Title: A decision support system for academic advisors

Authors: Khalid Ahmed Almutawah

Addresses: IEEE & ACM Professional, University of Bahrain, P.O. Box: 24028 Muharraq, Bahrain

Abstract: Student advising is a vital activity in higher education institutes, yet it is a time consuming effort in academic life. Through experimental research, this article examines whether multiple sources of knowledge are helping academic advisors providing more effective decision to their students. Drawing on multiple knowledge sources, including the students' historical records, university's regulations, students' preferences, and career trends, the article explains why these knowledge sources are essential and discusses ways of constructing it. The article then presents the results of a study of recent developed prototype at University of Bahrain, compares data from the years 2009 through 2011, and discusses implications of the data. It concludes that the proposed model have made significant progress toward more effective decision making for students, but it also identifies a need for further improvement, which can be accomplished through advanced techniques on data mining and artificial intelligence.

Keywords: decision support systems; DSS; academic advisors; data mining; information systems; higher education; decision making; student records; historical records; university regulations; student preferences; career trends.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2014.062837

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2014 Vol.16 No.2, pp.177 - 195

Published online: 25 Jul 2014 *

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