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Can fidgeting be used to measure student engagement in online learning tasks?
conference contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 18:27 authored by Harry WitchelHarry Witchel, Carina E I Westling, Julian Tee, Thomas T Ranji, Rob Needham, Aoife Healey, Carlos P Santos, James Ackah, Joe Chalkley, Nachiappan ChockalingamFidgeting may be a way to monitor second-by-second student engagement, which would be especially useful for gauging and improving the effectiveness of online learning. This article is based on research that found less fidgeting during a formative online reading comprehension test indicated that students were more engaged. Online formative assessments are effective facilitators of engagement, especially with intelligent tutoring systems. This research used two computerised, three-minute reading-comprehension tests, identical in all aspects except that one reading was boring and the other was interesting. These were presented to 27 healthy adult volunteers while alone in a classroom; the stimuli were combined with an interrupting clicking task that forces screen engagement. The participants’ postural movements were measured using video-tracking, and these were compared to subjective ratings for ten visual analogue scales in a repeated measures design. The interesting reading elicited less fidgeting shoulder movement than the boring reading. There was also a correlation between the ratings for wanting ‘the experience to end earlier’ and the extent of shoulder movement. The research also indicated that the context of formative online reading tests, the type of boredom elicited is restless rather than lethargic.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
Research Matters: Articles from the Pedagogic Research Conference, 2018Publisher
Centre for Learning and TeachingPublisher URL
Page range
39-48Event name
Pedagogic Research Conference 2018Event type
conferenceISBN
9781910172209Department affiliated with
- BSMS Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Editors
Rachel Masika, Adrian ChownLegacy Posted Date
2019-07-19First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2019-07-19Usage metrics
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