(SpringerBriefs in Business Process Management) Learning Analytics Cookbook_ How to Support Learning Processes Through Data Analytics and Visualizatio

68 6 Explore your Online Course: Visualization of Resource Use and the Learning...
learning with respect to when and how they learn. We address two sub-questions to
determine when our students prefer being active and adventurous:
• When do students learn?
• In what order do students navigate through learning resources?
When Do Students Learn?
We have observed that the beginning of the semester is the best time to offer our
special menu items so we can ensure that students are equipped with the core
knowledge and skills they need to continue learning. With only the active students
in mind, this question investigates whether the date, time, and day affects the users.
When a big event like an exam is around the corner, are our users be more prone to
try our appetizers and desserts? When a face-to-face class is offered, is that the day
that students access the Moodle course?
To see when students are active in using Moodle course data, we can use calendar
view (heatmap). This visualization shows the number of activities that are centered
on a specific month, week, or even day. Figure 6.21 shows that August 2 and 3 are
the most active dates, and some frequent activities are observed in July.
The choice of these activities may be due to the first period of evaluation, and the
high number of activities may correspond to preparation for the exam. Frequent
Fig. 6.21 Calendar heatmap for course activities