Identifying the Learning Style of Students Using Machine Learning Techniques: An Approach of Felder Silverman Learning Style Model (FSLSM)

Abstract

Identification of the learning style of the students in the teaching and learning environment plays a significant importance in improving both teaching and learning perspectives. The intension of the research was to investigate about applying the Machine Learning Techniques for identification of the Learning style of the students in online learning environment based on the Felder Silverman Learning Style (FSLSM) identification model. The significance of this experiment is that the proposed methodology considers the combination of access frequency (f) of course materials and total time (T) students spent on each course activity. For data collection process, it was designed reusable plugin for the Moodle for time tracking. Real-time dataset was prepared using three course modules designed according to the features of FSLSM model and the features for analyzing the students according to the FSLSM, it was selected seven criteria, and the features were validated using Pearson Correlation Coefficient method. These course modules were enrolled 150 students per each module. Once the data set was prepared, the data set was preprocessed and applied Five Supervised Classification Machine learning algorithms as Decision Tree, Logistic Regression, Random Forest, Support Vector Machine and K-Nearest Neighbors algorithm. The models were evaluated using Accuracy, Precision, Recall and F1 values. Over the five algorithms the Decision Tree classifier algorithm performed with best average accuracy with 93.5% for Input, 86% for Perception, 89.5 for Processing and 94% for Understanding dimension. The models were validated using the K-fold Cross validation and Standard Deviation values. Mean Squared Error, Bias and Variance values were considered the evaluation of underfitting or overfitting context of the model. To parameter optimization, the Grid Search Methodology was applied to find the best combination of criterion for the model. Finally, an application was developed for Identifying the Learning Style of the Students using the designed Machine learning model. The Consistency of the ML Model based on the Decision Tree classifier algorithm were evaluated using the results generated through developed application and the results suggested that consistency for taught machine learning algorithms is often between 85% to 95%, which is an acceptable range. The results generated by the application for identification of the learning style suggested the combination of learning style for particular students sample as Global-Mild, Visual- Strong, Sensing- Moderate and Reflective-Strong. Identification of these combination of learning style assist for teachers by giving an insight which components of the learning contents should be improved in course designing process.