WIER
Web Industrial Experience Resource

 

 

 

Evaluation of the WIER Web Site

Part 2

August 2002

 

 

 

Data Analysis: Judy Sheard

Project team:

Jason Ceddia
Sylvia Tucker
Judy Sheard
Selby Markham
Ashley Cambrell

 

Table of Contents

Introduction *

Overview *

Research Questions *

How do students use the WIER site? *

Are there differences in usage based on gender or IE project performance? *

How do supervisors use the WIER site? *

How do clients use the WIER site? *

Data Collection *

Log Files *

Online Polls *

Data Analysis *

Student Usage of WIER *

Frequency of student access to the WIER site *

Frequency of IE Group access to the WIER site *

Access of Resources on WIER *

Frequency of Access of Resources *

Frequency of Access of Resources Each Session *

Relationship between use of WIER and final subject performance *

Time spent using the WIER site *

Data preparation *

Session, task and activity times *

Time trends over the year *

Comparison of Student Usage of WIER Based on Gender *

Frequency of student access to the WIER site *

Time spent on tasks on the WIER site *

Comparison of Student Usage Based on Subject Performance *

Frequency of student access to the WIER site *

Time spent on tasks on the WIER site *

Intended and Actual Tasks Attempted *

Supervisor Usage of WIER *

Frequency of Access to the WIER Site *

Client Usage of WIER *

Appendix A *

Appendix B *

WIER ul_type and ul_data classifications (major components) *

Appendix C *

WIER usage log data analysis - version 6 *

Create Task Times file *

Create Task and Activities Times file *

Create Session Times file *

Create Mean Weekly Task Times File *

Create Mean Weekly Session Times File *

Create Intentions File *

Create Navigation Path File *

Appendix D *

Frequency of Student Access to WIER over the Year *

Appendix E Task Time Distributions for Students *

Appendix F *

List of Tables

 

Table 1 Description of Page Categories on the WIER Site *

Table 2 Frequency of Student Access of Resources on WIER *

Table 3 Percentage Student Access of Resources Each Session *

Table 4 Percentages of Tasks with Times above Various Threshold Values *

Table 5 Percentages of Tasks with High Activity Times *

Table 6 Numbers of Tasks with a High Task Time (>= 3600 seconds) and No High Activity Times *

Table 7 Comparison of Methods of Removing Unwanted Task Times *

Table 8 Mean, Median, Mode and Maximum Times for Tasks with Maximum Activity Times of 600 Seconds *

Table 9 Frequency of Male and Female Student Access of Pages on WIER *

Table 10 Comparison of Male and Female Students’ Task Times *

Table 11 Frequency of Low and High Performance Student Access of Pages on WIER *

Table 12 Comparison of Low and High Performance Student’ Task Times *

Table 13 Students’ Selection of Intended Tasks *

Table 14 Tasks Intended but not Attempted *

Table 15 Frequency of Supervisor Access to WIER *

Table 16 Frequency of Supervisor Access of Pages on WIER *

Table 17 Frequency of Client Access of Pages on WIER *

Table 18 Frequency of Client Access to WIER per Week *

Table 19 Description of Data Collected for Each Interaction *

Table 20 Categorisation of Activities withinType of Page *

Table 21 WIER ul_type and ul_data classifications for the Time Tracker *

Table 22 WIER ul_type and ul_data classifications for the time graph *

Table 23 WIER ul_type and ul_data classifications for the File Manager *

Table 24 WIER ul_type and ul_data classifications for the Group Forum (News View, Events View, and Discussion Forum have essentially the same usage log output) *

Table 25 Distribution of task times of students with no task times greater than 3600 seconds *

Table 26 Distribution of task times of students with more than 5% of task times greater than 3600 seconds *

 

List of Figures

 

