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ERIC Number: EJ992506
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1436-4522
EISSN: N/A
Teaching Analytics: A Clustering and Triangulation Study of Digital Library User Data
Xu, Beijie; Recker, Mimi
Educational Technology & Society, v15 n3 p103-115 2012
Teachers and students increasingly enjoy unprecedented access to abundant web resources and digital libraries to enhance and enrich their classroom experiences. However, due to the distributed nature of such systems, conventional educational research methods, such as surveys and observations, provide only limited snapshots. In addition, educational data mining, as an emergent research approach, has seldom been used to explore teachers' online behaviors when using digital libraries. Building upon results from a preliminary study, this article presents results from a clustering study of teachers' usage patterns while using an educational digital library tool, called the Instructional Architect. The clustering approach employed a robust statistical model called latent class analysis. In addition, frequent itemsets mining was used to clean and extract common patterns from the clusters initially generated. The final clusters identified three groups of teachers in the IA: "key brokers", "insular classroom practitioners", and "inactive islanders". Identified clusters were triangulated with data collected in teachers' registration profiles. Results showed that increased teaching experience and comfort with technology were related to teachers' effectiveness in using the IA. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)
International Forum of Educational Technology & Society. Athabasca University, School of Computing & Information Systems, 1 University Drive, Athabasca, AB T9S 3A3, Canada. Tel: 780-675-6812; Fax: 780-675-6973; Web site: http://www.ifets.info
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A