Systematic Literature Review: Machine Learning in Education to Predict Student Performance

The prediction of student performance is a critical area in educational data mining, providing invaluable insights for early interventions and personalized learning strategies. This chapter explores the application of machine learning and deep learning algorithms in predicting academic success, focusing on the enhancement of traditional predictive models through advanced computational techniques. A comprehensive review of widely-used models such as decision trees, support vector machines, k-nearest neighbors, and random forests is presented, highlighting their strengths and limitations in handling educational data. In addition, the chapter delves into deep learning approaches, such as artificial neural networks, convolutional neural networks, recurrent neural networks, and long short-term memory networks, which have shown promising results in capturing complex patterns and temporal dependencies in student performance data. The chapter emphasizes the importance of high-quality data preprocessing, including data cleaning, feature selection, and imputation, as essential steps for enhancing model accuracy. Evaluation metrics such as accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and ROC-AUC curve analysis are discussed to ensure robust model validation, especially in the presence of class imbalance. Further, challenges like model overfitting and strategies to prevent it, including regularization, cross-validation, and early stopping, are explored. The integration of machine learning and deep learning in education holds transformative potential for improving academic outcomes, providing a framework for data-driven decisions and timely interventions. This chapter serves as a critical resource for researchers and practitioners aiming to leverage AI for enhanced student performance prediction.

Student outcomes are of great importance in higher education institutions. Accreditation bodies focus on them as an indicator to measure the performance and effectiveness of the institution. Forecasting students’ academic performance is crucial for every educational establishment seeking to enhance performance and perseverance of its students and reduce the failure rate in the future. The main goal of this study is to predict the performance of undergraduate first-level students in the Computer Department during the years 2016 to 2021 to enhance their performance in future by discovering the best algorithm use to analyze the educational data to identify the students’ academic performance. The secondary data was collected by reviewing the Student Affairs Department at the Faculty of Specific Education at Damietta University, in addition to the Statistics Department at the university. The dataset contained 830 instances after excluding 139 instances of missing values, irrelevant rows, and outliers. The dataset was divided into train (577 instances (70%)), test (253 instances (30%)) and involved six features such year, midterm, practical exam, writing exam, final total degree, and grade. This paper use five machine learning (ML) algorithms which was selected according to the literature review and high accuracy in predicting educational data mining: For the purpose of comparison, a number of different machine learning algorithms, such as Random Forest, Decision Tree, Naive Bayes, Neural Network, and K-Nearest Neighbours, were utilized and evaluated with evaluation metrics such as confusion matrix, accuracy, precision, recall, and F-measure. The Random Forest and Decision Tree classifiers emerged as the top-performing algorithms, accurately categorizing 250 instances when predicting students' performance in the statistics course. This was determined based on the findings of the study. Out of a total of 253 instances that were included in the testing set, they only made three incorrect classifications.

Predicting student academic performance is a critical area of education research. Machine learning (ML) algorithms have gained significant popularity in recent years. The capability to forecast student performance empowers universities to devise an intervention strategy either at the beginning of a program or during a semester, which allows them to tackle any issues that may arise proactively. This systematic literature review provides an overview of the present state of the field under investigation, including the most commonly employed ML techniques, the variables predictive of academic performance, and the limitations and challenges of using ML to predict academic success. Our review of 60 studies published between January 2019 to March 2023 reveals that ML algorithms can be highly effective in predicting student academic performance. ML models can analyse various variables, including demographics, socioeconomic status, and academic history, to identify patterns and relationships that can predict academic performance. However, several limitations need to be addressed, such as the inconsistency in the variables used, small sample sizes, and the failure to consider external factors that may impact academic performance. Future research needs to address these limitations to develop more robust prediction models. Machine learning can fuse data from various sources like test scores like Coursera, edX Open edX, Udemy, linkedin learning, learn words, and hacker’s rank platform etc, attendance, and online activity to help educators better understand student needs and improve teaching, can use for better decision. In conclusion, ML has emerged as a promising approach for predicting student academic performance in online learning environments. Despite the current limitations, the continued refinement of ML techniques, the use of additional variables, and the incorporation of external factors will lead to more robust models and greater accuracy in predicting academic performance.

