A Learning Analytics Dashboard to Analyse Learning Activities in Interpreter Training Courses

Abstract

Learning analytics dashboards constitute an effective tool for monitoring learning activities that take place in online learning environments. Thanks to dashboards, teachers can promptly detect low levels of student engagement in given tasks, incorrect usage of a system, and other types of pedagogically relevant information, which helps them to better support students in achieving their learning objectives. This study describes the integration of a dashboard in an online learning system. The system includes a tool that guides students in the creation of highly informative bilingual glossaries, a service that traces student searches on the web for reference material, and a service that tracks student interactions with the glossary. The data thus collected are selectively displayed in the newly developed dashboard. The dashboard was specifically designed to allow teachers to monitor the students’ approaches to glossary building and to provide individual remedial feedback, if necessary. It was also intended to spur students to keep on a par with the rest of the class, by seeing their status compared to the rest of the class. The system was tested with two groups of university students specializing in interpreting, and two different teachers. The results of the experiments suggest that this integrated system manages to achieve its goals and provides students and teachers of interpreting with an innovative online tool that concretely fosters and supports vocabulary building.