Philippine E-Journals

KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY IN DATABASES APPLICATION: A PROCESS IN DESIGNING AN ICT SKILLS ENHANCEMENT PROGRAM

Melidiossa V. Pagudpud

 

Abstract:

Most studies on the potentials of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to drive change in the government sector have focused on hardware and software rather than peopleware. Far more should be made of how these technologies can assist individuals in the working place by adopting different approaches and collaborating to improve public service through enhanced ICT skills. This study applied the Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) process by implementing a data mining clustering technique to extract knowledge from the employees’ ICT skills dataset gathered from the Local Government Unit of Saguday, in the Province of Quirino. Clustering the employees is vital in conceptualizing and designing an ICT skills enhancement program for the employees in the said unit. Using the RapidMiner tool, Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN), k-means, k-medoid, and support vector, clustering algorithms were analyzed. The silhouette indexes of the said clustering algorithms were compared, and the result showed that the k-means algorithm with k = 3 and silhouette index equal to 0.375 is the most appropriate clustering algorithm to faction the employees. Three groups were produced having 31 employees in the beginners' group (cluster 0), 37 experienced employees (cluster 1) and 25 employees with intermediate skills (cluster 2). The data mining technique utilized in this study is essential in extracting useful information from the dataset to better understand the abilities of the employees, which in turn, is a sound basis in designing an ICT skills enhancement program.