Attractors in Web Based Educational Systems a Conceptual Knowledge Processing Grounded Approach

Users behavioral patterns are one of the main research directions in web usage mining. Web based educational systems are particularly interesting since behavioral patterns are closely related to educational performance. In this paper we focus on attractors in web based educational systems, i.e., qualitative specific behavioral patterns to which users adhere over time. The research has been conducted on a locally developed e-learning platform called PULSE. Data gathered from weblogs have been preprocessed and conceptual landscapes of knowledge have been built using Formal Concept Analysis. Users behavioral patterns have been detected herefrom, or by moving ahead a triadic view. Triadic concepts enabled us to detect unstructured attractors, while conceptual hierarchies and triadic concept sets made possible to investigate the educational attractors and to derive valuable knowledge about bundle of users and their behavior related to their educational performance.