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Give Me a Customizable Dashboard: Personalized Learning Analytics Dashboards in Higher Education

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Abstract

With the increased capability of learning analytics in higher education, more institutions are developing or implementing student dashboards. Despite the emergence of dashboards as an easy way to present data to students, students have had limited involvement in the dashboard development process. As part of a larger program of research examining student and academic perceptions of learning analytics, we report here on work in progress exploring student perceptions of dashboards and student preferences for dashboard features. First, we present findings on higher education students’ attitudes towards learning analytic dashboards resulting from four focus groups (N = 41). Thematic analysis of the focus group transcripts identified five key themes relating to dashboards: ‘provide everyone with the same learning opportunities’, ‘to compare or not to compare’, ‘dashboard privacy’, ‘automate alerts’ and ‘make it meaningful—give me a customizable dashboard’. Next we present findings from a content analysis of students’ drawings of dashboards demonstrating that students are interested in features that support learning opportunities, provide comparisons to peers and are meaningful to the student. Finally, we present preliminary findings from a survey of higher education students, reinforcing students’ desire to choose whether to have a dashboard and to be able to customize their dashboards. These findings highlight the potential for providing students with some level of control over learning analytics as a means to increasing self-regulated learning and academic achievement. Future research directions aimed at better understanding students emotional and behavioral responses to learning analytics feedback on dashboards and alerts are outlined.

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Notes

  1. Student participant pools are widely used in psychology. As part of their education in research methods, undergraduate psychology students participate in a range of research projects each year. Students select from a range of studies lodged with the student participant pool and are awarded participation points on completion of each study. Students electing not to participate in research complete an alternative activity.

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Acknowledgements

The research was Funded by a Curtin University Teaching Excellence Development Fund Grant 2016/1.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA, 6845, Australia

    Lynne D. Roberts, Joel A. Howell & Kristen Seaman

  2. Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

    Lynne D. Roberts

Authors
  1. Lynne D. Roberts
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  2. Joel A. Howell
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  3. Kristen Seaman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lynne D. Roberts.

Appendix: Scenarios

Appendix: Scenarios

Scenario 1

Kris is a student who has access to a dashboard of analytics that provides him with feedback when he is at his computer or using a mobile device. His dashboard provides a weekly summary consisting of basic statistics on attendance, participation, and marks on his formal assignments and exams. Kris has been performing relatively well compared to his peers. Kris is unaware that based on his performance in his units there is a scholarship that he could apply for to help pay for his future studies. He receives an alert on his dashboard advising details of the scholarship.

Question Guide:

  • How would you feel in this situation if you were Kris? Why?

  • How would you feel in this situation if you were in the same class as Kris, but not told about the scholarship?

  • To receive this information the system would need access to age, gender, nationality, grades, units completed etc. Would you feel comfortable with this? Why/why not?

Scenario 2

Femi is a student who has been performing really well compared to her peers. Femi’s dashboard of analytics reflects her attendance, participation in online discussions, and her excellent marks on her assignments. Femi could receive a personalized recommendation identifying additional advanced readings and suggestions.

Question Guide:

  • In this situation how would you feel about receiving additional readings/suggestions?

  • In this situation she could also receive an automated message from the analytics dashboard that she is performing in the top 10% of her class… how would you feel in this situation? Why/not?

  • Alternatively, the unit coordinator could be alerted and could send Femi a personalized message. How would you feel about that? Which would you prefer if it was you? Why?

  • Would you like to have your performance in comparison to your peers reflected back to you? Why/not?

Scenario 3

Bec is another student in the same course as Kris and Femi. Her dashboard shows that she has not been performing well in one of her core units. Bec receives an alert that suggests she should access additional resources, and identifies several lecture and tutorial materials that she has not accessed as yet.

Question Guide:

  • In this situation how would you feel?

  • In this situation it could either be an automated message delivered to you or a personalized message from the unit coordinator… which would you prefer? Why?

  • Bec could also receive a message telling her she is in the bottom 10% of the class, how would you feel in this situation?

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Roberts, L.D., Howell, J.A. & Seaman, K. Give Me a Customizable Dashboard: Personalized Learning Analytics Dashboards in Higher Education. Tech Know Learn 22, 317–333 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-017-9316-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-017-9316-1

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