Figure 1 Frequency of Student Access to WIER per Week *

Figure 2 Frequency of Student Access to WIER per Day of the Week *

Figure 3 Frequency of Student Access to WIER per Hour of the Day *

Figure 4 Frequency of IE Group Access to WIER *

Figure 5 Frequency of Student Access of Resources on WIER *

Figure 6 Distribution of Session Times less than 3600 Seconds *

Figure 7 Distribution of Task Times less than 240 Seconds *

Figure 8 Median Session Times over the Year *

Figure 9 Median Time Tracker Times over the Year *

Figure 10 Frequency of Supervisor Access to WIER Site per Week *

Figure 11 Frequency of Supervisor Access to WIER Site per Day of the Week *

 

Introduction

This document is Part 2 of a report that describes the process used to evaluate the Web Industrial Experience Resources Web site (WIER), and presents the results of that evaluation. Part 1 of the report, describes the evaluation process and presents results of data gathered from surveys. Part 2 of the report presents results of the analysis of log files and on-line polls containing data of interactions with the Web site.

Overview

The evaluation of WIER was performed by teaching and research staff in the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering. The data for the evaluation was gathered from March through November 2001.

The evaluation of the WIER site aimed to determine how the students used the site and establish their reactions to the site in terms of its usability and its effectiveness as an on-line environment to assist them in their Industrial Experience (IE) project work. Knowledge of the frequency, extent and type of student use of the site provides invaluable information for IE project coordinators, assisting in their planning of the IE project program and further enhancements and modifications to the WIER Site.

In 2001 there were 175 students enrolled in the IE project subject, approximately 30 staff who supervised a total of 35 project groups, and two IE project coordinators. These were the first group of students and staff to use the site.

For a full description of the evaluation process, see Part 1 of this report "Evaluation of the WIER Web Site, Part 1", CERG Technical Report 2002/01.

Research Questions

The evaluation addressed a series of research questions that aimed to determine the usage of the WIER site and the effectiveness of the site in terms of its usability and usefulness to the students and supervisors. Of particular interest was the usage and effectiveness of the project management tools provided by the site, namely the Time Tracker and the File Manager. Separate research questions were addressed for students and supervisors. A full description of the research questions are detailed in Part 1 of this report. The research questions relevant to the results presented in this document are as follows:

How do students use the WIER site?

  1. Frequency of use
    1. Accesses to the site per week
    2. Accesses to the site per day
    3. Accesses to the site per time of day
  2. IE Group accesses
  3. Resources accessed
  4. Access times
    1. Time spent at the site
    2. Time spent on particular tasks
    3. Time spent on particular activities within a task
  5. Intentions of use compared with actual use
  6. Navigation patterns

Are there differences in usage based on gender or IE project performance?

  1. Frequency of use
  2. Resources accessed
  3. Access times
    1. Time spent at the site
    2. Time spent on particular tasks
    3. Time spent on particular activities within a task
  4. Navigation patterns

How do supervisors use the WIER site?

  1. Frequency of use
    1. Accesses to the site per week
    2. Accesses to the site per day
  2. Resources accessed
  3. Access times
    1. Time spent at site

How do clients use the WIER site?

  1. Frequency of use
    1. Accesses to the site per week
    2. Accesses to the site per day
  2. Resources accessed
  3. Access times
    1. Time spent at site

 

Data Collection

Data of student usage of WIER were collected via log files and on-line polls. The data were collected for 27 weeks, from early in Semester 1 (Week 5) until the end of Semester 2 (Week 31). This data collection period covered almost the entire length of time the students had access to the site. All interactions with the WIER site were monitored and recorded in a database. This data collection formed a naturalistic enquiry, a paradigm describing a situation where data is collected in a natural setting unnoticed by the learner. In addition to this, on-line polls were used to gather and record students’ intentions of use of the site.

Log Files

Details of all interactions with the WIER site were stored in an Access database. The information recorded for each interaction identified the user, page accessed and time of access. This is described in Table 19, Appendix A.

The pages on the WIER site were categorised according to a particular resource or facility provided on the site. For example, pages used to record or view a project time were categorised under Time Tracker and the page which held the timetable of events was categorised under Calendar of Events. These page categories are listed in Table 1. The interactions within each type of page were categorised as shown in Table 20, Appendix A. A description of these interactions as they are used to describe activities relating to the Time Tracker, File Manager and Discussion Forum is shown in Appendix B.

