LA Platform in Junior High School: Trends of Usage and Student Performance

Abstract

This study reports the initial trends found in the pilot phase of a Learning analytics (LA) platform adoption at a Junior high school in Japan. The LA platform includes a Learning Management System (LMS), e-Book reader, and analytics dashboard that is accessible to both teachers and students. The interaction logs of those learning tools and mid-term test score for the third-year junior high school mathematics class with 120 students were analyzed. The result highlighted that a group of students who voluntarily explored the dashboard performed significantly better than the group of students who did not check the dashboards. However, both the groups’ e-Book interaction counts were not significantly different. This initial result was encouraging as the evidence was extracted from the data collected without any specific interventions. The findings also motivated further investigation in the usage pattern of the LA platform and design of interventions.