Supporting the acquisition of scientific skills by the use of learning analytics

Abstract

Beginning researchers in general face various difficulties when initiating a process of scientific research due to the unavailability of proper tutoring or the minimum knowledge about research methodology and, this impacts the reliability of the process, the time and the results of the research in question. The purpose of this work is to support the acquisition of scientific skills by offering to beginning researchers learning analytics in each and every one of the phases and stages of the investigative process based on the actions and interactions that teachers/supervisors, experts and researchers make during this investigative process. Therefor, it is presented, as a detailed case study, the skill of formulating research questions by defining the process that was used, including the actors, the measurements, and the indicators, the formative process and the interactions managed with the Binnproject software. Finally the K-means algorithm is used in analyzing students’ behavior and creating clusters according to their performance during the process of formulating scientific questions, this way supporting the process of determining strategies able to strengthen scientific competences for both students and the teaching practice.