Assessing the Impact of Attendance in Students' Final Success Using the Decision-Making Tree

• Author: Alija S., Apam B.
• Pages: 311-318

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series V: Economic Sciences • Vol. 10 (59) No. 2 - 2017

Assessing the impact of attendance in students’ final

success using the Decision-Making Tree

Sadri ALIJA1 Benjamin APAM2

Abstract: In this paper, we use the decision-making tree to explain the impact attendance

has on students’ final success. The paper analyses the results of 56 students in 3 subjects

during the academic year 2016/2017 (first, second and third-year students of Business

Mathematics, Statistics and Managerial Economics at the SEE University in Tetovo). The

results show that attendance is the most important of the 5 attributes in this study, placing it

at the root of the tree. In constructing the Decision-making Tree, we have used the ID3

Algorithm within the Weka software package.

Key-words: Student’s attendance, Decision-Making Tree, ID3 Algorithm, Weka Package

1. Introduction

In present -day conditions, when the information and communication technology is

developing vigorously, and electronic devices and services take, on a daily basis, a

great amount of our time, student’s attendance remains in the spotlight to many

Universities.

At the South East European University, student-centered teaching has an

important place: there has been given great importance to teaching and learning

interactively.

On the other hand, knowledge of mathematics is crucial both during studies in

enabling an individual to study other subjects in her/his curricula, and also afterward

in his/her career by creating better chances to get a job, having higher productivity at

her/his workplace and of course earning a higher salary and other benefits.

The question why students miss the classes is raised by many researchers.

They find different reasons and explanations that point to why students are missing

classes (Gump 2006; Nicholl and Timins 2005; Hughes 2005; Timmins and Kaliszer

2002; Hunter and Tentley 1999; Longhurst 1999). Studies show that some of the

1 Faculty of Business and Economics, South East European University, Tetovo, Republic of

Macedonia, s.aliji@seeu.edu.mk

2 Department of Statistics, Bolgatanga Polytechnic