General Objective
Providing ICT education using an online mode of delivery is a challenging process. Online courses in the IT sector have been running since 2009 at the University of Mauritius. The researchers want to establish if the online mode of delivery affects the students’ performances, with respect to first year students enrolled on the web and multimedia development programme of the University of Mauritius.
Short Summary of the Research
Since 2009, the University of Mauritius has been running the Diploma in Web and Multimedia Development programme online. Two modules in the first year are however offered on a face-to-face basis. In 2013, the enrolment on the programme has climbed to 150. However, in 2012, it was noticed that many students were terminated in the first year, or had to repeat the year or had at least one re-sit module. The project will investigate into this problem to try to establish the main reasons through the learning analytics approach using educational data mining. Learning analytics refers to the collection and compilation of data produced, which will then be used to assess the progress of learners, as well as, judge their performances. Assessing these learners might be in terms of different variables, such as their way of participating, their responses and their academic performances.
Main Research Questions
The main research questions based on the specific objectives of the project are as follows:
- Is there a correlation between HSC grades of first year students and their performances in online modules?
- Is there a significant difference between the performances of students in the online modules when compared to modules offered on a face-to-face mode?
- Is there a correlation between student engagement in an online module and the performances of the student?
