Real-Time Learning Analytics for Face-to-Face Lessons

Abstract

Even though the use of digital technology and e-learning has grown over the years, most of the time spent in schools around the world is still in face-to-face lessons. Traditional classroom teaching encounters fundamental constraints like the difficulty faced by one educator to track the understanding of a group of learners. Numerous tools exist to help educators but they are mostly detached from the actual teaching and learning materials, and hence necessitate a breaking away from the flow of the lesson to collect, visualize and understand the data collected. In this paper, we present a real-time learning analytics system that can provide both educators and learners with a real-time view of the data collected from learners' interaction with a mobileoptimized lesson embedded in a learning management system and accessible via mobile phones or computers. Data collection and visualization is automated and achieved with no friction to the flow of the lesson. The educator could use the data to keep track of individual students' responses, as well as moderate the pace of the whole class. Action research was done on a total of four classes of students to test the benefits of using the real-time learning analytics system.

Teaching Methods Preferred by School Science Teachers and Students in Their Classroom

“…The new teaching techniques should be included in teacher training, refresher courses for inservice teachers, and teaching educators. It is also asserted by some studies, [e.g., Chui 2020;Malik et al, 2016] teacher educators should receive up-to-date training on using modern teaching methods and techniques to support 21st-century learning. The use of innovative technologies should also be made part of teacher training courses to enable teachers to exploit such technologies to impart more student-centered pedagogies in their sessions (Bell, 2010).…”

“…Currently, Pakistan facing many problems in the education sector particularly in the field of science education. For instance, non-availability of teaching materials unequipped and in some cases non-existence of science laboratories, outdated curriculum with little relevance to today's scientific research, unrealistic teacher to student ratio in large class sizes are some of the factors that discourage teachers to adopt discovery and inquiry-based teaching approaches in their classrooms (Memon, 2007) that may make impossible face to face teaching (Chui, 2020). Teachers have limited option to adopt teaching method according to available resources, as result, the lecturing PUPIL: International Journal of Teaching, Education, and Learning ISSN 2457-0648 method is the most commonly adopted teaching strategy by science teachers (Iqbal, Azam & Rana, 2009) whilst encouraging students to rote memorize the science concepts from the textbooks in order to replicate in the examination.…”