Towards highly informative learning analytics

Among various trending topics that can be investigated in the field of educational technology, there is a clear and high demand for using artificial intelligence (AI) and educational data to improve the whole learning and teaching cycle. This spans from collecting and estimating the prior knowledge of learners for a certain subject to the actual learning process and its assessment. AI in education cuts across almost all educational technology disciplines and is key to many other technological innovations for educational institutions. The use of data to inform decision-making in education and training is not new, but the scope and scale of its potential impact on teaching and learning have silently increased by orders of magnitude over the last few years. The release of ChatGPT was another driver to finally make everyone aware of the potential effects of AI technology in the digital education system of today. We are now at a stage where data can be automatically harvested at previously unimagined levels of granularity and variety. Analysis of these data with AI has the potential to provide evidence-based insights into learners’ abilities and patterns of behaviour that, in turn, can provide crucial action points to guide curriculum and course design, personalised assistance, generate assessments, and the development of new educational offerings. AI in education has many connected research communities like Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED), Educational Data Mining (EDM), or Learning Analytics (LA). LA is the term that is used for research, studies, and applications that try to understand and support the behaviour of learners based on large sets of collected data

DATUS: Dashboard Assessment Usability Model: A case study with student dashboards

The software market sees the appearance of new companies and products every day. This growth translates into the competition, and the survival of companies is reduced to investment in their products. Universities are also interested in improving their product, education. This improvement can be achieved by investing in the learning experience of students. Usability and user experience play an important role and have been a competitive advantage worth investing. Consequently, new methods have emerged to improve the process of evaluating the usability of products. Despite this growth, there is no direct model for assessing the usability of a dashboard. This gap led to the investigation of this dissertation, a proposal for a new model, Dashboard Assessment Usability Model (DATUS), accompanied by an evaluation method, which can be applied to the evaluation of the usability of dashboards. Eight usability dimensions are included in DATUS, each corresponding to a specific usability facet that has been identified in an existing standard or model and decomposed into a total of 20 metrics. In this sense, to verify if the model created is feasible, and as a contribution to Iscte - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, a prototype dashboard was designed for the Fénix platform, to which the DATUS model was applied. To test the usability of the dashboards, a behavioural study was conducted with 30 Iscte students. After analysing the results, not only was the feasibility of the proposed model and method confirmed, but positive conclusions were also reached regarding the usability of the prototype.O mercado de software observa o aparecimento de novas empresas e produtos todos os dias. Este crescimento traduz-se em competição e a sobrevivência das empresas resume-se ao investimento nos seus produtos. Também as universidades têm interesse em melhorar o seu produto, o ensino. Esta melhoria pode ser alcançada através de investimento na experiência de aprendizagem dos estudantes. A usabilidade e a experiência do utilizador desempenham um papel importante e demonstram ser uma vantagem competitiva em que vale a pena investir. Consequentemente, têm surgido novos métodos para melhorar o processo de avaliação de usabilidade. Apesar deste crescimento, não existe um modelo claro para avaliar a usabilidade de um dashboard. Esta lacuna levou à investigação desta dissertação, uma proposta de um novo modelo, Dashboard Assessment Usability Model (DATUS), acompanhado por um método de avaliação, que pode ser aplicado à avaliação da usabilidade de dashboards. Estão incluídas no DATUS oito dimensões de usabilidade, cada uma corresponde a uma faceta específica de usabilidade que foi identificada numa normalização ou modelo existente, e decompõem-se num total de 20 métricas. Para verificar se o modelo é viável, e como contribuição para o Iscte - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, foi desenhado um protótipo de dashboard para a plataforma Fénix, à qual o modelo DATUS foi aplicado. Para testar a usabilidade dos dashboards, foi realizado um estudo comportamental com 30 alunos do Iscte. Após a análise dos resultados, foi confirmada a viabilidade do modelo e do método propostos e retiraram-se conclusões positivas em relação à usabilidade do protótipo

Tutor In-sight: Guiding and Visualizing Students Attention with Mixed Reality Avatar Presentation Tools

Remote conferencing systems are increasingly used to supplement or even replace in-person teaching. However, prevailing conferencing systems restrict the teacher’s representation to a webcam live-stream, hamper the teacher’s use of body-language, and result in students’ decreased sense of co-presence and participation. While Virtual Reality (VR) systems may increase student engagement, the teacher may not have the time or expertise to conduct the lecture in VR. To address this issue and bridge the requirements between students and teachers, we have developed Tutor In-sight, a Mixed Reality (MR) avatar augmented into the student’s workspace based on four design requirements derived from the existing literature, namely: integrated virtual with physical space, improved teacher’s co-presence through avatar, direct attention with auto-generated body language, and usable workfow for teachers. Two user studies were conducted from the perspectives of students and teachers to determine the advantages of Tutor In-sight in comparison to two existing conferencing systems, Zoom (video-based) and Mozilla Hubs (VR-based). The participants of both studies favoured Tutor In-sight. Among others, this main fnding indicates that Tutor Insight satisfed the needs of both teachers and students. In addition, the participants’ feedback was used to empirically determine the four main teacher requirements and the four main student requirements in order to improve the future design of MR educational tools

