Using Eye-Tracking Data to Determine what Biochemistry Students Attend to when Completing a Three-Dimensional Modeling Activity

Biochemistry students experience extraneous cognitive load when presented with distracting information while learning a new task. Consequently, the students struggle to create and store connections between old and new concepts. As this phenomenon becomes increasingly common in the classroom, there is a need to identify methods in which instructors can most effectively present new information while ensuring that students both understand the material and retain the new knowledge. In an attempt to solve this issue, the study biochemistry students were asked during a simulated classroom environment to use models of different serine proteases while answering a series of questions exploring the complementarity of the active sites and substrates. Tobii Glasses 2 were used to track student eye movements and fixations while completing the tasks. Using Tobii Pro eye tracking software, we were able to develop heat maps that assist in the identification of areas of interest on the serine protease model and accompanying worksheet during completion of the activity. With these results, we can determine if students are focusing on what the instructor intends during the activity and if not revise the activity to develop more efficient methods for instructors to present the material to their students. This will promote increased retention of the new skills presented and allow for improved processing of information, thus reducing the amount of extraneous cognitive load experienced by the student. Support or Funding Information This project is supported by the National Science Foundation under award number IUSE 1711402/1711425 to University of Minnesota, Rochester and Kennesaw State University. This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .