Resumen de Online module login data as a proxy measure of student engagement: the case of my Unisa, Moya MA, Flipgrid, and Gephi at an ODeL institution in South Africa
The current study employed online module login data harvested from three tools, my Unisa, Moya MA and Flipgrid to determine how such data served as a proxy measure of student engagement. The first tool is a legacy learning management system (LMS) utilised for online learning at the University of South Africa (UNISA), while the other two tools are a mobile messaging application and an educational video discussion platform, respectively. In this regard, the study set out to investigate the manner in which module login data of undergraduate students ( n = 3475 & n = 2954) and a cohort of Mathew Goniwe students ( n = 27) enrolled for a second-level module, ENG2601, as extracted from my Unisa, Moya MA ,and Flipgrid served as a proxy measure of student engagement. Collectively, these students were registered for this second-level module at UNISA at the time the study was conducted. The online login data comprised my Unisa module login file access frequencies. In addition, the online login data consisted of the frequencies of instant messages (IMs) posted on Moya MA by both the facilitator andMathewGoniwestudents,andvideoclipspostedonandvideoclipview frequencies captured by Flipgrid in respect of the afore-cited module. One finding of this study is that student engagement as measured by login file access frequencies was disproportionally skewed toward one module file relative to other module files. The other finding of this study is that the overall module file access metrics of the Mathew Goniwe group were disproportionally concentrated in a sub-cohort of highly active users (HAU).
