Dashboard for Actionable Feedback on Learning Skills: How Learner Profile Affects Use

Learning Analytics Dashboards (LAD) provide a means to leverage data to support learners, teachers, and counselors. This paper reports on an in-depth analysis of how learners interact with a LAD. N=1,406 first-year students in 12 different study programs were invited to use a LAD to support them in their transition from secondary to higher education. The LAD provides actionable feedback about five of the learning skills assessed by the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI): concentration, anxiety, motivation, test strategies, and time management. We logged access to and behavior within the LAD and analyzed their relationship with these learning skills. While eight out of ten students accessed the LAD, students with lower time management scores tend to have a lower click-trough rate. Once within the LAD, students with lower scores for specific learning skills are accessing the corresponding information and remediation possibilities more often. Regardless of their scores for any of the other learning skills, learners with higher motivation scores are reading the remediation possibilities for the other four learning skills more often. Gender and study program have an influence on how learners use the LAD. Our findings may help both researchers and practitioners by creating awareness about how LAD use in itself may depend on the context and profile of the learner.