Online Polls

An administrative facility included in WIER allows for the dynamic creation of surveys and polls with the specification of a date activation range and intended participants. Using this facility, a poll was set up to gather information about students’ intentions while accessing the WIER site. This poll asked the students at the beginning of their session to state what they intended to do. This enabled their intentions to be matched with the actual tasks they attempted, which were determined from the interactions captured on a log file.

The poll was available to students each time they logged on to the WIER site and remained on the WIER site all year. Over the course of the year responses were gained from 118 different students.

Data Analysis

The analysis of data collected on student, supervisor and client interactions with WIER provided general information about their usage of the site. The frequency of access to the site, frequency and type of pages accessed, and time spent in the site gave an overall pattern of usage for students, supervisors and clients. Examination of students’ navigation patterns and comparison of intentions determined from on-line polls with actual tasks attempted provided further insights into their usage of the site. Comparisons were made of different groups based on gender and performance.

The data were analysed using the statistical package SPSS. Data were prepared for analysis using a computer program written in C++. Using this software, data files containing details of navigation paths and access times were set up. For the purpose of the analysis three types of access times were calculated, determined as follows:

For further information about the files created refer Appendix C.

Table 1 Description of Page Categories on the WIER Site

Resource
(Page Category)

Description

Group

* Static / dynamic

** Passive / interactive

Calendar of Events

Allows viewing and scheduling of events.

  

D

I

Discussion Groups

Discussion forum for all students.

  

D

I

Document Templates

Document templates and examples of documents from past projects.

  

S

I

File Manager

Facility for groups to store and retrieve files in a web-accessible location. Configuration management facilities.

G

D

I

Group Forum

Group based discussion forum.

G

D

I

Group News System

Facility to post news items to group members.

G

D

I

Home Page

General information, news, current events

  

S

P

Past Projects

Repository of past projects. Facilities to search projects from previous years with the possibility of reusing code.

  

D

I

Resource Search

Searchable database of on-line resources and printed material. Students may submit details of resources to this database.

  

D

I

Time Tracker

Facility to record project tasks and times spent. Generates fortnightly task and time reports.

G

D

I

Administration

    

D

I

General Information

Static documents, guidelines, marking guides

  

S

P

Surveys

On-line surveys to provide feedback about the site.

  

D

I

* The classification of static is used for resources which are produced once and never or rarely updated; dynamic is used for resources which are modified or developed over the teaching period.

** The classification of passive is used for resources that are reproductions of paper resources; interactive is used for resources that incorporate elements that require or encourage interaction with the user.

 

Student Usage of WIER

Frequency of student access to the WIER site

There were 9442 student sessions recorded on the WIER site during the 27 week data collection period; a mean of 54 sessions per student and two sessions per week per student. The lowest number of sessions was one and the highest was 629. There were 195,012 student interactions recorded within the site; a mean of 527 interactions per student. The lowest number of interactions was nine and the highest was 5335.

The site was accessed by the students throughout the 27 week data collection period. The distribution of sessions per week during this time is graphed in Figure 1. The lowest numbers of sessions occurred in weeks 14, 15 and 16, during the examination period when the students typically do not spend much time on their IE project work. The highest numbers of sessions were recorded in weeks 8 and 9, just before the submission date of the first major assessment component, the functional specifications. Preparation for this assessment involved students in a range of tasks on the WIER site including accessing Document Templates, File Manager and Past Projects. The students were also most active in the discussion groups and the group forums at this time in the year.

The distribution of sessions over the course of a week is graphed in Figure 2. This shows that the students used the site every day of the week including the weekend. The pattern of sessions throughout the day as graphed in Figure 3 shows that the site was accessed constantly throughout the day, even in the early hours of the morning. It is interesting to note that the highest frequency of sessions each day, on average, occurred just before midnight.

