ERIC Number: ED593213
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Jul
Pages: 5
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Does Deep Knowledge Tracing Model Interactions among Skills?
Montero, Shirly; Arora, Akshit; Kelly, Sean; Milne, Brent; Mozer, Michael
International Educational Data Mining Society, Paper presented at the International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM) (11th, Raleigh, NC, Jul 16-20, 2018)
Personalized learning environments requiring the elicitation of a student's knowledge state have inspired researchers to propose distinct models to understand that knowledge state. Recently, the spotlight has shone on comparisons between traditional, interpretable models such as Bayesian Knowledge Tracing (BKT) and complex, opaque neural network models such as Deep Knowledge Tracing (DKT). Although DKT appears to be a powerful predictive model, little effort has been expended to dissect the source of its strength. We begin with the observation that DKT differs from BKT along three dimensions: (1) DKT is a neural network with many free parameters, whereas BKT is a probabilistic model with few free parameters; (2) a single instance of DKT is used to model all skills in a domain, whereas a separate instance of BKT is constructed for each skill; and (3) the input to DKT interlaces practice from multiple skills, whereas the input to BKT is separated by skill. We tease apart these three dimensions by constructing versions of DKT which are trained on single skills and which are trained on sequences separated by skill. Exploration of three data sets reveals that dimensions (1) and (3) are critical; dimension (2) is not. Our investigation gives us insight into the structural regularities in the data that DKT is able to exploit but that BKT cannot. [For the full proceedings, see ED593090.]
Descriptors: Artificial Intelligence, Individualized Instruction, Knowledge Level, Bayesian Statistics, Predictive Validity, Performance Factors, Probability, Models
International Educational Data Mining Society. e-mail: admin@educationaldatamining.org; Web site: http://www.educationaldatamining.org
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: EHR1631428; SES1461535
Author Affiliations: N/A