Intelligent hybrid decision support systems for education policy and institutional performance optimization

Area of Science:

• Educational Technology
• Artificial Intelligence in Education
• Decision Support Systems

Background:

• Digital transformation is driving the shift to Education 5.0, necessitating data-driven management and intelligent learning environments.
• Selecting optimal educational technologies is challenging due to uncertainty, conflicting criteria, and multiple stakeholders.
• Existing decision-making methods struggle with the inherent ambiguity in expert evaluations for emerging technologies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an intelligent hybrid decision-support framework for evaluating and prioritizing Education 5.0 technologies.
• To effectively manage uncertainty and hesitation in expert judgments using picture fuzzy sets.
• To provide a robust and reliable method for strategic technology adoption in educational institutions.

Main Methods:

• A novel decision-support framework integrating picture fuzzy sets for uncertainty management.
• Mutual induction-based feature selection to identify influential criteria and their interrelationships.
• A new distance and similarity measure for picture fuzzy information to enhance evaluation accuracy.
• PROMETHEE II for ranking technologies, complemented by Monte Carlo simulation for uncertainty analysis and robustness checks against traditional methods (e.g., TOPSIS, VIKOR).

Main Results:

• The proposed framework demonstrates superior stability and reliability in evaluating Education 5.0 technologies.
• Feature selection effectively identified key criteria and their importance, capturing complex interdependencies.
• The novel fuzzy measure improved discrimination and accuracy in the prioritization process.
• Case study on China's smart education transformation validated the framework's practical applicability.

Conclusions:

• The intelligent framework offers a robust solution for selecting Education 5.0 technologies under uncertainty.
• It provides actionable insights for policymakers and institutions navigating technological advancements.
• The study highlights the potential of picture fuzzy sets and advanced decision-support systems in educational contexts.