Figure 1 Frequency of Student Access to WIER per Week

 

Figure 2 Frequency of Student Access to WIER per Day of the Week

 

Figure 3 Frequency of Student Access to WIER per Hour of the Day

Frequency of IE Group access to the WIER site

The students were organised into groups of five for their IE project work. The frequency of accesses to the WIER site per group is shown in Figure 4. There was a wide variation in the number of sessions between the groups. The lowest number of sessions was 71 (Group 39) and the highest was 821 (Group 37). Group 42 also recorded a high number of sessions (810), however over 60% of these were from a series of logins with no further interaction with the site.

 

Figure 4 Frequency of IE Group Access to WIER

Access of Resources on WIER

Frequency of Access of Resources

There were huge variations in the frequency of access to resources on the WIER site as shown in Table 2 and Figure 5. Furthermore, the frequency of access of each type of resource varied over the course of the year, as shown by the graphs of access patterns for each resource on the site in Appendix D.

All students accessed the Home Page at every session. The most frequently accessed resource on the WIER site, after the Home Page, was the Time Tracker. This was also the resource with which the students had the most interactions (56%). All students were required to use the Time Tracker each week to record their project times. This was the only mandatory resource, which most likely explains its comparatively high use.

The next most used resource was the File Manager, which had over 16% of the interactions on the site. This resource gave students access to a repository for their IE project files. It was not required that they used this resource to manage their files, however the high usage of this resource shows that many groups found it useful. The low access to Past Projects and Resource Search can, in part, be explained by the limited number of resources available there.

The frequencies of access to each resource over the year are shown graphically in Appendix D. The variation in patterns of access can be explained by various factors. In some case these relate to IE project events. For example, the high accesses to most resources in Weeks 8 and 9 indicate that many students explored WIER at this time. This followed a seminar presentation demonstrating the site and preceded the first major submission for their IE project work. In other cases the pattern of use can be explained by the type of resource. For example, some resources need to be accessed regularly (e.g. Time Tracker) or are useful throughout the semester (e.g. Calendar of Events) and others such as the Document Templates and Past Project are only useful at certain stages the IE project work.

An interesting pattern was shown with the Time Tracker. The students were supposed to enter their project times each week, however the high access on alternate weeks indicates that many chose to enter their times fortnightly.

Table 2 Frequency of Student Access of Resources on WIER

Page Category

Number of Accesses

Percent

Calendar of Events

621

  

1.3

  

Discussion Groups

435

  

1.3

  

Document Templates

1635

  

3.4

  

File Manager

3938

  

8.3

  

Group Forum

845

  

1.8

  

Group News System

775

  

1.6

  

Home Page

22587

  

47.3

  

Past Projects

465

  

1.0

  

Resource Search

294

  

0.6

  

Time Tracker

13254

  

27.8

  

Administration

207

  

0.4

  

General information

2585

  

5.4

  

Surveys

84

  

0.2

  

Total

47725

100.0

 

Figure 5 Frequency of Student Access of Resources on WIER

 

Frequency of Access of Resources Each Session

Another way of looking at the access of resources is to consider what resources are accessed each session. This is shown in Table 3. This shows that in over half the sessions (61%) the students accessed the Time Tracker and in over a quarter of the sessions (26.5%) they accessed the File Manager. All other resources were accessed on 10% or less of the sessions.

Table 3 Percentage Student Access of Resources Each Session

Page Category

Percent

Calendar of Events

5.0

  

Discussion Groups

8.7

  

Document Templates

8.5

  

File Manager

26.5

  

Group Forum

3.4

  

Group News System

8.1

  

Home Page

100.0

  

Past Projects

3.1

  

Resource Search

2.3

  

Time Tracker

61.0

  

Administration

1.8

  

General information

10.5

  

Surveys

0.7

  

 

Relationship between use of WIER and final subject performance

To determine if there was a relationship between the students’ use of the WIER site and their final mark for the IE project, Pearson's product moment correlation coefficients were calculated. Correlation coefficients were calculated for the students’ results with the number of accesses to the WIER site, the number of interactions with the WIER site and the number of interactions with the Time Tracker. There were significant relationships between the students’ results and their interactions with WIER (r=0.22, p< 0.1) and between the students’ results and their interactions with the Time Tracker (r=0.29, p< 0.1). No relationship was shown between login and results. This indicates that it is actual engagement with the site rather than access, which is important.

