Development of Learning Analytics Moodle Extension for Easy JavaScript Simulation (EjsS) Virtual Laboratories

TL;DR

This paper presents a Moodle extension for EjsS that tracks and visualizes student interactions with physics simulations in real-time, enhancing instructor insights and adaptive teaching.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Learning Analytics extension for EjsS in Moodle, enabling real-time monitoring and visualization of student interactions with simulations.

Findings

Effective real-time data visualization for instructors

Enhanced understanding of student engagement with simulations

Potential to improve instructional strategies

Abstract

Easy JavaScript Simulations (EjsS) is a popular and powerful authoring toolkit for the creation of open source HTML5 compliant JavaScript simulations. This paper focuses on developing a Learning Analytics extension in Moodle for EjsS, capable of monitoring interactions with the simulation (e.g. mouse clicks, states of buttons and sliders, variable assignments). This extension was piloted with educational physics simulations. Data on learners can be visualised in real-time on the instructor dashboard, allowing instructors to better understand the learning process and modify classroom instruction accordingly.