Use of Computing Devices as Sensors to Measure Their Impact on Primary and Secondary Students' Performance

Sensors (Basel). 2019 Jul 22;19(14):3226. doi: 10.3390/s19143226.

Abstract

The constant innovation in new technologies and the increase in the use of computing devices in different areas of the society have contributed to a digital transformation in almost every sector. This digital transformation has also reached the world of education, making it possible for members of the educational community to adopt Learning Management Systems (LMS), where the digital contents replacing the traditional textbooks are exploited and managed. This article aims to study the relationship between the type of computing device from which students access the LMS and how affects their performance. To achieve this, the LMS accesses of students in a school comprising from elementary to bachelor's degree stages have been monitored by means of different computing devices acting as sensors to gather data such as the type of device and operating system used by the students.The main conclusion is that students who access the LMS improve significantly their performance and that the type of device and the operating system has an influence in the number of passed subjects. Moreover, a predictive model has been generated to predict the number of passed subjects according to these factors, showing promising results.

Keywords: Learning Management System; computing devices; learning analytics.; primary and secondary education; students’ performance.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Child
  • Computer-Assisted Instruction / instrumentation*
  • Computer-Assisted Instruction / methods
  • Computer-Assisted Instruction / statistics & numerical data
  • Computers
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Schools
  • Smartphone
  • Students