Question-driven Learning Analytics: Designing a Teacher Dashboard for Online Breakout Rooms

Abstract

One of the ultimate goals of several learning analytics (LA) initiatives is to close the loop and support students’ and teachers’ reflective practices. Although there has been a proliferation of end-user interfaces (often in the form of dashboards), various limitations have already been identified in the literature such as little account for sensemaking needs. This paper addresses these limitations by proposing a question-driven LA design approach to ensure that end-user LA interfaces explicitly address teachers’ questions. We illustrate this in the context of synchronous online activities orchestrated by pairs of teachers using audio-visual and text-based tools (Zoom and Google Docs). This led to the design of an open-source monitoring tool to be used in real-time by teachers when students work collaboratively in breakout rooms, and across learning spaces.