 

Time spent using the WIER site

Of interest was determining how much time the students spent using the WIER site and the various resources provided on the site and whether there were any trends in the times spent on different activities over the course of the year. To enable this, three types of time intervals (session, task and activity) were calculated from the log file data as described in the Data Analysis section on page *.

The distributions of the session and task times over the year were examined to determine an appropriate statistic to use for description and comparison of these times. The distribution of session times showed a high frequency of small times tapering off very gradually to low frequencies of extremely large times. This pattern is illustrated by the graph in Figure 6, which shows the distribution of session times less than 3600 seconds (1 hour). These account for 92.2% of all sessions; the remaining 7.8% of times were spread over a very wide range. The distribution of task times as shown in Figure 7 shows a similar pattern, with 82.8% of tasks less than 240 seconds in duration. These distributions indicate that medians and modes are more appropriate statistics to use for describing this data than means.

 

Figure 6 Distribution of Session Times less than 3600 Seconds

 

Figure 7 Distribution of Task Times less than 240 Seconds

Before further analysis was performed, it was decided to remove any outlying or misleading times from the data set. The aim was to include only times for sessions or tasks that recorded continuous engagement with the site. Examination of the session times revealed that there were some extreme times recorded for a small percentage of sessions. Some times were as long as a day and the longest time recorded was 66.8 days. It was not realistic to assume that students were engaged in any work on the WIER site continuously for this length of time and therefore these times needed to be excluded. An added complication was that periods of inactivity could also have been recorded in sessions that did not seem extreme, giving misleading high times for these sessions. These times would not necessarily appear as outliers and therefore a closer examination of the data was necessary to recognise and remove these unwanted times. The following section details the process of preparing the data by determining and removing these outlying and misleading times.

Data preparation

The data preparation for the purpose of including only tasks that recorded periods of continuous engagement was a complicated process. The determining of time intervals as sessions, tasks and activities provided a complex set of data. The sessions consisted of one or more tasks. The tasks varied in complexity and therefore it was reasonable to expect variations in the times students spent on different tasks. Added to this, the frequency of access to each task over the course of the year varied depended on the type of task, as shown by the graphs of access patterns for each resource on the site (refer Appendix D). Considering this it was decided to examine task rather than session times to determine where these misleading times occurred.

The determination and removal of the outlying and misleading times involved a couple of stages. The task times were first examined to decide on a reasonable threshold value for determining outlying times. Secondly, the distributions of task times were examined to determine whether extreme times occurred for specific students or tasks with the purpose of removing these students or tasks from the data set. Thirdly, activity times within tasks were calculated and used to determine any periods of inactivity and thereby indicating misleading task times. Finally, the outlying and misleading times were removed from further analysis using information gained from the second and third stages. The remainder of this section details these processes.

Determining a threshold value for outlying task times

Determining a threshold value to use to eliminate outlying tasks was a complicated process. The variation in the complexity of the tasks suggested that the times spent on different tasks would also vary. The graphs in Appendix F show the frequency of times for each type of task for the year. These show the same general patterns of high frequencies of small task times and low frequency of longer times for each type of task, however there are differences in the magnitude and the range of the times between the tasks. From these graphs it would seem reasonable to consider tasks separately when analysing task times over the year to determine outliers.

As the distribution of task times was highly skewed, to obtain a clearer view of where outlying times occurred, the data was transformed using a log transformation. The log transformed task times for each task over the year are shown graphically in Appendix F. These indicate that the percentages of tasks with times greater than 3000 or 3500 seconds are very low and the distributions of times above these limits is very sparse for most types of task, indicating that this are points beyond which times could be considered outliers. To examine this more closely, the percentages of times for each task that were above limits of 1200, 1800 and 3600 seconds were calculated, as shown in Table 4. These show that only 2.5% of all tasks took longer than 3600 seconds (1 hour), however only 5.5% of all tasks took longer than 1200 seconds (20 minutes).

