Asynchronous educational platform usage analysis (In Greek)

Abstract

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are being used more and more supplementing traditional educational courses. LMS store large amounts of course data, in web logs. In Greece, the Greek University Network (GUNet) uses the Open eClass (GUNet, 2010) platform, which is an evolution of Claroline (Claroline, 2010). Earlier studies have suggested that higher education institutions could exploit the potential of Learning Management Systems (LMSs) by generating reporting tools that identify student's tracking data. Timely assessment of course usage allows educational interventions to the course material. We focus on LMS course assessment using metrics and data mining methods. Although data mining methods in the World Wide Web have been systematically used in a lot of e-commercial applications, their usage is limited at asynchronous e-learning systems. This paper aims at the measurement of the LMS characteristics by using quantification indexes and metrics for qualitative attributes of the courses. It proposes the proper use of Sessions, Pages, Unique pages, UniquePpages per Course per Session, and combines them into three new indexes, namely interest, homogeneity and enrichment. It also proposes a new metric called activity for analyzing course usage. The evaluation of courses usage is achieved with a metric called final score which properly combines the above indexes and metric. The methodology has been successfully applied at data originated from LMS log files of the Information Management Department of TEI Kavala. The experimental results show that if these indexes and metrics are properly combined can quantify quality course characteristics.