A learning analytics dashboard to support students' reflection on collaboration.

Background: Dashboards play a prominent role in learning analytics (LA) research. In collaboration activities, dashboards can show traces of team participation. They are often evaluated based on students' perceived satisfaction and engagement with the dashboard. However, there is a notable methodolo...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Computer Assisted Learning Vol. 41; no. 1; pp. 1 - 22
Autores principales: Echeverria, Vanessa, Nieto, Gloria Fernandez, Zhao, Linxuan, Palominos, Evelyn, Srivastava, Namrata, Gašević, Dragan, Pammer‐Schindler, Viktoria, Martinez‐Maldonado, Roberto
Formato: research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Wiley-Blackwell Feb2025
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:Background: Dashboards play a prominent role in learning analytics (LA) research. In collaboration activities, dashboards can show traces of team participation. They are often evaluated based on students' perceived satisfaction and engagement with the dashboard. However, there is a notable methodological gap in understanding how these dashboards support the nuanced process of student reflection. Objective: This paper presents empirical evidence on how students from high and low‐performing groups reflect individually on their performance while using a Learning Analytics Dashboard (LAD). Methods: We address this in the context of education in healthcare, wherein we captured actions and positioning data from a simulation‐based collaborative activity and generated a collaborative LAD. A total of 41 nursing students were invited to participate in a post‐hoc semi‐structured individual interview to use a collaborative LAD while answering a set of prompts to reflect on their individual and group performance. Students' reflections were coded and analysed using Bain's 5R reflection framework. We used epistemic network analysis to capture the dynamic reflection process and to understand the connections between the reflection stages (from low to high). We compared how different these connections were for students in high and low‐performing groups. Results and Conclusions: Our results revealed that most students were only able to achieve low and middle stages of reflection. Yet, students in low‐performing groups predominantly followed low‐to‐middle stages of reflection. In contrast, students from high‐performing groups demonstrated the ability to transition between low‐to‐middle and low‐to‐high stages of reflection. Based on these findings, we discuss implications for both research and practice, particularly emphasising the necessity to scaffold reflection when using LADs. Lay Description: What is currently known about this topic: Reflection is an important process in the continuous improvement of learning and practice.Learning Analytics Dashboards (LADs) have the potential to support students' reflection in collaborative learning (CL) settings.Prior studies examining the use of LADs in CL contexts have not investigated the dynamics of students' reflection process. What does this paper add: This paper provides a qualitative study, examining the different stages of reflection achieved by students who individually assess their performance using a collaborative LAD.It also presents a comparative quantitative analysis using epistemic network analysis, contrasting the stages of reflection achieved by students in high‐performing groups with those in low‐performing groups.The study found some differences in reflection perspectives between students in high and low‐performing groups. Implications for practice/or policy: The use of LADs to provoke reflection must be accompanied by scaffolding strategies if the aim is for students to achieve higher‐order stages of reflection, as this is necessary for all students regardless of their performance.Researchers interested in understanding how students can reflect using LADs should not only focus on the content and frequency of reflection but also on the more nuanced qualitative aspects of the stages of reflection.Educational designers should develop strategies to cultivate reflection using collaborative LADs, particularly for students who are recognised to be low performers.