A Knowledge Tracing Model Based on Hierarchical Heterogeneous Graphs
Bin Li, Yan Zhang, Hongle Du, Yeh-Cheng Chen · Mathematics · 2026
Whether learners can correctly complete exercises is influenced by multiple factors, including their mastery of relevant knowledge concepts and the interdependencies among these concepts. To investigate how the structure of the knowledge space—particularly the complex relationships among learners, exercises, and knowledge points—affects learning outcomes, this study proposes the Hierarchical Heterogeneous Graph Knowledge Tracing model (HHGKT). A hierarchical heterogeneous graph was constructed to capture two types of interactions—“learner–knowledge concept” and “exercise–knowledge concept”—and incorporate the interdependencies among knowledge concepts into the graph structure. By leveraging this hierarchical representation, the model’s ability to characterize learners and exercises was enhanced. A hierarchical heterogeneous graph encompassing users, exercises, and knowledge concepts was built based on the ASSISTments dataset, and simulation experiments were conducted. The results indicate that the proposed structure effectively represents the complexity of the knowledge space. Incorporating knowledge concept interdependencies improves prediction accuracy by 1.79%, while the hierarchical heterogeneous graph outperforms traditional bipartite graphs by approximately 1.5 percentage points in accuracy. These findings demonstrate that the model better integrates node and relational information, offering valuable insights for knowledge space modeling and its application in educational contexts.