Education is a deliberate action with certain goals in mind, such as passing on knowledge or developing skills and character qualities. Education is also seen as a crucial prerequisite for boosting self-confidence and giving people the tools they need to take part in the rapidly changing world of today. We can measure the growth of the educational institution using the students' progress. Analysing student academic performance is essential for academic institutions and educators to decide how to enhance individual student performance. Finding meaningful patterns in a lot of data is what machine learning is all about. Machine learning is quickly becoming recognized as a promising framework that offers a large range of tools, strategies, and procedures that make it possible to thoroughly analyse the data that is currently available in many sectors. Machine-learning techniques are helpful for improving the present educational standards and academic management in education. These techniques provide a route to various degrees of ranking, which is a discovery that alters how people view how to excel in the educational field. This research introduces a paradigm for predicting students' academic progress using machine learning (ML) algorithms. Through the use of several machine learning (ML) algorithms, this initiative analyses historical student outcomes and their unique traits, including family history, demographic distribution, age, and study attitude.

Use of machine learning (ML) and data mining (DM) algorithms has surfaced more often in the recent years for disease risk prediction problems in the healthcare communities. Several traditional feature selection models are combined with the DM and ML algorithms to improve accuracy of the disease risk prediction. In this study, a new Bio-inspired Ensemble Feature Selection (BEFS) model is introduced which is applied with the DM and ML algorithms. In the BEFS model, the most relevant and highly contributing features in the prediction are determined with a bio-inspired algorithm i.e., genetic algorithm, and an ensemble algorithm i.e., random forest algorithm. These important features obtained from the proposed model are then combined in various combinations and applied with the DM and ML algorithms, here logistic regression (LR) and random forest (RF), and the results obtained are promising. The experiment is executed using the famous ML language R. To accomplish this objective, the Breast Cancer Wisconsin (Diagnostic) dataset of UCI (University of California, Irvine) ML repository is utilized. In the experimental outcomes, the highest accuracy attained with the BEFS model is 96.49%, the AUC (Area Under Curve) achieved is 96%, and the sensitivity is 98.11%. These results, which greatly improve the disease risk prediction, are higher than several other existing works, while utilizing only six most relevant features out of the thirty two features of the dataset.

The aim of this study is to undertake an empirical inquiry and comparison of the effectiveness of various classifiers with ensembles classifiers in the prediction of student academic performance. A single classifier algorithm will be compared against the performance and efficiency of ensemble classifiers. Reducing student attrition is a major problem for educational institutions all over the world. The search for solutions to increase student retention and graduation rates continues for educators. This is only possible if at-risk students are identified and intervened with as soon as possible. However, the majority of regularly used prediction models are inefficient and inaccurate as a result of inherent classifier limitations and the inclusion of insignificant inputs in their calculations. The majority of data mining and machine learning researcher focused on developing an algorithm that can extract useful information from massive amounts of data after being processed by a computer. The most difficult problem in predictive modelling is identifying the most effective prediction algorithms that are also accurate enough to be useful. Therefore, a multi-level homogeneous ensemble predictive (MLHoEP) model is designed, which uses the different techniques of data mining like feature selection, ensemble learning techniques like boosting and bagging. Seven distinct machine learning algorithms were used on this model to predict and analyse the academic performance of the students. The performance of the classification algorithms in terms of prediction was evaluated using k-fold cross-validation. The study contributes to the body of knowledge by suggesting the development of homogeneous classifiers that may be used to accurately predict students’ academic success. It also proposes the construction of homogeneous classifiers, which may be deployed for accurate student performance prediction, in order to provide a better explanation for the poor performance prediction. As a result of this research, it has been demonstrated that the technique of applying homogeneous ensemble approaches is incredibly efficient and accurate in terms of predicting student performance and assisting in identifying students, who are in danger of dropping out of school. The study compared the accuracy and efficiency of single classifiers to ensembles of classifiers in terms of performance. It was discovered in the research that a homogeneous model with excellent accuracy and efficiency might be developed for anticipating student performance. These key problems have been successfully addressed by the findings of this research study: Which characteristics of students are the most effective predictors of academic performance? How accurate are approaches such as bagging and boosting ensembles for predicting student academic performance? The approach offered in this study will aid educational administrators and policymakers in designing new policies and curriculum-linked to student retention in higher education. This research can also aid in the identification of students who are at risk of dropping out of school early, providing for timely intervention and support. Prospective research will examine the creation and implementation of an automated prediction system known as the students’ academic performance forecast framework, which will collect data from students via online submission and produce a prediction result for their academic performance.KeywordsEducational data miningEnsemble learningMultilayer perceptronRandom forestNaïve BayesCorrelation attribute evaluationInformation gainGain ratio

