A Hybrid System: Neural Network with Data Mining in an e-Learning Environment

摘要

This paper proposed a hybrid system combining the self-organizing map (SOM) of a neural network with the data mining (DM) method, for course recommendations in the e-learning system. SOM systems have been successfully used in several domains of artificial intelligence. Although many researches focused on e-learning system implementation and personal curriculum design, they do not give e-learners useful suggestions for selecting potential courses according to their interests or background. In order to enhance the efficiency and capability of e-learning systems, we combined the SOM method to deal with the cluster problems of the DM systems, SOM/DM for short. The experiment was carried out in a business college of a university in Taiwan, by applying the SOM/DM method to recommend courses to e-learners. The results indicated that the SOM/DM method has excellent performance.