Learner behaviour in HSC study lab

Online learning with no direct teacher instruction, facilitation or student support is increasing within education. These autonomous learning environments present challenges for educators including how to identify student learning behaviours as well as how to offer support to isolated and/or disengaged learners. This research project investigated the efficacy of learning analytics as a tool for identifying and evaluating student behaviours associated with active learning within an online learning environment. The study harvested data from a digital video player embedded in a popular K12 online science program and applied a learning analytics method in order to analyse active viewer behaviour. This data was supplemented by additional information from a questionnaire in order to provide greater detail as well as validate the findings of the learning analytics method. The study concluded that the learning analytics' method was able to identify active learning and that learning analytics has a role to play in providing information on learner activity in autonomous learning environments. However, as shown in the results of the questionnaire, the levels of active learning the LA method could identify were not a complete picture of learner behaviour and viewing strategies. It is anticipated that the results from this study will provide guidance on the implementation and use of learning analytics in video-based learning for identifying active learning -- abstract.