Educational Technology International

The Korean Society for Education Technology (한국교육공학회)
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Comparisons on Clustering Methods: Use of LMS Log Variables on Academic Courses

  • Received : 2017.08.30
  • Accepted : 2017.09.22
  • Published : 2017.10.30
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Abstract

Academic analytics guides university decision-makers to assign limited resources more effectively. Especially, diverse academic courses clustered by the usage patterns and levels on Learning Management System(LMS) help understanding instructors' pedagogical approach and the integration level of technologies. Further, the clustering results can contribute deciding proper range and levels of financial and technical supports. However, in spite of diverse analytic methodologies, clustering analysis methods often provide different results. The purpose of this study is to present implications by using three different clustering analysis including Gaussian Mixture Model, K-Means clustering, and Hierarchical clustering. As a case, we have clustered academic courses based on the usage levels and patterns of LMS in higher education using those three clustering techniques. In this study, 2,639 courses opened during 2013 fall semester in a large private university located in South Korea were analyzed with 13 observation variables that represent the characteristics of academic courses. The results of analysis show that the strengths and weakness of each clustering analysis and suggest that academic leaders and university staff should look into the usage levels and patterns of LMS with more elaborated view and take an integrated approach with different analytic methods for their strategic decision on development of LMS.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2015S1A5B6036244).

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