To address three issues identified in previous research this study proposes a clustering-based MOOC dropout identification method and an early prediction model based on deep learning. The MOOC learning behavior of self-paced students was analyzed, and two well-known MOOC datasets were used for analysis and validation. The findings are as follows:…

Researchers often make claims regarding the importance of predictor variables in multiple regression analysis by comparing standardized regression coefficients (standardized beta coefficients). This practice has been criticized as a misuse of multiple regression analysis. As a remedy, I highlight the use of dominance analysis and random forests, a…

Recently, tracking student behavior has become a very important phase for constructing adaptive educational systems. Several researchers have developed various methods based on machine learning for better tracing students' knowledge. Most of these methods have shown an effective estimation of student features and an accurate prediction of future…

Background/Context: Early warning indicators (EWI) are often used by states and districts to identify students who are not on track to finish high school, and provide supports/interventions to increase the odds the student will graduate. While EWI are diverse in terms of the academic behaviors they capture, research suggests that indicators like…

Most of the emphasis on mining online assessment logs has been to identify content-specific errors. However, the pattern of general "consistency" is domain independent, strongly related to performance, and can itself be a target of educational data mining. We demonstrate that simple consistency indicators are related to student outcomes,…

Data from graduate student applications at a large Western university were used to determine which factors were the best predictors of success in graduate school, as defined by cumulative graduate grade point average. Two statistical models were employed and compared: artificial neural networking and simultaneous multiple regression. Both models…