefficient of 0.95. After all, obtaining rules of high confidence coefficient was done based on forum rules from Apriori algorithm for the whole datasets. The results of present study could be used for inhibition of educational failure of students, improved quality of relationship of parents and authorities with students and enhancing the education they receive.
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