The graphs of distributions indicate that 3600 seconds may be a reasonable threshold value to use to determine outlying times for the File Manager and Time Tracker, however the low percentages of times above the limits of 1200 and 1800 seconds for all other tasks indicate that a lower value could be used for these.

Table 4 Percentages of Tasks with Times above Various Threshold Values

Page Category

(task)

Overall number of tasks

Task times >= 1200 seconds

Task times >= 1800 seconds

Task times >= 3600 seconds
 

n

%

n

%

n

%

Calendar of Events

621

  

15

2.4

11

1.8

9

1.4

Discussion Groups

435

  

24

5.5

19

4.4

12

2.8

Document Templates

1635

  

33

2.0

27

1.7

18

1.1

File Manager

3938

  

518

13.2

403

10.2

256

6.5

Group Forum

845

  

27

3.3

18

2.1

9

1.1

Group News System

775

  

19

2.5

14

1.8

10

1.3

Home Page

22587

  

438

1.9

340

1.5

217

1.0

Past Projects

465

  

24

5.3

17

3.7

9

1.9

Resource Search

294

  

1

0.3

1

0.3

1

0.3

Time Tracker

13254

  

1353

10.2

930

7.0

540

4.1

Administration

207

  

4

1.9

4

1.9

4

1.9

General information

2585

  

170

6.6

140

5.4

110

4.3

Surveys

84

  

0

0

0

0

0

0

Total

47725

2626

5.5

1924

4.0

1195

2.5

 

Investigating extreme task times for particular students

The task times were examined to see if extreme times, which could be considered outliers, occurred for particular students and whether there was any reason to remove students with extreme times from the analysis. A threshold value of 3600 seconds (1 hour) was used to define an outlying time as determined in the previous section. Using this value, most students (92%) recorded at least one extreme task time during the year and it was therefore not possible to eliminate outlying times by removing particular students.

Further analysis of this data showed that seven students spent one hour or more on over 10% of their tasks, and a further 12 students spent 3600 seconds (one hour) or more on over 5% of their tasks. A comparison was made of the distributions of task times of the students with no extreme times with students with the highest percentages of extreme times. Bar graphs of the task times for both groups are shown in Appendix E. Only results of students who had more than 50 task times recorded to the WIER site over the year have been graphed. These show similar patterns, with both groups of students having a high percentage of very small task times tailoring off gradually to longer times. This indicates that it is reasonable to include all students in the analysis.

Investigating extreme task times for particular tasks

The task times were examined to see if extreme times were recorded for particular tasks. The graphs in Appendix F show the frequencies of times for each type of task for the year. Using the threshold value of 3600 seconds, determined previously, it can be seen that there are extreme times recorded for each type of task. This shows that it is not possible to eliminate outlying tasks by removing particular types of tasks.

Determining misleading task times

The small percentages and sparse distributions of times above 3600 seconds indicate that these times could be considered outliers, however, from this analysis it is not possible to determine if students were continuously engaged in any activities for the duration of these times. Using this method to determine times to remove from the analysis could eliminate students who had continuously worked on a task for a long period of time or could include students who had accessed a resource for some period of time but had not actually done anything during this time. Considering this difficulty, the data was further examined to determine what activities the students had engaged in within each task, with the purpose of finding out whether they had been working continuously or had been inactive for a period of time. This would enable the elimination of misleading task times i.e. times that recorded periods of inactivity.

Continuous engagement in a task was defined as occurring when all activity times were below a maximum time limit. The activities within a task were indicated by the interactions and the time of an activity was defined as the time between interactions. To establish an appropriate maximum time limit for an activity, the percentages of tasks that had high activity times were compared for three activity time limits. Activity time limits of 300, 600 and 1200 seconds were considered, as shown in Table 5. These calculations showed that using a limit of 300 seconds (5 minutes) to determine continuous engagement would eliminate 10% of the tasks overall and also eliminate high percentages of the File Manager (24.6%) and Time Tracker (14.8%) tasks. Extending the time limit to 600 seconds (10 minutes) would eliminate 6.1% of the tasks overall and fewer File Manager (15.8%) and Time Tracker (8.6%) tasks. The time limit of 1200 seconds (20 minutes) would eliminate even fewer tasks but would seem an unreasonably high time limit for most tasks when trying to gauge continuous engagement.

