On the construction of student groups in a problem based learning system through fuzzy logic considering various objectives

Fuzziness is a concept that was suggested in 1965 by Zadeh that has improved rapidly until today and that has a number of successful applications in many fields. The reason why it has such successful applications and it can be applied in many fields is that it allows expression and analysis of the problems we encounter in daily life more realistically and, thanks to this, it produces more realistic solutions to problems. Therefore, the concept of fuzziness and the theories suggested and the methods developed on this concept are gaining more and more importance day by day.The creation of suitable learning conditions for students is of great importance in the method of problem based learning system which has been continuing in the Department of Statistics at Dokuz Eylül University since 2001. The most important of these conditions is the suitable composition of student groups for the purposes of instruction. For instance, level-based student groups can be composed by dividing students according to their success levels or balanced student groups can be constituted by students of each success level taking place in each group in approximate equal numbers. In addition, student groups can also be constituted by choosing students completely randomly. However, it is quite important that student evaluation grades, which are the fundamental elements used in the group constitution strategies mentioned here, should also be determined suitably. Especially while carrying out such performance evaluations, the opinion formed about the student is both quite difficult to turn into numerical expressions and vary according to each instructor. Thus, there exists the requirement of a system in which the student performance evaluations will be carried out verbally in a more suitable way for human structure of thinking and in which numerical results will later be obtained by using this information.In this dissertation work, a student performance evaluation system and a student group assignment system have been developed by searching for a solution for the above-mentioned problems. Five distinct group assignment strategies have been introduced within the group assignment system. Borland C++ Builder 6.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) was used for the implementation of the mentioned methods with a view to provide a solution.