Evaluating Remote Task Assignment of an Online Engineering Module through Data Mining in a Virtual Communication Platform Environment

Abstract

E-learning has traditionally emphasised educational resources, web access, student participation, and social interaction. Novel virtual spaces, e-lectures, and digital laboratories have been developed with synchronous or asynchronous practices throughout the migration from face-to-face teaching modes to remote teaching during the pandemic restrictions. This research paper presents a case study concerning the evaluation of the online task assignment of students, using MS Teams as an electronic platform. MS Teams was evaluated to determine whether this communication platform for online lecture delivery and tasks’ assessments could be used to avoid potential problems caused during the teaching process. Students’ data were collected, and after filtering out significant information from the online questionnaires, a statistical analysis, containing a correlation and a reliability analysis, was conducted. The substantial impact of 37 variables was revealed. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient calculation revealed that 89% of the survey questions represented internally consistent and reliable variables, and for the sampling adequacy measure, Bartlett’s test was calculated at 0.816. On the basis of students’ diligence, interaction abilities, and knowledge embedding, two groups of learners were differentiated. The findings of this study shed light on the special features of fully online teaching specifically in terms of improving assessment through digital tools and merit further investigation in virtual and blended teaching spaces, with the goal of extracting outputs that will benefit the educational community.