Behavior changes across time and between populations in open-ended learning environments

Abstract

Open-ended computer-based learning environments (OELEs) can be powerful learning tools in that they help students develop effective self-regulated learning (SRL) and problem solving skills. In this study, middle school students used the SimSelf OELE to build causal models to learn about climate science. We study their learning and model building approaches by calculating a suite of behavioral metrics derived using coherence analysis (CA) that are used as features on which to group students by their type of learning behavior. We also analyze changes in these metrics over time, and compare these results to results from other studies with a different OELE to see determine generalizable their findings are across different OELE systems.