Assessing engagement in a classroom: Synchronised neural recordings during video presentation

The efficacy of learning in a classroom depends on how engaged students are with the learning material. Is it possible to assess students engagement directly from their brain activity without distracting them from the material at hand? We performed simultaneous recordings of electroencephalography (EEG) from multiple students in a classroom, and measured the inter-subject correlation (ISC) of activity evoked by a common video stimulus. Many aspects of attentional modulation of this ISC, which were previously established in a laboratory setting, are reliably reproduced here with portable low-cost equipment. The present data suggests that stimulus-evoked neural responses, known to be modulated by attention, can be used to assess the engagement of a group of students in real-time.