106 | JADE
ED DE QUINCEY ET AL
Discussion
A number of previous studies have demonstrated the importance of attendance and the effect this has on final grades e. g.( Schmidt, 1983; Park & Kerr, 1990; Ryan et al., 2010). From the findings of this study, it is clear that attendance for this module was important but that online engagement i. e. viewing module resources, is equally important for the majority of students. For future LA systems, views of materials related to modules will therefore be an important factor for inclusion in any predictive models.
However, the use of unsupervised learning algorithms such as simple K-means needs further investigation as it is how exceptions to typical student behaviour are identified that may determine the success of LA. For this module, when looking at the particular students that are demonstrating the opposite behaviour to what is expected, a number of potential explanations can be suggested.
For students on P11361 who showed low levels of engagement but achieved high marks, one explanation could be that these students did not actually do the work themselves and achieved the high marks by collusion or plagiarism. However, P11361 is a Games and Multimedia Technologies degree which attracts students who have a pre-existing interest in programming and quite often prior experience in the subject. The more likely explanation( and having seen the students’ progress through their degree) is that these students did not necessarily need to attend this set of lectures and tutorials and were not as reliant on the module resources as other students to complete the coursework.
The group that have shown the same level of engagement as the high achieving students but getting low marks is perhaps more worrying however. One explanation is that these students have not understood the materials and perhaps needed further support. P03657 is a Multimedia Technology degree which tends to attract students who are not sure which of the more specialised degree programmes to take and have lower levels of technical expertise when they start. These could be students who are engaged but their engagement is not being translated into higher levels of achievement. These students ideally would be highlighted by an LA system but perhaps would not be if their previous experience and motivation for doing the module was not taken into account. Another possible explanation is that some of these students have lower levels of digital literacy. Observing students interact with the CMS intranet in the tutorials( 3) revealed that some will open the same file multiple times purely because they do not understand how