Classification of learning styles using behavioral features and twin support vector machine

Internet and computer access have created opportunities for e-learning. Easier access to resources and freedom of action for users is one of the benefits of e-learning. However, e-learning is not as attractive and dynamic as traditional or face-to-face instruction, and in these systems the user's condition, such as learning rate and motivation, is not taken into account. Therefore, the developers of e-learning systems can help to solve the problems mentioned in these systems by considering the learning style and design of interactive user relationships. Automated identification of learning style not only increases the attractiveness of e-learning, but also increases the efficiency and motivation of learners in e-learning environments. Research shows that people differ in decision making, problem solving, and learning. Learning style makes people understand a story differently. For example, people with good visual memory prefer to present topics visually rather than orally. Applying a proper teaching method improves the learner's performance in the learning environment. Lack of attention to students' learning style reduces their motivation and interest in studying and engagement in educational courses. Students’ success is one of the prominent goals in the learning environments. In order to achieve this goal, paying attention to students’ learning style is essential. Being aware of students’ learning style helps to design an appropriate education method which improves student’s performance in the learning environments. In this paper, the aim is to create a model for automatic prediction of learning styles.

Therefore, two real datasets collected from an e-learning environment which consists of 202 electrical and computer engineering students. Behavioral features were extracted from users’ interaction with e-learning system and then learning styles were classified using twin support vector machine. Twin support vector machine is an extension of SVM which aims at generating two non-parallel hyperplanes. This classifier is not sensitive to imbalanced datasets and its training speed is fast.

In this study, increasing the attractiveness of e-learning is emphasized and the issue of automatic recognition of students' learning style has been investigated by MBTI model. Two data sets from the interaction of 202 electrical and computer engineering students with the Moodle e-learning system have been collected. The collected data set is very unbalanced, which has a negative effect on the accuracy of the categories. With this in mind, the twin support vector machine uses the least squares as a binder. The distinctive feature of this category is the low sensitivity to data balance and very high speed. The results show that the proposed method, despite the inconsistency of the data, has performed very well in the classification of students' learning style and accurately recognizes 95% of learning styles.

Due to the excellent performance of the proposed method, a new component can be added to e-learning systems such as Moodle by identifying the learning style, content and appropriate teaching method for the learner. Future research could also gather more data from an e-learning environment and categorize learning styles with cognitive characteristics from the learner.