Machine Learning in Education

3 credits · Peabody College - Professional

Machine learning constitutes a different field from statistics given its focus on out-of-sample prediction as opposed to statistics’ emphasis on inference and estimation. While many of the same algorithms are used, the purpose of the two are quite distinct. In education, machine learning supports a variety of predictive tasks, but education researchers are rarely trained in the development of machine learning models. This course will introduce the learner to machine learning in education settings. The focus will be pragmatic, with an emphasis on how various models are tuned in order to best provide out-of-sample predictions with the lowest loss rates. Learners will know how to train and deploy some widely-used models after taking the course. [3]