Using Data Mining for e‑Learning Decision Making

Abstract

The initial investigation aimed to examine the paths learners followed when offered the course in a custom virtual learning environment (VLE) which is structured by tasks, course materials and learning resources. However, it quickly became clear that students were spending little time with the course materials online and the time spent with each page was usually less than 20 seconds. Consequently a better understanding of how learners accessed the electronic course materials was needed to evaluate the effectiveness of developing and delivering courses in this way.By combining data on the activity with content with user profiles it was possible to examine alternate information perspectives and reveal patterns in large volume data sets. Mining data in this way provides ways to learn about learners in order to make effective decisions regarding teaching methods, delivery models and infrastructure investment.