Applying graph-based data mining concepts to the educational sphere

Abstract

In this study, we discuss the possible application of the ubiquitous complex network approach for information extraction from educational data. Since a huge amount of data (which is detailed as well) is produced by the complex administration systems of educational institutes, instead of the classical statistical methods, new types of data processing techniques are required to handle it. We define several suitable network representations of students, teachers and subjects in public education and present some possible ways of how graph mining techniques can be used to get detailed information about them. Depending on the construction of the underlying graph, we examine several network models and discuss which are the most appropriate graph mining tools (like community detection and ranking and centrality measures) that can be applied on them. Lastly, we attempt to highlight the many advantages of using graph-based data mining in educational data against the classical evaluation techniques.