Table 5 Percentages of Tasks with High Activity Times

Page Category

(task)

Overall number of tasks

Activity times >= 300 seconds

Activity times >= 600 seconds

Activity times
>= 1200 seconds
 

n

%

n

%

n

%

Calendar of Events

621

  

43

6.9

25

4.0

13

2.1

Discussion Groups

435

  

42

9.7

32

7.4

19

4.4

Document Templates

1635

  

90

5.5

60

3.7

32

2.0

File Manager

3938

  

967

24.6

623

15.8

388

9.9

Group Forum

845

  

95

11.2

44

5.2

22

2.6

Group News System

775

  

65

8.4

34

4.4

19

2.5

Home Page

22587

  

1169

5.2

689

3.1

417

1.8

Past Projects

465

  

42

9.0

27

5.8

18

3.9

Resource Search

294

  

4

1.4

3

1.0

1

0.3

Time Tracker

13254

  

1957

14.8

1139

8.6

729

5.5

Administration

207

  

6

2.9

6

2.9

4

1.9

General information

2585

  

342

13.2

224

8.7

160

6.2

Surveys

84

  

7

8.3

3

3.6

0

0

Total

47725

4829

10.1

2909

6.1

1822

3.8

 

Removal of misleading task times and outliers

In the previous sections, two methods of removing unwanted task times from the analysis were proposed. These involved eliminating times on the basis of extreme task times or high activity times. To determine which method is most effective or whether they should be used in combination, the impact of these methods was explored.

To evaluate the effectiveness of these methods in eliminating unwanted task times the relationship between high task and activity times was determined. For all task times over 3600 seconds the number of tasks that had all activities below limits of 300, 600 and 1200 seconds were calculated as shown in Table 6. This shows the numbers of students who used the site continuously for more than 3600 seconds for a particular task. Using these activity time limits, the only tasks which students were continuously engaged in for more than an hour, were the File Manager and Time Tracker.

The calculations were repeated for a maximum task time of 7200 seconds. In this case there were no students who had continuous activities all less than 300 seconds and one student who had continuous activities all less than 600 seconds.

As a further comparison, the number of tasks remaining after elimination of unwanted tasks by each method is shown in Table 7. This shows that eliminating tasks by task time alone and using a threshold of 3600 seconds would eliminate 2.5% of the tasks. However, eliminating tasks by activity time using a maximum activity time limit of 600 seconds would eliminate 6.1% of tasks, which include all but 18 of the tasks eliminated by the first method and a further 3.6% of tasks below the threshold of 3600 seconds.

This indicates that filtering students based on maximum activity time is the more effective way of eliminating misleading times, thus giving a better indication of actual engagement times for the site. This method therefore was used to determine the task times to be used in the analysis of the task and session times for the WIER site.

Table 6 Numbers of Tasks with a High Task Time (>= 3600 seconds) and No High Activity Times

Task

All activity times
< 300 seconds

n

All activity times
< 600 seconds

n

All activity times
< 1200 seconds

n

Task Tracker

6

17

35

File Manager

0

1

6

Total

6

18

41

 

Table 7 Comparison of Methods of Removing Unwanted Task Times

Method

Percentage of tasks remaining

Number of task times >= 3600 seconds

Number of task times >= 7200 seconds

Extreme task time

97.5

0

0

High activity time

93.9

18

1

 

Considering the findings in Table 5, Table 6 and Table 7, an activity time limit of 600 seconds was used. Although a limit of 300 seconds or less could be considered reasonable for most activities and would remove all extreme task times over two hours, for some activities on the Time Tracker and File Manager it is not long enough, and using this value would eliminate an unacceptably high percentage of data for these two tasks from the analysis. Using a time limit of 600 seconds was a more reasonable maximum limit for the Time Tracker and File Manager tasks and would include more tasks in the analysis.

 

 

Session, task and activity times

The analysis of the times spent at the WIER site was performed using a maximum activity time of 600 seconds as determined in the previous section.

