Developing a Novel Expert System to Assist High School Students in Selecting their Appropriate University program: A Case Study of Hebron University

Abstract

In the light of the rapid Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development, it became a measure of the level of progress of an organization and shows its ability to compete. There is no doubt that the applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have contributed to a technological shift in various fields among which is the expert system, which is defined simply as the system that replaces or assists a human expert in a complex task that requires a specialized knowledge. The employment and use of expert systems has recently spread in many areas, including: health, military, administrative, in addition to the educational process. Whereas, high school students in Palestine face a problem when choosing their university program because this process is affected by many surrounding factors. Hence the fundamental purpose of the present study is to propose and develop an expert software system to guide high school students in choosing the appropriate university program at Hebron University as a case study. Therefore, the current study addresses the answer to the following questions: what are the factors affecting the students' choice of the appropriate university program from the students’ point of view? In addition, what is the students' opinion towards developing an expert system that helps high school students in choosing their appropriate university program? Moreover, how to develop a novel expert system to help high school students in choosing their university program? Where the expert system analyzes the student's tendencies and abilities, and the requirements for admission and registration to suggest university programs offered by Hebron University that are compatible with the student's personality. In addition, the system provides the student with an analysis of the needs of the Palestinian market from these university programs. This expert system was developed based on one of the famous theories of psychology in the aspect ofin which the types of personality suggested by this theory are stored. In addition, the system uses both rules and machine learning algorithms to analyze the student's tendencies and abilities and display the best university programs that suit his/her personality. The results showed that 85% of the students would like to use the expert system and recommend it, while 15% thought that it is not beneficial and would rather referring to traditional methods. Accordingly, the researcher recommends that the system be adopted mainly for all students wishing to enrol in Hebron University since it is based on scientific grounds besides abandoning random methods in the selection of university major. In addition, the researcher recommends the adoption of the system by the competent authorities in Palestine, and updating the system frequently. Furthermore, the researcher also recommends the necessity of providing data on all sectors related to the Palestinian market through the cooperation of the various institutions that own these data.