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Educational Dashboards for Smart Learning: Review of Case Studies

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Emerging Issues in Smart Learning

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Educational Technology ((LNET))

Abstract

An educational dashboard is a display which visualizes the results of educational data mining in a useful way. Educational data mining and visualization techniques allow teachers and students to monitor and reflect on their online teaching and learning behavior patterns. Previous literature has included such information in the dashboard to support students’ self-knowledge, self-evaluation, self-motivation, and social awareness. Further, educational dashboards are expected to support the smart learning environment, in the perspective that students receive personalized and automatically-generated information on a real-time base, by use of the log files in the Learning Management System (LMS). In this study, we reviewed ten case studies that deal with development and evaluation of such a tool, for supporting students and teachers through educational data mining techniques and visualization technologies. In the present study, a conceptual framework based on Few’s principles of dashboard design and Kirkpatrick’s fourlevel evaluation model was developed to review educational dashboards. Ultimately, this study is expected to evaluate the current state of educational dashboard development and suggest an evaluative tool to judge whether or not the dashboard function is working properly, in both a pedagogical and visual way.

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Correspondence to Yeonjeong Park .

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Appendix 1. an Evaluation Framework for Educational Dashboards

Appendix 1. an Evaluation Framework for Educational Dashboards

Criteria

Sub-categories

Indexes

1. reaction

Goal-orientation

1. A dashboard identifies goals that present the specific information.

  

2. A dashboard helps users monitor goal-related activities.

 

Information Usefulness

3. A dashboard displays the information that users want to know.

  

4. A dashboard includes essential information only.

 

Visual Effectiveness

5. A dashboard consists of visual elements.

  

6. A dashboard fits on a single computer screen.

  

7. A dashboard presents visual information that users can scan at a glance.

  

8. Visual elements in a dashboard are arranged in a way for rapid perception. Appropriation of visual representation

  

9. A dashboard includes proper graphic representations

  

10. Graphs in a dashboard appropriately represent the scales and units.

  

11. A dashboard delivers information in a concise, direct and clear manner.

  

12. A dashboard uses appropriate pre-attentive attributes, such as form, color, spatial position and motion.

  

13. A dashboard displays information correctly in both desktop computers and mobile devices.

 

User Friendliness

14. A dashboard is easy to access.

  

15. A dashboard is customized to users’ context.

  

16. A dashboard has intuitive interfaces and menus to use easily.

  

17. A dashboard allows users to explore more information that are embedded or hidden on the single page.

2. Learning

Understanding

18. A user understands what the visual information in a dashboard implies.

 

Reflection

19. A user understands what the statistical information in a dashboard implies.

3. Behavior

Learning motivation

23. A user is motivated to be engaged in learning as he/she reviews the dashboard.

  

24. A user makes plans for his/her own learning based on the information in a dashboard.

 

Behavioral change

25. A user manages his/her learning activities based on a dashboard.

  

26. A user makes changes in learning patterns as he/she monitors the information in a dashboard.

4. Result

Performance improvement

27. A dashboard helps users to achieve their learning goal.

  

28. A dashboard enhances users’ academic achievement.

 

Competency Development

29. A dashboard enhances users’ self-management skill.

  

30. A dashboard enhances users’ social values and networking competency.

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Yoo, Y., Lee, H., Jo, IH., Park, Y. (2015). Educational Dashboards for Smart Learning: Review of Case Studies. In: Chen, G., Kumar, V., Kinshuk, ., Huang, R., Kong, S. (eds) Emerging Issues in Smart Learning. Lecture Notes in Educational Technology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44188-6_21

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