Ii - What Is Data Mining?
Ii - What Is Data Mining?
At first glance, data mining is a content knowledge management tool which became „
An innovative and powerful research tool in business for knowledge discovery and the
development of predictive models from large volumes of historical data
” [2].In its simplest form, data mining defines the iterative process of extracting the knowledge
hidden in large database. Data mining process involves a circuit wherein undergo many phases
among which there are: data acquisition from students, feature selection and extraction from
database of learning management system, discovery of the models and patterns using data
mining techniques, models interpretation and knowledge generation [3] .Once with the
expansion of Internet and text type electronic format, it also appeared the need for automated
extraction of knowledge from a text and therefore data mining had a new baby specialization:
text mining. Differently from the data mining, text mining presumes a software addressing to the
large public consumer of network solutions the reasons for that being the universality of
acquisition demand of information in real time and low costs for information acquiring (the
connection’s price), comparatively to the data mining. Text mining has as main goal the
automated extraction of novel, valid and operational knowledge.
I I I . D A T A M I N I N G T E C H N I Q U E S
The data mining techniques allow the extraction of information and the fulfillment of forecasts
starting from historical data. Education is an essential element for the betterment and progress of
a country. It enables the people of a country civilized and well mannered. Mining in educational
environment is called educational data mining, concern with developing new methods to
discover knowledge from educational database in order to analyze student’s trends and behaviors
towards education. Lack of deep and enough knowledge in higher educational system may
prevent system management to achieve quality objectives, data mining methodology can help
bridging this knowledge gaps in higher education system [4].In the late years, the researchers
investigated a series of data mining techniques in order to help the teachers to improve the e-
learning systems. These techniques help the teachers to discover new knowledge grounded on
data provided by students and were grouped in three categories in regard to the types of problems
they can model:-classification and regression represents the wider category of
applications consisting in the construction of patterns to forecast the appurtenance to a set of
classes or values. There exist certain techniques dedicated to solve the classification and
regression issues but the decisional trees, Naive-Bayes technique, neuronal networks and k-NN
are widely recognized;-analysis of associations and succession, as well called the
„market basket” analysis is a technique generating descriptive patterns emphasizing the
rules of correlation among the attributes of a data set;-cluster type analysis is a descriptive
technique used to put into group the similar entities from a data set and also to underline
the entities with substantial differences in relation to a group. The cluster group techniques
grounds on algorithms from the neuronal networks area, demographical algorithms, k-NN etc.
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These techniques can be successfully used to discover many kinds of knowledge such as
association rules, classifications and clustering. The discovered knowledge can be used for
prediction regarding enrolment of students in a particular course, alienation of traditional
classroom teaching model, detection of unfair means used in online examination, detection of
abnormal values in the result sheets of the students, prediction about students’ performance and
so on [5]. Thus, appeared the learning analytics concept defined to be „
The measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for
purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs
” [6].Learner analytics loosely joins a variety of data gathering tools and analytic techniques to
study student engagement, performance, and progress in practice, with the goal of what is
learned to revise curricula, assessment and teaching in real time. Network analysis tools are also
emerging as powerful ways for teachers to monitor learning groups and identify potential or
emergent problems among learners. For example, the popular LMS Moodle has both built in,
general and special purpose plugins that help teachers and other group members understand
individual and group behaviors [7] Standard Moodle analytics allow teachers to view
contributions or activities of individual learners [8]. One freeware tool used by learner analytics
is Google Analytics with the support of which, and other similar tools, aim to mobilize the power
of data-mining tools in the service of learning, and embracing the complexity, diversity and
abundance of information that dynamic learning environments can generate. The data mining
techniques help to the creation of conceiving and developing of educational contents specially to
meet the specific needs of the military field and also to give the possibility of knowledge to be
assimilated by the military personnel in each individual rhythm, regardless of space and time.
Data mining and learning analytics are not only used to support independent study but are being
utilized to support and enhance group work. For example a system that creates student
groups based upon individual learning styles and preferences.
The classical warfare is only part of leading the war. Nevertheless, the military e-learning is
direct consequence of military action dynamics and complexity following the trend of security
environment in a continuous reconfiguration and resizing under the impact of globalization [9].
