Exploring How Students Use an Online Learning Environment

ABSTRACTThe number of online classroom environments in universities has been steadily rising. As a result, it has become more important to understand how students utilize these online environments, as well as to identify the most effective learning strategies. This research identifies strategies used by students in an online tool associated with a first-year university computer science class. Utilizing sequential pattern mining, we identify common strategies used by high- and low-performing students. The goal is to understand how higher performing students utilize an unsupervised online learning environment to identify effective strategies in this setting. This will allow instructors to direct students toward effective methods of using online classroom tools.