Datawarehouse design for educational data mining

Abstract

Business intelligence (BI) builds upon a set of tools and applications that enable the analysis of vast amounts of information (Big Data). Educational institutions handle large volumes of Big Data every year. There is a strong need for the use of BI in these institutions to improve their processes and support decision making. The core technology in a BI project is a datawarehouse (DW). This paper describes the design considerations for the implementation of the DW in an educational scenario. The DW will be used in a knowledge discovery process to handle the information for the analysis of key performance indicators using educational data mining (EDM) techniques. The DW along with an enterprise architecture (EA) repository are the key technological assets of a knowledge management framework (KMF). This framework was designed to put order in the creation, capture, transfer and digitalization of knowledge. This guide and the framework are two of the outcomes of a research project in a private university. Furthermore, a case study suggests how to choose the best methodology in higher institutions. In the case study the steps for the DW design are presented. This study can be useful for academics and practitioners that plan to design a DW to analyze information using EDM techniques.