Data Mining Helps Students Enrol in Courses with Higher Chances of Success Austin Peay State, a university near Nashville, Tennessee, is applying a data mining approach to higher education. Before students register for classes, a robot looks at their profiles and transcripts and recommends courses in which they are likely to be successful or have higher chances of success. The software takes an approach similar to the ones Netflix, eHarmony, and Amazon use to make their recommendations. It compares a students transcripts with those of past students who had similar grades an SAT scores. When a student logs in, the program offers 10 Course Suggestions for You. This recommendation is based on the students major and other information related to that student. The goal is to steer students towards courses in which they will make better grades. According to Denley, students who follow the recommendations do substantially better. In the fall of 2011, 45 percent of classes that the students were taking had been on their top 10 recommendations list. This data mining concept is catching on. Three other Tennessee colleges now use Denleys software. Institutions outside the state are developing their own versions of the idea.

1. Which other companies are using approaches like the one used by Austin Peay State?

2. Based on which data does the system makes a course recommendation to a student

3. How many courses are recommended to a student for possible selection? .

4. According to the case study, are any other Tennessee schools using this approach? (2.5 marks).