A Study of Learners' Behaviors in Hands-On Learning Situations and Their Correlation with Academic Performance

Abstract

This study analyzes students’ behavior in our remote laboratory environment and aims at identifying behavioural patterns during a practical session that lead to better learning outcomes, in order to predict learners’ performance and to automatically guide students who might need more support. Based on data collected from an experimentation conducted in an authentic learning context, we discover recurrent sequential patterns of actions that lead us to the definition of learning strategies as indicators of higher level of abstraction. Results show that some of the strategies are correlated to the learners’ performance at the final assessment test. For instance, construction of a complex action step by step, or reflexion before submitting an action, are two strategies applied more often by learners of a higher level of performance than by others. These findings led us to instrument for both students and instructors new guiding and tutoring tools in our remote lab environment.