Today’s Education Dive covers a study performed by the University of Michigan (sponsored by Blackboard) looking at the use of dashboards and metrics by college students. One of the central questions studied was whether presenting data to students at certain points in a course – e.g., beginning, middle and just before the semester concludes – would have an impact on student motivation to use the system and adjust their study habits, behaviors or approaches to assignments. Let’s keep in mind this was a cohort of 47 students provided with data at just a few junctures in simulated courses.
One statistically significant finding stood out: students with a GPA of B or lower said they would be more likely than students with higher GPAs to use the feedback feature and take action in response to what the system was telling them — for example, seeing an adviser or talking to their professor.
As we’ve had live (not simulated) student-facing dashboards, designed to provided highly directed guidance on improving study and learning behaviors, in Junction since 2014 it’s great to see others researching the issues. Our years of practical experience with thousands of students in live courses is that students express a preference for clear, relatable guidance on improving study and learning behaviors provided to them as short sentences – without having to comb through charts, graphs and data trends to figure it all out. Not surprisingly, compiled insights in common language (without attempts to be cute) are far more useful than streams of data and that’s exactly what we’ve been delivering through our proprietary early alert system for the last few semesters. If you’re interested in learning more about Junction’s real-time dashboards, data-driven study guidance and early warning systems drop us a line.
Report: Dashboards could provide boost for struggling students
