Because of their capacity to sift through large amounts of data, text mining and data mining are enabling higher education institutions to reveal valuable patterns in students' learning behaviours without having to resort to traditional survey methods. In an effort to uncover live video streaming (LVS) students' technology related-problems and to…

This study investigated the longitudinal trends of e-learning research using text mining techniques. Six hundred and eighty-nine (689) refereed journal articles and proceedings were retrieved from the Science Citation Index/Social Science Citation Index database in the period from 2000 to 2008. All e-learning publications were grouped into two…

The objective of this article is to illustrate that text mining and qualitative research are epistemologically compatible. First, like many qualitative research approaches, such as grounded theory, text mining encourages open-mindedness and discourages preconceptions. Contrary to the popular belief that text mining is a linear and fully automated…

Data mining and statistical analyses at a less selective institution reveal that the relationships between parents' educational level and some first year success indicators are not linear. Specifically, students who report that either parent or guardian(s) have an educational level beyond a baccalaureate degree or do not report parent education…

Twelve-year-old Susan took a course designed to improve her reading skills. She read short stories and the teacher would give her and her fellow students a written test every other week measuring vocabulary and reading comprehension. A few days later, Susan's instructor graded the paper and returned her exam. The test showed that she did well on…

Excessive college course withdrawals are costly to the student and the institution in terms of time to degree completion, available classroom space, and other resources. Although generally well quantified, detailed analysis of the reasons given by students for course withdrawal is less common. To address this, a text mining analysis was performed…

A computerized symbol processor system using an Apple IIe computer and a Power Pad graphics tablet was tested with 22 nonspeaking, multiply disabled students. The students were taught to express themselves independently in writing, and they did significantly better than control students on measures of language comprehension and symbol recognition.…