Topic 5 Basic learning activities with integrated setting that generate data on learner activity and performance

Learning management system gathering data 

Learning analytics is an essential part of an LMS. It is about making sense of your e-learning data and being able to act on them. This can be the difference between a failed or a successful online training program.

Data can help you understand the performance of the program, identify bottlenecks in learning, review learning KPIs, evaluate the effectiveness of your course, and make data-driven decisions.

With the new User Progress Reports, the power of e-learning data is at your fingertips. Every online instructor, trainer, or manager can easily interpret and analyze courses, users, and learning activities.

Reporting helps you identify patterns, drill down into subsets of your data and anticipate trends, or derive actionable recommendations for improving your work.

Some of the online activities that generates data

• Gamified learning
• Digital field trips
• Integrate social media
• Gather student feedback
• Creating digital content
• Using a shared, online classroom calendar
• Review and critique webpages
• Incorporate video and multimedia into lessons and presentations
• Online activities for students who finish work early

Gamified Learning

Along with the increasing popularity of video games, a movement arose to defend the extension and application of elements normally present in video games to the real world and in areas far from just entertainment. The gamification corresponds to the use of gaming-oriented mechanisms to address practical problems or to engagement between specific audiences.

For Libâneo (1994) and Haydt (2008) the specific functions of evaluation are the diagnosis, control and classification. The diagnosis makes it possible to identify, discriminate, understand and characterize the triggering factors of learning disabilities. The control aims to locate, aim, discriminate against disabilities and shortcomings in the development of the teaching-learning process and fix them by means of a systematic control and keep you give by the teacher-student interaction, during class. The classification function provides mainly the execution of the purpose of classifying the student according to the level of utilization, or income achieved in comparison to the group class.

Potential of Gamification as Assessment Tool

The gamification have the potential to improve the way the formative evaluation is conducted, involving students in tasks that, if designed properly, will produce valuable information for the various educational actors (teachers, parents, students and school administrators). One of the main challenges is to create immersive gaming scenarios that can be used as evaluation tasks, provided that they meet the quality criteria of evaluation (for example, considerations of fairness, validity and reliability) (Zapata-Rivera & Bauer, 2012).

There are many possibilities that need to be taken into account in the integration of gamification with the development of assessment tasks. Below we summarize such potential:

• Tutorials and familiarization. Lack of familiarity with navigation controls may negatively influence student performance and student motivation. The use of tutorials can support this familiarization process.
• Type and amount of feedback. Availability of feedback may influence motivation and the quality of the evidence produced by the system. Measurement models need to take into account the type of feedback that has been provided to students when interpreting the data gathered during their interaction with the assessment system.
• Re-playing, number of attempts and revisions. As in the case of feedback, measurement models need to handle the number of attempts and revisions.

Virtual field trip apps and website

Field trips are informal learning experiences that get students out into the world, exploring the world and students’ interests. Trips to museums, parks, historical sites, and more show students that learning (and life) happens outside the classroom, too. During field trips, students discover new things and learn in authentic environments, placing classroom content into new contexts. Unfortunately, for many schools and students, field trips are rare (if they happen at all). Thankfully, there are great games, apps, and websites that can bring places and experiences fostered by field trips to the classroom. While not an outright replacement, these field trip tools can offer inspiring and intriguing experiences for students.

An increasingly popular, useful, and cost-effective tool for teachers searching for new ways to use technology in the classroom is taking digital field trips. Google Streetview and other similar apps allow you to virtually explore parks, forests and even national and international landmarks from the comfort of your classroom. Virtually experience the view from the Statue of Liberty or hike through the Grand Canyon to get students excited to learn about a location or subject and extend learning beyond the page!