Xerte teacher dashboard
Xerte is an educational application offered by Utrecht University (UU) to teachers to create online modules (e-modules). The goal of this project is to improve the content of Xerte e-modules and adapt the course material based on so-called learning traces of students, such as how students answer questions in the e-modules. Based on this information, questions could be rephrased or specific feedback regarding the correct answer could be given.
Background and hypotheses
There appears to be a relationship between how students interact with online study materials and study success, with students who make greater use of the available materials having a higher likelihood of success (Ifenthaler & Yau, 2020; Perera & Richardson, 2010). There is also research supporting the positive relation between teachers adapting to students’ needs and students’ study success (Vogt & Rogalla, 2009). We therefore expect that if teachers make use of the Xerte dashboard to adapt course materials and student support, that this will lead to higher student engagement, course satisfaction, and maybe even higher grades.
Realization of the Xerte teacher dashboard
The dashboard is developed by Xerte and together with DLearning and Educate - it team LA assisted with making the dashboard available at the UU.
Timeline
Academic year 2023 - 2024.
In this period, data will be collected about the e-modules were used. This information will be used to update the e-modules for the next academic year. Additionally, usability of the dashboard will be assessed with the project leader.
Academic year 2024 - 2025.
In this academic year the e-modules will be updated with the information gathered in the previous academic year.
Evaluation
In the evaluation of the Xerte teacher dashboard we will focus on:
- Usability of the dashboard
- Usefulness of the dashboard in improving the e-modules.
Participation in the evaluation will be based on consent.
Usability.
Usability of the dashboard will be evaluated with the Usefulness, Satisfaction, and Ease of use (USE) questionnaire (Gao et al, 2018 and Lund, 2001) and the system usability scale (SUS)(Brooke, 1996). Additionally, an interview will be held with the teachers who used the dashboard to get more detailed information about the usability of the dashboard. The aim is to reach a USE-sore higher than 5 for all factors and a SUS-score of more than 74.1 at the end of academic year 2023 - 2024.
Usefulness.
We will compare the e-module evaluations of the students of academic year 2023 - 2024 (no updates based on the dashboard yet) with the e-module evaluations of the next academic year in which the e-modules have been updated based on the learning traces of the previous year. Here, we hope that students perceive the e-modules better once they have been updated based on the learning traces.
Results 2023 - 2024
Unfortunately, the dashboard could not be used due to several technical difficulties. DLearning and Educate - it are working on solving these issues, but they were not able to do this before the end of academic year 2023 - 2024. The project has been put on hold, until the technical issues are solved.
Possibility for internship
No.