International Journal of Computer Science and Management Research

Vol 1 Issue 3 October 2012

ISSN 2278-733X

Use of Data Mining Techniques for the Evaluation of Student

Performance:A Case Study
Er.Rimmy Chuchra
M.tech (Computer Science)
Lovely Professional University
Phagwara, India

ABSTRACT
Data and Information or Knowledge has a significant role on human activities.Data mining is the
knowledge discovery process by analyzing the large volumes of data from various perspectives
and summarizing it into useful information.Due to the importance of extracting
knowledge/information from the large data repositories, data mining has become an essential
component in various fields of human life including business, education,medical,scientific.In this
paper we are applying data mining in education field then new emerging field is called
"Educational Data Mining. This term is used to improve post-graduate students performance
and overcome the problem of low grades of post-graduate students. In our case study we try to
extract useful knowledge from post-graduate students data collected from Sri Sai University
Palampur. The data include one and half years period. Here,we used the clustering,Decision tree
and neural networks are used to evaluate students performance. By using these tasks we extract
knowledge that describes students performance in the end of the semester examination. It also
helps earlier in identifying the dropouts and students who need special attention and allow the
professor to provide appropriate advising and counseling.

Keywords: - Educational Data mining, decision trees, neural networks, Clustering, Text Mining.
INTRODUCTION
Data mining is a type of sorting technique which is actually used to extract hidden patterns from
large databases. The major objectives for data mining are fast retrieval of data or information,
Knowledge Discovery from the databases, to detect hidden patterns and those patterns which are
previously unknown? ,to reduce the level of complexity, time saving etc. There are various types
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International Journal of Computer Science and Management Research

Vol 1 Issue 3 October 2012

ISSN 2278-733X

of data mining is available like text mining, graph mining, web mining, spatial mining, structure
mining and content mining etc.Different-2 types of mining are used for different types of
Applications like

Table 1: Types of data mining with its Applications

Type of data Mining

Area Of Application Used

Text Mining

Automatic Classification of text.

Graph Mining

Building Models in Real time.

Web Mining

Multiple Site Link Structure Analysis.

Spatial Mining

Geographic intonation science (GIS).

Structure Mining

Graph Theory For analyze the nodes.

Content Mining

Draw on bibliometrics for methods of

analyzing.

Here, in our case study we are considering students data who belongs to Sri Sai
University,Palampur in Himachal Pardesh.We are considering a dataset of students record of
MBA department. This dataset may hold the academic, residence and personal record of the
student. This dataset include one and half years period. When data can be intake form the
educational field then this new emerging field is termed as "Educational Data Mining. The main
objective of higher education institutes is to provide high quality education to its students and to
improve the quality of managerial decisions. One way to achieve highest level of quality in
higher education system is by discovering knowledge from educational data to study many
attributes like CGPA Grade that must affect the students performance. This discovered
knowledge can helps in constructive recommendations to the academic planners in higher
education institutes to enhance their decision making process, to improve students academic
performance and trim down failure rate, to better understand students behavior, to assist
instructors, to improve the level of teaching. This new emerging field "Educational Data mining"
can use various kinds of data mining techniques like Clustering,Classification,decision trees,
neural networks,Prediction,association rules, outlier detection. By using various techniques we

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International Journal of Computer Science and Management Research

Vol 1 Issue 3 October 2012

ISSN 2278-733X

can easily discover knowledge. Here, we are using only three techniques like clustering, decision
trees and neural network etc.

A. Clustering
Clustering provides grouping together of similar data items. This technique provides a high level
view of the database. Clustering technique is a technique that merges and combines techniques
from different disciplines such as mathematics, physics, math-programming, statistics, computer
sciences, artificial intelligence and databases etc. Variety of clustering algorithms exists and
belongs to several different categories. This technique helps to create new groups and classes
based on the study of patterns and relationships between values of data in a data bank. In our
case study we are considering students data which exists in three separate clusters named as
student academic record, student residence record, student personal record etc.
These clusters are again consisting of several its own attributes. By applying this technique we
will easily categorize the record of the student in detail manner. For example:- CGPA Grade
shows the total marks of the student academic record cluster. On the basis of marks we can easily
identify the actual performance or the level of the student. This can be shown in below figure.

