Learning and Gamification Dashboards: A Mixed-Method Study with Teachers

Abstract

Previous studies have investigated the provision of students’ relevant data, usually available in intuitive dashboards, to assist teachers in pedagogical decision-making in learning systems. Researchers are also interested in investigating how students’ interaction data with gamification elements improve teachers’ understanding of students’ status and helps students with adequate pedagogical recommendations. However, there is a lack of understanding of how teachers perceive data visualizations provided through dashboards recently explored in gamified educational systems. In this paper, the authors investigate teachers’ perceptions about three different dashboards with visualizations about 1) students’ interaction with learning resources, 2) students’ interaction with gamification elements, and 3) students’ interaction with learning resources and gamification elements. As such, the researchers conducted a mixed-method study with 47 teachers to evaluate their perceived understanding, perceived usefulness, perceived behavioral change, and perceived decision-making support regarding the three dashboards. The results suggest teachers perceived that the dashboard with visualizations concerning students’ interaction with learning resources and gamification elements provide better support to them in the decision-making process. Teachers also perceived the third dashboard has a more significant potential to impact behavioral changes than the other two dashboards.