MOCLogMonitoring Online Courses

with log data

Marco Bettoni & Luca Mazzola

1st Moodle Research Conference

15.9.2012, Heraklion, Crete

Convention Center Creta Maris

Outline

1. Introduction: What, Why, How, Who (Marco)

2. E-learning Model (Marco)

3. Concept Map & Solution Map (Marco)

4. Ten Use Cases (Marco)

5. Implementation of the tool (Luca)

6. Demonstration of the tool (Luca)

7. Conclusion (Luca)

2

Introduction

WHAT

Visualise (interpret) log data based on a didactical interpretation model

Processes and outcomes of learning and teaching

WHY

Monitoring learning is essential but logfiles are seldom used for that

Monitoring user interaction traces in terms of learning

HOW

Moodle plugin whose design implements a didactical model

WHO

FOR: students, teachers, study program managers, administrators

BY: four Swiss UAS = FFHS (lead), USI, FHNW and BFH 3

E-Learning Model by Reinmann, G. (2003)

Reinmann-Rothmeier, G. (2003). Didaktische Innovation durch Blended Learning. Bern:

Hans Huber

4- SUPSI.5: MOClog

Concept map

5

Solution map

6

Ten Use Cases

1. Students’ Collaboration: for monitoring

how much the student collaborates with

other students

2. Teacher-Student Interaction: for

monitoring the interactions between a

teacher and individual students.

3. Knowledge Testing: for monitoring the

students’ use of their available

knowledge in tests

4. Information Access: for monitoring the

students’ access to resources (file,

HTML page, IMS package),

assignments and quizzes.

5. Organization of Learning: for

monitoring how students organizes

their own learning process by planning,

preparing exams, etc.

6. Course Activity: for monitoring the level

of usage of courses (administrators

only)

7. Tool Use: for monitoring which tools

are used more and which less

(administrators only)

8. Teacher Facilitation: for monitoring the

level of activity of teachers in facilitating

learning (study program managers

only)

9. Students’ Total Learning: for monitoring

over all the indicators the total level of

activity of students in learning (study

program managers only)

10. Course Learning: for monitoring the

level of facilitation by teachers and the

level of learning by students (study

program managers only).7

Implementation of the Tool

Plugin for moodle 2.x (tested with 2.3.2): uses Moodle logs and

stores semi-aggregates information inside its tables.

Some prebuilt configurations to evidence:

Distribution (of resources)

Participation (in activities)

Interaction (between participant)

For supporting the activity of study-program managers and admins.

They can see and analyze:

the course activities

the tool activities

teacher facilitation activities

students’ total learning

the level of facilitation and learning across the whole course8

Implementation of the Tool

Exported logs lifetime management// "Anoymize" MocLog Log File after $CFG->loglifetime days!

if (!empty($CFG->loglifetime)) {

$cutdate = date('Y-m-d', time() - ($CFG->loglifetime * 3600 * 24));

$DB->set_field_select('block_moclog_log', 'userid', 0, 'date < \'' . $cutdate . '\' AND userid != 0');

mtrace("... anonymized old Moclog log records older than " . $cutdate);

}

}

Anonymaze the user, when the userid of the record is equal to 0// Add 'anonymous' user 0 $users[0] = (object) array("lastname" =>

"anonymous", "firstname" => "", "id" => 0);

No needs to delete record, even complying with strict privacy

regulations on the data collection and conservation.// Include anonymized users in the result (having user id = 0) ...

$courseusers[0] = $users[0]; 9

Implementation of the Tool

Contents differentiated for profiles// Check if admin, in this case print out the fact that the data for learner is

hidden...

if (has_capability('block/moclog:administrate', $context)) { $selection .= "<li>" . get_string("restricted_to_courses_to_admin", "block_moclog") . "</li>"; }

Allows to offer the analysis of the single learner activity when called

by the teacher of the course// Check for user capabilities to display the expand button

if ($vis_users && (!has_capability('block/moclog:administrate', $context))) {

$line["fullname"] = "<b>" . $course->fullname . " <span id=expanderguy>+/-</span><b>";

} else {

$line["fullname"] = "<b>" . $course->fullname . "<b>";

}

10

Implementation of the Tool

11

Runs using the cron , with an incremental approach (max number

for each execution) ; not all the logs are relevant for this function

„Demonstration“ of the Tool

12Report Launch & Configurations

„Demonstration“ of the Tool

13Activity profiles

„Demonstration“ of the Tool

14Profile Settings

„Demonstration“ of the Tool

15Group Settings

„Demonstration“ of the Tool

16

Analitycal Results for

Course Activity

Filters Applied

Semi-aggregated data considered

„Demonstration“ of the Tool

17

Visual Results for

Tool Activity

Conclusions

Moodle 2.X Plugin for undestanding online what is happening in:

Courses

Tools usage

Groups activity

With the possibility to export information for further offline analisys

Easy to use for teacher/category administator, almost real-time

With a didactical approach

Freely Available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/moclog/

Open Issues / Next Steps

Computational power required for high-traffic instances (or for the

first alignment runs, in platform already established)

Needs of developing the personalized didactical templates, if

required different didactical aggregations

Making easier the confrontation between different datasets

(courses, tools usage within groups, type of activities adopted, ecc)18

Thanks for the Attention

Questions?

19

Marco Bettoni

Research Management Unit

FFHS - FernfachHochSchule Schweiz

http://www.ffhs.ch

marco.bettoni@ffhs.ch

Luca Mazzola

eLab – eLearning laboratory

http://www.elearninglab.org/

USI – Università della Svizzera italiana

http://www.usi.ch

luca.mazzola@usi.ch

mazzola.luca@gmail.com

MocLog WebSite : http://moclog.ch/

Thanks to SWITCH for financially supporting MOCLog