Comparison of Online Learning Behaviors in School vs. at Home in Terms of Age and Gender Based on Log File Analysis

Abstract

The research objectives of this study are: (a) to compare learning behaviors in an online science learning environment -in school vs. at home; and (b) to explore the existence of some behavioral differences, in school and at home, in terms of age and gender. The actions of 1,179 elementary school students in an online science learning environment were documented in a log file and statistically analyzed. Results suggest that students who learn at home tend to spend more time learning; they learn at a slower pace and score higher on a test than students who learn in school. However, no significant differences were found between home and school in terms of the amount of completed activities, the rate of simulation use, and the sequence of learning. Comparison between age groups indicates that younger students tend to learn for more time, at a slower pace, and complete fewer activities than older students. Comparison between genders, on the other hand, reflects similar learning behaviors for boys and girls. The results also suggest that neither age nor gender affect the differences found between school and home behaviors. Our conclusions indicate that extending teaching time to the home by means of online learning environments is possible and worthwhile, regardless of age or gender. Nevertheless, it should be noticed that in some cases more learning time is necessary for young students in online assignments.

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“…However, the analysis showed no significant difference in their online behaviors in term of gender. This result is in line with the study Ben-Zadok and her colleagues conducted on elementary schools in Israel (Ben-Zadok, Leiba, & Nachmias.,2010).…”

“…Ben-Zadok, Leiba and Nachmias (2010) compared learning behaviors in an online science learning environmentin school vs. at home -and explored the existence of some behavioral differences in terms of age and gender. They found that students who learned at home tended to spend more time learning but at a slower pace.…”

“…Comparison between age groups indicated that younger students tended to learn for longer periods of time, at a slower pace, and complete fewer activities than older students. Comparison between genders, on the other hand, reflected similar learning behaviors for boys and girls (Ben-Zadok, Leiba, & Nachmias, 2010).…”

“…Students who accessed online learning environmentData collection and analysisTraditional research methods such as questionnaires or observations based on self-reports and traditional observations are practically impossible with such a large number of subjects. However, an analysis of log files provides an opportunity to learn about the behaviors of a large population of students and collect data on their actual behavior in a non-intrusive way (Ben-Zadok,Leiba, & Nachmias, 2010).The system profile of each student included categories such as school name, grade, gender, time spent watching micro-lessons, time spent doing virtual scientific experiments, time spent asking or answering questions, amount of participation in virtual communities, and the number of documents…”

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“…Three of the papers in the review (Ben-Zadok et al, 2010, 2011Xie, 2013) showed that click-track data analysis suffers from the same problem when several variables are combined to separately explain a construct. These papers chose the approach of looking at correlations of these variables separately and show significant relationships.…”