Machine Learning in Education Sector
Machine Learning is the next trending concept in various fields related to education. It involves the study of learning processes and computer modelling in different contexts. The authors in (Carbonell, 1983) rightly stated that ML can be used in task-oriented studies, theoretical analysis and cognitive simulation. Machine Learning in Education field falls in the category of task-oriented studies since it involves developing and analyzing learning systems to improve performance of education institutions through predetermined set of actions.
Classification Techniques in Education
The main classification techniques used in education include
Artificial Neural Networks, Decision Trees, Logical Regression and Support
Vector Machine. As stated by Nieto et. al. in the paper, the decision making
model offers support in decision making on various aspects in educational
industry. ML can be useful in increasing student retention and mitigating
dropout rate, strategic planning using the knowledge of future, managing
interventions and enhancing education institutions quality indicators.
Benefit of ML to Education Institutions in Decision Making
The issue faced by various institutions is that they have to
rely on decision making arbitrarily, lacking any logical reasoning. The factors
responsible for such random decision making are lack of past experiences,
delayed decisions, incomprehensive observation and constrained academic impact
of the decision. ML can be beneficial in making strategic decision related to
student retention, institution resource planning, curriculum planning and
managing dropout. Approaches and models based on ML can help the institutions
to perform reliable predictive analytics through in-depth analysis of hidden
patterns.
AI predicting Slow Learners
The most interesting service of AI in education is how it
can predict slow learners. ML combined with data mining can be used in such
prediction. The authors of (Kaur, 2015) state that slow learners can be
determined using classification and regression technique of data mining prediction
model and ML techniques of SVM and Decision Tree can be used to improve the
prediction outcomes. Another area where combination of ML and DM is effective
includes enhancing online education. The global crisis of 2020 has led to an
urgent need of online education. It requires Information and Communication
Technologies in order to support student to access education while remaining
confined geographically. The authors of (Villegas, 2020) state that ML can
learn from past experiences with a specific objective. ML as a tool can
predict, model and control systems while performing in-depth analysis of data.
The authors have proposed two main strategies for implementing ML model in
education. Stakeholders are given tasks in order to generate data for the tool
so that it can learn about the task which it has never performed. Supervised
learning technique shall require the tool to be introduced to previous datasets
so that it can learn from recognition patterns and identify accurately or learn
through regression for predicting accurate outcome.
Other Benefits
Machine Learning algorithms can be deployed to predict
graduation rate, student retention and drop-out rates from real data in higher
educational institutions. The techniques of logistic regression, decision tree
and random forest may be used to analyze information and achieve better
understanding of data contained in a particular context. The accuracy and
analysis of these techniques shall help in evaluating the best outcome. These
techniques can identify students who may not graduate. They can further predict
academic performance of students as well as their drop-out rate. The results
shall offer insightful decision making in various other aspects of education
like curriculum designing, resource planning, etc. Such predictions early in
the strategic planning of the institutions will support governance of the
institutions.
References
Carbonell, J., G., Michalski, R., S., Mitchell, T., M., “1 - An
Overview of Machine Learning”, Pages 3-23, ISBN 9780080510545, 1983,
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-051054-5.50005-4.
Villegas-Ch, W.; Román-Cañizares,
M.; Palacios-Pacheco, X. Improvement of an Online Education Model with the
Integration of Machine Learning and Data Analysis in an LMS. Appl. Sci. 2020, 10,
5371.
Y. Nieto, V. Gacía-Díaz, C. Montenegro, C. C. González and R.
González Crespo, "Usage of Machine Learning for Strategic Decision Making
at Higher Educational Institutions," in IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp.
75007-75017, 2019, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2919343.
Comments
Post a Comment