Exploring Student Interactions: Learning Analytics Tools for Student Tracking

This paper presents four categories of learning analytics tools: dashboards, ad hoc tools, tools for analysis of specific issues, and learning analytics frameworks, and details the characteristics of a selection of tools within each category: (1) Moodle Dashboard and Moodle default reporting tool; (2) Interactions and Teamwork Assessment Tool; (3) SNAPP, GraphFES and Moodle Engagement Analytics; and (4) VeLA and GISMO. The study investigates how these tools can be applied to the analysis of courses by using real data from a course that made intensive use of forums, wikis, web resources, videos, quizzes and assignments. The discussion that follows points out how the different tools complement each other, and suggests the implementation of basic dashboards in learning platforms and the use of external frameworks for learning analytics.