Educational Data Mining

This chapter presents a comprehensive discussion of educational data mining and its potential for educational research. The origins of data mining and the emergence of educational data mining are discussed. The variety of data generated in education (e.g., text, speech, performance, etc.) are described and the challenges of mining these data for useful information are identified. Techniques for mining these data are discussed. Software used to mine these data are noted and issues of theory and ethics are considered. Examples from published literature are cited throughout the chapter and recommendations for educational researchers are offered.