Analysis of mouse movement and body response in distance learning environments

Abstract

Virtual lessons are often used as a teaching strategy to promote dynamic learning processes. The objective of the present study was to investigate the relationship between the mouse use allied to users’ corporal responses and engagement feeling during virtual lessons. Ten participants were recruited and submitted to two activities: one video lesson and a slideshow, as well as questionnaires related to the contents and quality aspects of the lessons. The data was collected using a smartphone accelerometer and a mouse tracker (developed from a Google Chrome browser extension). A correlation between the mouse tracker and the user’s experience questionnaires was observed a correlation between the number of mouse movements as well as the number of clicks with the items obstructive/conductor. In addition, a correlation was found between the number of clicks and the item easy/difficult. No significant differences were found between the lessons; finally, we concluded that the use of the mouse movements could be an engagement indicator during a virtual lesson between men and women. However, is it important to state that the proposed experiment script and its resources need to be reviewed and restructured for guaranteeing higher data accuracy.