Improving the quality, developing and implementing systems that can provide advantages to students, and predicting students’ success during the term, at the end of the term, or in the future are some of the primary aims of education. Due to its unique ability to create relationships and obtain accurate results, artificial intelligence and machine learning are tools used in this field to achieve the expected goals. However, the diversity of studies and the differences in their content create confusion and reduce their ability to pioneer future studies. In this study, we performed a systematic literature review of student performance prediction studies in three different databases between 2010 and 2020. The results are presented as percentages by categorizing them as either model, dataset, validation, evaluation, or aims. The common points and differences in the studies are determined, and critical gaps and possible remedies are presented. The results and identified gaps could be eliminated with standardized evaluation and validation strategies. It is determined that student performance prediction studies should be more frequently focused on deep learning models in the future. Finally, the problems that can be solved using a global dataset created by a global education information consortium, as well as its advantages, are presented.

This study explores the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in predicting high school student performance during the transition to university. Recognizing the pivotal role of academic readiness, the study emphasizes the need for tailored interventions to enhance student success. Leveraging a dataset from Portuguese high schools, the research employs a comparative analysis of six ML algorithms—linear regression, decision tree, support vector regression, k-nearest neighbors, random forest, and XGBoost—to identify the most effective predictors. The dataset encompasses diverse attributes, including demographic details, social factors, and school-related features, providing a comprehensive view of student profiles. The predictive models are evaluated using R-squared, Root Mean Square Error, and Mean Absolute Error metrics. Results indicate that the Random Forest algorithm outperforms others, displaying high accuracy in predicting student performance. Visualization and residual analysis further reveal the model's strengths and potential areas for improvement, particularly for students with lower grades. The implications of this research extend to educational management systems, where the integration of ML models could enable real-time monitoring and proactive interventions. Despite promising outcomes, the study acknowledges limitations, suggesting the need for more diverse datasets and advanced ML techniques in future research. Ultimately, this work contributes to the evolving field of educational AI, offering practical insights for educators and institutions seeking to enhance student success through predictive analytics.

Using Machine Learning (ML) in educational management transforms higher education strategy. This study examines students’ views on machine learning (ML) technologies and how they might be used to plan, monitor, and predict student performance. The Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Robotics surveyed 118 third-year undergraduates. It featured closed- and open-ended questions to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Descriptive statistics showed broad patterns, inferential tests (Chi-square, t-test, ANOVA) showed group differences, regression models predicted school outcomes, and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and clustering found hidden attitudes and student profiles. A multi-method quantitative approach combining descriptive statistics, inferential tests, regression modeling, and exploratory techniques (EFA and clustering) was employed. The findings show that most students realize that ML may help them be more productive, adapt their study pathways, and learn about the future. Concerns remain regarding its accuracy, overreliance, and morality. The findings indicate that ML can both support and challenge educational management, depending on how responsibly it is implemented. Results show that institutions may utilize ML as a strategic tool to boost academic progress and make better judgments, provided they incorporate it responsibly and follow ethical rules and training.