The methods of leading military actions are rapidly changing, as well as the used weapons and
the actors involved in them. The military conflict got a pronounced non-military dimension while
the threats and risks are diversifying. Now we speak about psychological weapons, media
weapons, WMD weapons, UAVs and so on. For all these is needed a different education of
militaries which can be enhanced by-learning tools. The new realities of the international
security environment are represented by the impact of informational dominance in the battle
space, the exercitation of command-control and decision-making under the conditions of
informational flows movements in quasi-real time and the need to fulfill command-control also
under conditions when informational flows are interrupted etc. [10]. Therefore, the modern
armed forces try to train their military personnel in a computing standardized manner by using
the network communication and information educational systems. In fact, this need in
military personnel education came on from the huge waste of resources in real time and space
dimensions of military training. Accessibility is another matter counting in this equation of
transferring part of military education and training from the real field to the virtual field. Having
professional armed forces implies the use of advanced system of instruments and training
technologies. Data mining is already used in military purpose to provide security in societies. An
example is its use in “
Singling out people as suspected terrorists or criminals
” [11]. this is possible because data mining is a technique for extracting knowledge from large
sets of data and therefore “
Scientists, marketers and other researchers use it successfully to identify patterns and accurate generalizations
when they do not have or do not need specific leads
” [11]. But this is kind of passive result.
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The educational designers seek to develop learning materials that the soldiers users seek to ‘pull’
the information from. Very simply, what a user ‘pulls’ from a self-paced eLearning package as a
consequence of their own endeavors they will learn more deeply and profoundly. The aim, then,
is to create an active learning environment as opposed to a passive learning environment where
the information is forced upon the user. Adhering to sound instructional design principles
develops active learning. Part of this active learning is fostered by the use of simulations. There
are a number of simulations very effective for the military’s training activity in the eLearning
packages: siting claymore mines in a section defense, using a team to construct a CAT1 wire
fence, scoring/marking in the butts, or making decisions as a platoon sergeant in a tactical
scenario are a few of the simulation activities used to confirm learning. This kind of learning tool
is used in the Australian Armed Forces where, for example, a user is immersed into an
operational environment whereby they are forced to make over 30 decisions as a platoon
sergeant. The user is placed in a position that requires a decision. This becomes a trigger
to branch off and acquire the information needed to help make the correct decision [12] [13].
Having gleaned the requisite knowledge, the user drops back into the tactical scenario to make a
decision (from three choices). Having made a choice, the user is given feedback and moves to
the next part of the decision tree - noting that the adverse consequences of that decision impact
upon future decisions [14]. The result is a highly interactive and engaging simulated learning
environment [15]. This is possible to be accomplished through the use of video, audio, photos,
operational radio traffic, telephone, maps, intelligence, documentation, background noise, choice
of problems and the sequencing and timing of simulation, in order to recreate incidents the
trained militaries can be involved in a vivid and realistic way.
V . C O N C L U S I O N S
E-learning becomes more and more the generic background of education no matter it concerns
the civil or military fields. The classical blackboard and the piece of white chalk it cannot remain
the single manner to share the learning knowledge as long the technologies are performing and
invade our daily space. The high tech spread in all social life dimensions. All runs faster.
Therefore, it is needed rapid adjustment to change and in a matter of consequence to learn. Data
mining is an ongoing field, still in its infancy form, and even academic references are scarce on
the ground, although some leading education-related publications are already beginning to pay
attention to this new field. But, even in this incipient form it represents a powerful analysis
instrument offering to the educational institutions the possibility to better share their resources
and personnel on activities and to better accomplish the management of students’ results in order
to improve their educational and professional becoming .The actual armed conflict goes out from
the pure war sphere and is more a knowledge war. Therefore, the soldiers must be trained to
think situation not only to execute orders, but for this they must have the proper knowledge
acquired. As this concern, military e-learning data mining should become a more used tool
because it already shown to be an incremental outfit. Also, for the military e-learning data
mining to be successful there is needed interdisciplinary collaboration among participants in the
creation and exploitation of this technique in order to improve military education quality. In this
regard, there are needed military specialists, IT specialists, pedagogues, trainers,
communicational and marketing specialists. Each must come with its own expertise in order to
create better knowledge for military e-learning able to help to the enhancement of militaries
education.