IDENTIFICATION AND CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM OF STUDENTS' TALENTS AND INTERESTS IN DISTANCE EDUCATION USING SOFT COMPUTING

Abstract

Distance education students have diverse ages, jobs, and domicile characteristics. Therefore, distance higher education faces challenges in developing policies according to students' needs and characteristics. Distance higher education needs a system that can analyze talents and interests so that students and campuses get references in making decisions. Universitas Terbuka has more than 400 thousand students and requires extensive data analysis to provide targeted services for all parties. This article aims to create a model for identifying and classifying the talents and interests of distance education students using soft computing. In the experiment phase, we applied the model to new students at the Universitas Terbuka Padang, Indonesia. Finally, the results obtained recommendations for talent and interest management systems based on model accuracy and challenges that need to be anticipated immediately by policymakers.