Skip to main content

Probabilistic Classifiers and Statistical Dependency: The Case for Grade Prediction

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Biomedical Applications Based on Natural and Artificial Computing (IWINAC 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 10338))

Abstract

The research presented here aims at predicting grades by means of a set of relevant student’s variables. To solve this problem, a probabilistic approach was applied in which we assume that the probability of obtaining a certain grade is conditioned on the personal attributes of each student. A Bayesian classifier was the natural choice to include the student’s attributes in the estimation of the likelihood. However, a striking result was observed when the accuracy of the bayesian prediction was lower than the one provided by a baseline predictor based on student’s clustering. A follow-up analysis explains the reason behind this result and provides a guideline for similar classification problems.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Domingos, P., Pazzani, M.: On the optimality of the simple Bayesian classifier under zero-one loss. Mach. Learn. 29, 103–130 (1997)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Edin, O., Mirza, S.: Data mining approach for predicting student performance. Econ. Rev. – J. Econ. Bus. X(1), 3–12 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Friedman, N., Geiger, D., Goldszmidt, M.: Bayesian network classifiers. Mach. Learn. 29, 131–163 (1997)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. Gedeon, T.D., Turner, H.S.: Explaining student grades predicted by a neural network. In: Proceedings of 1993 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, IJCNN 1993, Nagoya, vol. 1, pp. 609–612 (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Klosgen, W., Zytkow, J.: Handbook of Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery. Oxford University Press, New York (2002)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Kotsiantis, S.B., Pintelas, P.E.: Predicting students marks in Hellenic Open University. In: Fifth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, ICALT 2005, pp. 664–668 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Qasem, A.A., Emad, M.S., Mustafa, I.N.: Mining student data using decision trees. In: International Arab Conference on Information Technology (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Rutger, K., Henk, F.: Predicting academic success in higher education: what’s more important than being smart? Eur. J. Psychol. Educ. 27(4), 605–619 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Superby, J.F., Vandamme, J-P., Meskens, N.: Determination of factors influencing the achievement of the first-year university students using data mining methods. In: Proceedings of the Workshop on Educational Data Mining at the 8th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems, pp. 37–44 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Tukey, J.W.: Exploratory Data Analysis. Pearson, London (1977)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work has received financial support from the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain under grant TIN2014-56633-C3-1-R as well as from the Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria (accreditation 2016–2019, ED431G/08) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eduardo Sánchez .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this paper

Cite this paper

Bahritidinov, B., Sánchez, E. (2017). Probabilistic Classifiers and Statistical Dependency: The Case for Grade Prediction. In: Ferrández Vicente, J., Álvarez-Sánchez, J., de la Paz López, F., Toledo Moreo, J., Adeli, H. (eds) Biomedical Applications Based on Natural and Artificial Computing. IWINAC 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10338. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59773-7_40

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59773-7_40

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-59772-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-59773-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics