Analytics of scaffold compliance for self-regulated learning

Abstract

The shift toward digitally-based education has emphasised the need for learners to have strong skills for self-regulated learning (SRL). The use of scaffolding prompts is seen as an effective way to stimulate SRL and enhance academic outcomes. A key aspect of SRL scaffolding prompts is the degree to which they are complied to by students. Compliance is a complex concept, one that is further complicated by the nature of scaffold design in the context of adaptability. These nuances notwithstanding, scaffold compliance demands specific exploration. To that end, we conducted a study in which we: 1) focused specifically on scaffolding interaction behaviour in a timed online assessment task, as opposed to the broader interaction with non-scaffolding artefacts; 2) identified distinct scaffold interaction patterns in the context of compliance and non-compliance to scaffold design; 3) analysed how groups of learners traverse compliant and non-compliant interaction behaviours and engage in SRL processes in response to a sequence of timed and personalised SRL-informed scaffold prompts. We found that scaffold interactions fell into two categories of compliance and non-compliance, and whilst there was a healthy engagement with compliance, it does ebb and flow during an online timed assessment.