The aging and multimorbid population and health personnel shortages pose a substantial burden on primary health care. While predictive machine learning (ML) algorithms have the potential to address these challenges, concerns include transparency and insufficient reporting of model validation and effectiveness of the implementation in the clinical workflow. To systematically identify predictive ML algorithms implemented in primary care from peer-reviewed literature and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Conformité Européene (CE) registration databases and to ascertain the public availability of evidence, including peer-reviewed literature, gray literature, and technical reports across the artificial intelligence (AI) life cycle. PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Emcare, Academic Search Premier, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, MathSciNet, AAAI.org (Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence), arXiv, Epistemonikos, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar were searched for studies published between January 2000 and July 2023, with search terms that were related to AI, primary care, and implementation. The search extended to CE-marked or FDA-approved predictive ML algorithms obtained from relevant registration databases. Three reviewers gathered subsequent evidence involving strategies such as product searches, exploration of references, manufacturer website visits, and direct inquiries to authors and product owners. The extent to which the evidence for each predictive ML algorithm aligned with the Dutch AI predictive algorithm (AIPA) guideline requirements was assessed per AI life cycle phase, producing evidence availability scores. The systematic search identified 43 predictive ML algorithms, of which 25 were commercially available and CE-marked or FDA-approved. The predictive ML algorithms spanned multiple clinical domains, but most (27 [63%]) focused on cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Most (35 [81%]) were published within the past 5 years. The availability of evidence varied across different phases of the predictive ML algorithm life cycle, with evidence being reported the least for phase 1 (preparation) and phase 5 (impact assessment) (19% and 30%, respectively). Twelve (28%) predictive ML algorithms achieved approximately half of their maximum individual evidence availability score. Overall, predictive ML algorithms from peer-reviewed literature showed higher evidence availability compared with those from FDA-approved or CE-marked databases (45% vs 29%). The findings indicate an urgent need to improve the availability of evidence regarding the predictive ML algorithms' quality criteria. Adopting the Dutch AIPA guideline could facilitate transparent and consistent reporting of the quality criteria that could foster trust among end users and facilitating large-scale implementation.

This study proposes a technically robust machine learning framework for predicting student academic performance, specifically targeting the final grade (G3), by leveraging the Portuguese student dataset. The approach incorporates comprehensive data preprocessing techniques, including categorical encoding, feature scaling, and dimensionality reduction via Principal Component Analysis (PCA), to enhance data quality and model performance. A Multi-Layer Perceptron Regressor (MLPRegressor) is employed to model the complex, non-linear relationships between academic, demographic, and behavioral input features and student outcomes. The system is deployed through a web-based interface developed using Flask, integrated with Gradio for interactive and real-time prediction capabilities. Additionally, an API layer is incorporated to support seamless integration with external platforms. This architecture supports data-driven educational interventions by enabling early identification of at-risk students and aiding institutions in implementing targeted academic support strategies. Index Terms: Student Performance Prediction, Machine Learning, MLP Regressor, Educational Data Mining, Academic Analytics

Recent technological advances allowed an exponential expansion of biological sequence data, and the extraction of meaningful information through Machine Learning (ML) algorithms. This knowledge improved the understanding of the mechanisms related to several fatal diseases, e.g., Cancer and COVID-19, helping to develop innovative solutions, such as CRISPR-based gene editing, coronavirus vaccine, and precision medicine. These advances benefit our society and economy, directly impacting peoples lives in various areas, such as health care, drug discovery, forensic analysis, and food analysis. Nevertheless, ML approaches applied to biological data require representative, quantitative, and informative features. Necessarily, as many ML algorithms can handle only numerical data, sequences need to be translated into a feature vector. This process, known as feature extraction, is a fundamental step for the elaboration of high-quality ML-based models in bioinformatics, by allowing the feature engineering stage, with the design and selection of suitable features. Feature engineering, ML algorithm selection, and hyperparameter tuning are often manual and time-consuming processes, requiring extensive domain knowledge, and performed manually by a human expert. To deal with this problem, we developed a new package, BioAutoML, which automatically runs an end-to-end ML pipeline. BioAutoML extracts numerical and informative features from biological sequence databases, automating feature selection, recommendation of ML algorithm(s), and tuning of hyperparameters, using Automated ML (AutoML). BioAutoML has two components, divided into four modules, (1) automated feature engineering (feature extraction and selection modules) and (2) Metalearning (algorithm recommendation and hyperparameter tuning modules). Our experimental results, assessing the relevance of our proposal, indicate robust results for different problem domains, such as SARS-CoV-2, anticancer peptides, HIV sequences, and non-coding RNAs. According to our systematic review, our proposal is innovative compared to available studies in the literature, being the first study to propose automated feature engineering and metalearning for biological sequences. BioAutoML has a high potential to significantly reduce the expertise required to use ML pipelines, aiding researchers in combating diseases, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This initiative can provide biologists, physicians, epidemiologists, and other stakeholders with an opportunity for widespread use of these techniques to enhance the health and well-being of their communities.

