Visualizing Student Behavior and Performance in an Online Course

Abstract

Online learning has been an area of tremendous growth in recent years [1], further accelerated by necessity during the coronavirus pandemic [2]. Without the feedback provided by synchronous sessions, however, instructors may lack ongoing insight into students’ progress and performance in fully asynchronous online offerings. Providing greater visibility into students’ online learning behavior has several potential benefits: 1) teachers who seek to provide live sessions that depend on knowledge from asynchronous resources will have a better gauge of students’ preparation; 2) enhanced understanding of the relationship between student pacing and performance can help teachers and researchers characterize the impact of timely engagement with online course material; 3) providing a means of monitoring the effect of changes in course structure or incentives may guide course designers/planners in continuous improvement; and 4) visualizations that illustrate the relationship between students’ course progress and performance have the promise of allowing teachers to take steps early to positively affect students’ outcomes. In this visual case study, visualizations are provided for exploration of the relationship between student progress and performance in an online medicine-related course.