Towards an Intelligent System to Improve Student Engagement and Retention

The impact of the learning platforms on student performance has always been a popular subject of research on improving student academic performance during the course study. A variety of research and studies have been conducted based on the student opinions to determine the effectiveness of the student engagement in learning platform on student performance. However, these opinions may not be accurately affected. In this paper, we will track the student activities inside the learning platform in real-time during their course study. Only the meaningful activities such as downloading assignments, lectures, viewing notification and visiting the resources will be extracted from the learning platform. An algorithm has been developed for mining and measuring student performance inside the learning platform

Student-Centered Learning: Functional Requirements for Integrated Systems to Optimize Learning

The realities of the 21st-century learner require that schools and educators fundamentally change their practice. "Educators must produce college- and career-ready graduates that reflect the future these students will face. And, they must facilitate learning through means that align with the defining attributes of this generation of learners."Today, we know more than ever about how students learn, acknowledging that the process isn't the same for every student and doesn't remain the same for each individual, depending upon maturation and the content being learned. We know that students want to progress at a pace that allows them to master new concepts and skills, to access a variety of resources, to receive timely feedback on their progress, to demonstrate their knowledge in multiple ways and to get direction, support and feedback from—as well as collaborate with—experts, teachers, tutors and other students.The result is a growing demand for student-centered, transformative digital learning using competency education as an underpinning.iNACOL released this paper to illustrate the technical requirements and functionalities that learning management systems need to shift toward student-centered instructional models. This comprehensive framework will help districts and schools determine what systems to use and integrate as they being their journey toward student-centered learning, as well as how systems integration aligns with their organizational vision, educational goals and strategic plans.Educators can use this report to optimize student learning and promote innovation in their own student-centered learning environments. The report will help school leaders understand the complex technologies needed to optimize personalized learning and how to use data and analytics to improve practices, and can assist technology leaders in re-engineering systems to support the key nuances of student-centered learning

The Influence of Smart Technology on an Older Adult’s Communication with Family

The purpose of this study was to investigate an older adult’s perspective on the influences of smart technology on her communication with a family member. The participant in this single case study was included in a larger, phenomenological qualitative research study that investigated the impact of smart technology on senior care. She lived alone in a senior living facility apartment. The participant received smart home sensor technology, which tracked activity patterns and alerted a designated family member if deviations from typical activity patterns were detected. The participant also received Amazon Alexa® (2018) as part of the technology package. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with the participant both prior to installation and post-installation (at 2 and 8 months). The participant’s designated family member was interviewed at 2-months post-installation as well. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and coded using NVivo® software. A framework analysis was used to analyze the data, which included using charting matrix analysis and mapping to identify themes. Overall, the findings of the study showed that communication between the participant and her family member did not change with the use of smart technology. The themes that emerged from the data about why the smart technology did not influence communication included, “I’m just going on as usual”, “I keep in good contact”, and “I don’t know what the technology is really going to do for me”. The participant expressed her communication did not change due to a prior establishment of regular communication, her activities and health remaining the same, as well as feeling supported by senior living staff and that she didn’t need the smart technology. These findings were confirmed in the family member interview. The experience of not being changed by the technology might be explained with application of the Person-Environment-Occupation- Performance (PEOP) and Elderadopt models, in that the participant’s health, communication, and social supports were stable at the time smart technology was added to the participant’s environment. This case study fills a gap in the literature about the knowledge gained from examining an older adult’s experience over the span of a year, before and during use of smart technology. An older adult’s adoption and use of smart technology depends on the complex interaction between the person, their environment, and occupation factors. Occupational therapists have the training and expertise to consider such factors when making smart technology recommendations to older adults for aging in place

Visual project management practices to control projects

Abstract. In today’s technologically advanced world, projects are becoming much more complex and managers often face challenges of controlling the pace of the project. Visual project management is a fundamental element of lean methods that allows the project management activities to accomplish efficiently and effectively within the timeline. The challenges and complexity of projects are on the rise nowadays due to distinct unpredicted characteristics for instance workplace accidents, environmental effects, price hiking of materials cost and so on. Lack of controlling and monitoring the external or internal events within the project sometimes drive to project failure. This thesis aims to gain an insight into the visual project management practices in various projects through literature analysis along with the understanding of the contribution of visual tools and elements in the purpose of controlling the project. The initial part of this research focuses on in-depth literature review concerning the functions, tools, elements and the current state of the visual project management. The analysis is conducted by keeping two case studies as examples. The literature review reveals the contribution of visual management to support managerial strategy by integrating information, providing the elements, tools, and sensory aids into various project work settings. Following this, a qualitative analysis of two case projects provides the insight into the findings of this thesis which focuses on the prominence of visual management in two different project characteristics. Through the analysis and discussion, the anticipation of visual management was explored and identify the findings that disagree or complements the previous literature. Nevertheless, the overall research is concerned with the improvement of the project performance and effectiveness, removing potential threats and uncertainties and controlling the project through visual project management philosophies