The purpose of this analysis is to assess the use of machine learning (ML) algorithms in the prediction of postoperative outcomes, including complications, recurrence, and death in transsphenoidal surgery. Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, we systematically reviewed all papers that used at least one ML algorithm to predict outcomes after transsphenoidal surgery. We searched Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science databases for studies published prior to May 12, 2021. We identified 13 studies enrolling 5,048 patients. We extracted the general characteristics of each study; the sensitivity, specificity, area under the curve (AUC) of the ML models developed as well as the features identified as important by the ML models. We identified 12 studies with 5,048 patients that included ML algorithms for adenomas, three with 1807 patients specifically for acromegaly, and five with 2105 patients specifically for Cushing's disease. Nearly all were single-institution studies. The studies used a heterogeneous mix of ML algorithms and features to build predictive models. All papers reported an AUC greater than 0.7, which indicates clinical utility. ML algorithms have the potential to predict postoperative outcomes of transsphenoidal surgery and can improve patient care. Ensemble algorithms and neural networks were often top performers when compared with other ML algorithms. Biochemical and preoperative features were most likely to be selected as important by ML models. Inexplicability remains a challenge, but algorithms such as local interpretable model–agnostic explanation or Shapley value can increase explainability of ML algorithms. Our analysis shows that ML algorithms have the potential to greatly assist surgeons in clinical decision making.

Advances in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) have increased the growth of Massive open online courses (MOOCs) applied in distance learning environments. Various tools have been utilized to deliver interactive content including pictures, figures, and videos that can motivate the learners to build new cognitive skills. High ranking universities have adopted MOOCs as an efficient dashboard platform where learners from around the world can participate in such courses. The students learning progress is evaluated by using set computer-marked assessments. In particular, the computer gives immediate feedback to the student once he or she completes the online assessmentsThe researchers claim that student success rate in an online course can be related to their performance at the previous session in addition to the level of engagement. Insufficient attention has been paid by literature to evaluate whether student performance and engagement in the prior assessments could affect student achievement in the next assessmentsIn this paper, two predictive models have been designed namely students’ assessments grades and final students’ performance. The models can be used to detect the factors that influence students’ learning achievement in MOOCs. The result shows that both models gain feasible and accurate results. The lowest RSME gain by RF acquire a value of 8.131 for students assessments grades model while GBM yields the highest accuracy in final students’ performance, an average value of 0.086 was achieved.

Education is a prerequisite for a prosperous and good life, and it also helps in enhancing people's lives with meaning and excellence. Furthermore, education is viewed as a fundamental prerequisite for building self-confidence and providing the resources required to participate in today's speedily changing world. The progress of the educational institute's students can be used to quantify the institute's growth. Furthermore, education is viewed as a fundamental prerequisite for building self-confidence and providing the resources required to participate in today's rapidly changing world. For academic institutions and educators, analyzing student academic performance is critical in order to determine how to improve individual student performance. Using machine learning (ML) algorithms, this paper introduces a paradigm for forecasting students' academic success. This project examines past student outcomes, as well as their individual characteristics such as family history, demographic distribution, age, study attitude, and put this information to the test using diverse machine learning (ML) algorithms in WEKA (Waikato Setting for Knowledge Analysis) tool. The performance of the various algorithms was assessed using the percentage split (80:20) as well as the test-case cross-validation(10-fold). The results show that Linear regression (LR) is the utmost effective algorithm for forecasting student success, with a mean absolute error of 0.803 using cross-validation, and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is the least efficient, with a mean absolute error of 1.183 using percentage split.