Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education

Abstract

Educational Data Mining (EDM) is a developing field based on data mining techniques. EDM emerged as a combination of areas such as machine learning, statistics, computer science, education, cognitive science, and psychometry. EDM focuses on learner characteristics, behaviors, academic achievements, process of learning, educational functionalities, domain knowledge content, assessments, and applications. Educational data mining is defined by Baker (2010) as ‘‘an emerging discipline, concerned with developing methods for exploring the unique types of data that come from educational settings, and using those methods to better understand students, and the settings which they learn in’’. EDM is concerned with improving the learning process and environment.