Data mining for providing a personalized learning path in creativity: An application of decision trees

•This study aims to develop a personalized creativity learning system (PCLS).•The PCLS was developed based on game-based learning and decision trees.•Data mining, AI techniques, and multi-agents were employed in the PCLS.•College majors and the learning paths are important predictors of creativity.•The PCLS can provide adaptive learning to creativity.

Customizing a learning environment to optimize personal learning has recently become a popular trend in e-learning. Because creativity has become an essential skill in the current e-learning epoch, this study aims to develop a personalized creativity learning system (PCLS) that is based on the data mining technique of decision trees to provide personalized learning paths for optimizing the performance of creativity. The PCLS includes a series of creativity tasks as well as a questionnaire regarding several key variables. Ninety-two college students were included in this study to examine the effectiveness of the PCLS. The experimental results show that, when the learning path suggested by a hybrid decision tree is employed, the learners have a 90% probability of obtaining an above-average creativity score, which suggests that the employed data mining technique can be a good vehicle for providing adaptive learning that is related to creativity. Moreover, the findings in this study shed light on what components should be accounted for when designing a personalized creativity learning system as well as how to integrate personalized learning and game-based learning into a creative learning program to maximize learner motivation and learning effects.