Identifying Best Practices for Teaching Machine Learning

There is currently a distinct shortage of individuals skilled in machine learning to fill the increasing demand within the job market. To counteract this issue the Higher Education (HE) sector are offering more courses in machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI). However, there is a lack of research pertaining to best practices for teaching in this complex domain. This research aims to identify the threshold concepts within the topic of machine learning and AI along with identifying if two perceived cognitive barriers of maths anxiety and low self-efficacy hold true. We achieve this through the use of qualitative research methods such as questionnaires and observations. Counteracting strategies will be developed based on the analysis of the qualitative research. The outcome of this study will be creation of an online learning tool encompassing methods to alleviate the barriers students face when undertaking a machine learning or AI course.