Identification of Learning Paths in an Undergraduate Course and its Relationship with School Dropout

• Êrica Peters do Carmo Santa Catarina State University
• Isabela Gasparini Santa Catarina State University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8094-9261
• Elaine Harada Teixeira de Oliveira Federal University of Amazonas https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2884-9359

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/sbie.2022.225737

Abstract

School dropout is one of the main problems that affect higher education. To prevent dropout, students must fulfill a series of requirements presented in the form of courses. Thus, the path followed by students throughout their academic life can be represented by the sequence of courses taken, named learning path. This paper presents two approaches to modeling these paths in an undergraduate degree and uses them to investigate patterns related to dropout. The results show that the first semester's courses, with a high rate of failure, end up acting as barriers to the advancement of students in the degree, leading them to abandon their studies.

Keywords: learning paths, school dropout, higher education, sequential pattern mining

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