Changing the recent past to reduce ongoing dropout: an early learning analytics intervention for an online statistics course

ABSTRACT

Practitioners of the statistics course embedded in a computer science programme at a fully online university were concerned with the high dropout rate. In the academic year 2018–19, they decided to carry out a two-phase project in order to address this issue. In the first phase, an early classifier to identify students at risk of dropping out of the 2018–19 statistics course was determined. The second phase was planned to design and implement an early intervention based on the results of the first phase. This article presents the analysis of this intervention. In the 2019–20 online statistics course, 35 students did not submit the first few quizzes before the respective deadlines. They were the target of this intervention, which gave them the chance to change their recent past by submitting the unsubmitted quizzes. Students were encouraged to change by means of an email message. The aim of the intervention was to reduce the dropout rate among the targeted students. Our analysis also includes the students’ perception of the intervention collected via a set of interviews. The results show that the intervention clearly had a beneficial effect for some students.

KEYWORDS:

• Learning analytics intervention
• online statistics
• online quizzes
• higher education
• quiz submission

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

B. Guidance questions for the interview (translated from the original language)

Some examples of the interview questions:

Were the external conditions appropriate?

Did the email message make you aware of the situation regarding the first two continuous assessment activities?

Did the email message make you aware of your possible future?

Did the email message make you reflect on your participation in the pre-intervention learning activities?

Did the email message make you reflect on how to perform in future learning activities?

Were the quiz questions complex?

Were the quiz questions hard to understand?

Did the quiz questions help you improve your understanding of the topic covered?

What is your overall level of satisfaction regarding the proposal?

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the IBADA [Grant 2019-2020].

Notes on contributors

Josep Figueroa-Cañas

Josep Figueroa-Cañas is a PhD student in the e-learning programme doctorate at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia).

Teresa Sancho-Vinuesa

Teresa Sancho-Vinuesa is a senior lecturer in the Computer, Multimedia and Telecommunication School at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. She is also the Head of the Learning Analytics for Innovation and Knowledge Application in Higher Education (LAIKA) Group at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.