UCF has developed an online student performance dashboard that draws upon LMS data to present a visually-appealing tool for student planning and success. Students are shown their status, assigned a goal for improvement, and given the ability to easily prepare a plan for achieving it.
In the Spring of 2016, the University of Central Florida (UCF) piloted a new Online Student Performance Dashboard. This dashboard draws upon LMS data to present a visually-appealing tool for student planning and success. In this session, Thomas Cavanagh, Ph.D., Associate Vice President of Distributed Learning, and Shea Silverman, Senior Applications Developer and leader of UCF’s online integration team, will describe the dashboard project, demonstrate its functionality, and share the results of the Spring 2016 pilot.
The top of the dashboard includes the following components:
- The student’s current score in the class
- Upcoming assignments and their values
- A goal for improvement, which defaults to the next-higher letter grade
The bottom half of the dashboard offers three different tabs of data for students:
- The Score Estimator tab, which uses slider bars to allow students to determine the required scores in upcoming assignments in order to achieve the given goal for improvement. Students can also accept a system-defaulted set of assignment targets.
- The Performance tab, which allows students to see their performance by assignment across the course compared to the entire class. This helps students determine if they are performing on pace with the general class or if there may be an issue that requires intervention with the faculty member.
- The Behavior tab, which allows students to see their behavior in course related activities compared to other students performing at various grade averages. For example, students can compare the number of times they have logged in and posted to the discussion board compared to the number of times that students who have an A average are logging in and posting to the discussion board. This gives students a tangible idea of behaviors that they can adjust that are correlated with students who are performing better than they are in a class.
The dashboard exists within each course in the LMS. It is presented as a course-level tool to norm the differences inherent in modality, pedagogy, and instructor style/preference.
Of note is the fact that the dashboard was developed with significant input from online students themselves. In fact, the idea of the assigned grade goal and the Score Estimator tab came directly from students.
An evaluation of the Spring pilot was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative measures and the results are currently being compiled. These results will be shared as part of the session.