Application of Data Mining Techniques in e-Learning Environments

Fast growth of the Internet has triggered creation of new methods for educational systems through which knowledge workers and teachers can do their jobs with less cost, time and energy. Nowadays, knowledge workers can reach their favorite educational materials through these systems. The issue of creation of models according to priorities, goals and interests is one of the significant issues in electronic education. At present, many of the Web-based courses have fixed educational materials so that do not vary with different users. Therefore, a lot of attempts have been made in recent years to make possible personalization of educational materials according to knowledge worker needs. Increase of the web content has boosted application of data mining and web mining techniques remarkably. This article classifies and examines application of the most important and famous techniques of data mining to improve education and to establish personalized education based on the available data in the traditional system of education and distance learning (including web-based courses, learning content management systems, and intelligent and compatible web-based educational systems).