Navigational Behavior Patterns of Learners on Dashboards Based on Assessment Analytics

Assessment analytics are based on students’ interactions with assessment tasks and feedback via dashboards in online learning systems. Learners’ engagement with feedback is especially important in formative assessment processes. This study aims to examine the transitions between types of feedback presented via a student-facing dashboard using the navigation data. Based on this aim, a standalone assessment system was developed for students to test themselves. Following the assessment tasks (tests in this system), four different types of feedback were presented to the learners: (a) criteria-referenced feedback (CRF), (b) elaboration feedback (EF), (c) self-referenced feedback (SRF), and (d) norm-referenced feedback (NRF). Each feedback as an indicator was provided to the learners in different dashboards, and the learners could see each indicator with making transitions between dashboards. Quantitative data was collected from 100 freshmen students, consisting of learners’ interaction with the system. Lag sequential analysis (LSA) was utilized to determine which indicators the learners consecutively visited. According to the findings, students did not confine themselves with just one indicator, and made systematic transitions between each dashboard, CRF, EF, SRF, and NRF respectively. The second research finding was that there was a difference in transitions between the types of feedback in master and non-master students. The findings are discussed in detail below, and recommendations are presented in the relevant sections.