SAMOS: a model for monitoring students' and groups' activities in collaborative e-learning
by Angel A. Juan, Thanasis Daradoumis, Javier Faulin, Fatos Xhafa
International Journal of Learning Technology (IJLT), Vol. 4, No. 1/2, 2009

Abstract: We address the issue of monitoring students' and groups' activities in online collaborative learning environments. Such monitoring can provide valuable information to online instructors, who may guide and support the development of efficient collaborative learning projects. We have developed and tested an information system, Student Activity Monitoring using Overview Spreadsheets (SAMOS), which facilitates the automatic generation of weekly monitoring reports derived from data contained in server log files. These reports provide online instructors with visual information regarding students' and groups' activity, thus allowing for a quick and easy classification of students and groups according to their activity level. That way, entities with a low activity level are easily identified, which allows the establishment of just-in-time assistance for them. Furthermore, instructors can use complementary qualitative monitoring reports, issued by the students themselves, to anticipate potential problems – such as student dropouts or possible conflicts inside the groups – and take operational and tactical decisions to handle them.

Online publication date: Thu, 16-Apr-2009

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Learning Technology (IJLT):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com