SPACLE

Abstract

Classroom experiments that evaluate the effectiveness of educational technologies do not typically examine the effects of classroom contextual variables (e.g., out-of-software help-giving and external distractions). Yet these variables may influence students' instructional outcomes. In this paper, we introduce the Spatial Classroom Log Explorer (SPACLE): a prototype tool that facilitates the rapid discovery of relationships between within-software and out-of-software events. Unlike previous tools for retrospective analysis, SPACLE replays moment-by-moment analytics about student and teacher behaviors in their original spatial context. We present a data analysis workflow using SPACLE and demonstrate how this workflow can support causal discovery. We share the results of our initial replay analyses using SPACLE, which highlight the importance of considering spatial factors in the classroom when analyzing ITS log data. We also present the results of an investigation into the effects of student-teacher interactions on student learning in K-12 blended classrooms, using our workflow, which combines replay analysis with SPACLE and causal modeling. Our findings suggest that students' awareness of being monitored by their teachers may promote learning, and that gaming the system behaviors may extend outside of educational software use.