TY - JOUR
T1 - Student engagement with computerized practising
T2 - Ability, task value, and difficulty perceptions
AU - Cornelisz, Ilja
AU - van Klaveren, Chris
PY - 2018/12
Y1 - 2018/12
N2 - A prerequisite for low-stakes activities to improve learning is to keep students engaged when confronted with challenging material. Comparing a personalized and non-personalized version of computerized practising, this study experimentally evaluates the relationships between student effort and ability across different dimensions of task perceptions. Students practise longer when the task is perceived to be not too difficult. Students assigned to a personalized version of the tool have a lower success rate while practising, but this does not translate to differences in practice intensity, task perceptions, or summative test scores. In a personalized practising environment, perceived interest and usefulness both have the potential to promote engagement, albeit in different ways. Students with a lower level of subject-specific ability find the tool more interesting and, particularly, consider the non-personalized tool difficult but useful. Instead, in the personalized condition, it is the group of students with higher prescores who value the tool as relatively useful. These results indicate that more students will remain engaged with adaptive practising if software takes into account such differences. Multiple approaches and algorithms may thus be necessary to optimally adapt practising to individual learners.
AB - A prerequisite for low-stakes activities to improve learning is to keep students engaged when confronted with challenging material. Comparing a personalized and non-personalized version of computerized practising, this study experimentally evaluates the relationships between student effort and ability across different dimensions of task perceptions. Students practise longer when the task is perceived to be not too difficult. Students assigned to a personalized version of the tool have a lower success rate while practising, but this does not translate to differences in practice intensity, task perceptions, or summative test scores. In a personalized practising environment, perceived interest and usefulness both have the potential to promote engagement, albeit in different ways. Students with a lower level of subject-specific ability find the tool more interesting and, particularly, consider the non-personalized tool difficult but useful. Instead, in the personalized condition, it is the group of students with higher prescores who value the tool as relatively useful. These results indicate that more students will remain engaged with adaptive practising if software takes into account such differences. Multiple approaches and algorithms may thus be necessary to optimally adapt practising to individual learners.
KW - computerized practising
KW - personalization
KW - task difficulty
KW - task value
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85052431428&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85052431428&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/jcal.12292
DO - 10.1111/jcal.12292
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85052431428
VL - 34
SP - 828
EP - 842
JO - Journal of Computer Assisted Learning
JF - Journal of Computer Assisted Learning
SN - 0266-4909
IS - 6
ER -