B.Dec
ision Trees
Decision trees are basically a type of procedure on the basis of this we can decide either specific
value is accept or reject by that procedure. It is basically provides mapping with the current state
to the future state. In this way it helps to take decision in efficient manner. This follows theory of
dynamic optimization. Decision trees are using If-Then Statements. The major advantage to use
this technique is that results can be displayed in graphical manner so that user understands easily.
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International Journal of Computer Science and Management Research

Vol 1 Issue 3 October 2012

ISSN 2278-733X

For evaluating the decision trees we can use various factors like Dataset, Data type, Scalability,
accuracy and robustness etc. The major purpose to study the decision trees in our research paper
is to evaluate the performance of the student on the basis of CGPA.According to CGPA of the
student decision is to be taken by the university i.e.- either scholarship is awarded to specific
student or not ?.As per University Rules or guidelines, if any student having CGPA greater than
9 then ten thousand rupees scholarship is to be awarded for each semester and if any students
have CGPA is lies between eighty five to ninety then five thousand rupees scholarship is to be
awarded for each semester by the university. In this way we can easily evaluate the performance
of the student and on the basis of performance of the student we can take the decision of the
scholarship allotment. This can be shown in the figure like:

C.Neural Networks
This Data mining technique uses mathematical model or computational model. It holds adaptive
nature means that except changes with changing internal and external factors. This information
flows throughout the network during the learning phase. Basically two types of topologies are to
be used under neural network whose names as feed forward network, recurrent network. In feed
forward network, information only flows only in one direction that is in forward direction from
the input nodes through the hidden nodes towards output nodes. There are no loops are used
under these. This can be extended by using more hidden layers in this network. In Recurrent
network, such type of networks contains feedback connections and also shows bi-directional
flow of data. For trained any neural network we generally uses three types of learning named as
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International Journal of Computer Science and Management Research

Vol 1 Issue 3 October 2012

ISSN 2278-733X

supervised learning, unsupervised learning and reinforcement learning. Neural network use with
data mining concepts to show complex relationships between inputs and outputs and also helps
to find patterns in data. In our case study, we are using feedforward network that shows teaching
quality of teachers always moves in one direction that is in forward direction. For providing
better quality of teaching we are using supervised learning that uses labeled dataset that is
selected students who have CGPA greater than 9 we will provide extra coaching classes for
improve the level and comes trained for participate further activities in future.

D.THE POST-GRADUATE STUDENTS DATA SET

Table 2: Student Academic Record
Attributes

Description

Selected Attributes

Std_Reg_No

Student Registration
Number

Enroll_Yr

Year of Enrollment

Completion_Yr

Year of Completion

CGPA_PG

Post-Graduation CGPA

CGPA_G

Graduation CGPA

CGPA_HS

High School CGPA

CGPA_T

yes

Tenth CGPA

E_ID

E-Mail ID

MOB_NO

Mobile Number

Date_of_Birth
Performanc_Grade

Date of Birth
Overall Performance

yes

Table 3: Student Residence Record

Attributes
Permanent Add
Correspondance_Add

Description

Selected Attributes

Permanent Address
Address For
Correspondence

City_C

City

Location_L

Location

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ISSN 2278-733X

State_S

State

Table 4: Student Personal Record

Attributes

Description

Selected Attributes

Gender_G

Male-M,Female-F

Place_of_Birth_POB

Student Birth Place

Nationality_N

Nationality

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Before applying the data mining techniques on the data set, there should be a methodology that
governs our work. Figure 3 depicts the work methodology used in this paper.

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International Journal of Computer Science and Management Research

Vol 1 Issue 3 October 2012

ISSN 2278-733X

CONCLUSIONS
In this Paper we performed a case study on Sri Sai University Engg. Students of computer
science department. Here, we considering a data set size are of two years. This paper basically
shows how to evaluate the performance of students with the help of used data mining techniques.
The major objective to use Data mining techniques is to discover knowledge from the existing
data which is available in the university database. With the usage of these techniques Teachers
can easily evaluate the performance of the students.

FUTURE WORK
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International Journal of Computer Science and Management Research

Vol 1 Issue 3 October 2012

ISSN 2278-733X

In Future this work can be expanded by using some other data mining techniques like Prediction.
On the basis of current Performance of the student we can easily predict the performance of the
student for future. We can also expand the size of dataset with more distinctive attributes to get
more accurate results. Experiments can also be either performed by using same dataset on
different-2 data mining techniques or different-2 dataset for same data mining technique. On the
basis of results we can easily differentiate which technique will be more preferable on the
selection of dataset. It depends on the choice of the user as well as on the type of expected
results.
REFERENCES
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[3] Han, J. and Kamber, M. (2006) Data Mining: Concepts and Techniques, 2nd edition. The
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[8] J. Han and M. Kamber, Data Mining: Concepts and Techniques, Morgan Kaufmann, 2000.
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[13] Ayesha, S. , Mustafa, T. , Sattar, A. and Khan, I. (2010) Data Mining Model for Higher
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
A Special thanks to MyLord and including Miss Nisha Thakur and Mr. Parminder Singh. This
paper would not exist but for their faith in me, and I offer them my heartfelt thanks.

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