The overall median session time was 280 seconds (4 minutes 40 seconds) and the mode was 33 seconds. An examination of access to resources shows that more than half of the students accessed only three or fewer resources in a session. More information can be gathered from the times students spend using different resources. The mean, median, mode and maximum times for each task were calculated as shown in Table 8. The median times varied from 12 seconds to 99 seconds, however the mean times were generally 2 to 3 times longer.

In interpreting the significance of these times the type of task and the particular activities being performed must be taken into account. The very short median task times for resources such as Document Templates, Past Projects, and Resource Search indicate that access to these resources was often just browsing or reading. The longest median times were for the Time Tracker and File Manager possibly indicating that access to these tasks involved more activity than just reading or browsing. These were also the resources that involved the most complex tasks.

However it seems that students usually did not spend long on sessions on WIER or very long accessing any resources.

Table 8 Mean, Median, Mode and Maximum Times for Tasks with Maximum Activity Times of 600 Seconds

Page Category

 

n

Task Times (seconds)

mean

median

mode

maximum

Calendar of Events

596

65

23

11

866

Discussion Groups

403

138

69

2

1415

Document Templates

1575

42

18

6

814

File Manager

3315

209

99

10

3637

Group Forum

801

138

64

10

1225

Group News System

741

76

41

10

719

Home Page

21898

51

22

5

1098

Past Projects

438

91

20

5

2303

Resource Search

291

26

12

4*

388

Time Tracker

12115

252

95

6

8341

Administration

201

32

21

1

406

General information

2361

111

55

8

1586

Surveys

81

105

64

12

724

Overall

44816

123

36

7

8341

* indicates multiple modes exist – the smallest value is shown

 

Time trends over the year

The median session times over the year are shown in Error! Reference source not found.. To determine any trend in times, the year was divided into three nine week periods and the median times for these periods were compared. The median session times for these periods showed a decrease in session time over the course of the year. A Kruskal-Wallis test showed that these differences were significant (Χ(2)=7.64 , p< 0.05). Examining the times for particular activities as a percentage of total time spent at the site showed that students spent less time browsing (Χ(2)=81.9 , p< 0.05) and more time engaged in activity (Χ(2)=64.7 , p< 0.05) over the course of the year .

To determine trends in times taken for tasks over the year, the tasks were considered separately. The graph of the median times for the Time Tracker is shown in Figure 9. The median times for the three nine week periods as used for the session times showed a decrease over the course of the year for the Time Tracker and the Calendar of Events. A Kruskal-Wallis test showed that these differences were significant at (Χ(2)=18.49 , p< 0.05) for the Time Tracker and (Χ(2)=9.80 , p< 0.05) for the Calendar of Events. There were no trends shown for any other tasks.

The decrease in session and task times for the Time Tracker and Calendar of Events may indicate students were engaged in less activity each session rather than becoming faster at the task they were performing. To investigate this further the trends in activities within Time Tracker were examined. The activity times for the six activities performed on the Time Tracker were compared for the three nine week periods and these showed a decrease for all activities and this was significant for the Add, Doit, Filter, Change and Read activities but not Edit.

Figure 8 Median Session Times over the Year

 

Figure 9 Median Time Tracker Times over the Year

 

Comparison of Student Usage of WIER Based on Gender

There were 115 (67%) male and 57 (33%) female students in the group.

Frequency of student access to the WIER site

There were 5040 male and 3619 female accesses to the WIER site recorded over the 27 week data collection period; a mean of 44 accesses per male and 63 per female students. Females accessed each resource proportionally more the males except for the Discussion Groups. The greatest differences were shown for the Time Tracker and Past Projects. A cross tabulation showed there was a significant difference between the frequency of the male and female accesses (X(12)=181.1, p< 0.05).

Table 9 Frequency of Male and Female Student Access of Pages on WIER

Page Category

Male

Female

Total

n

%

n

%

Calendar of Events

383

62.7

228

37.3

611

Discussion Groups

325

74.9

109

25.1

434

Document Templates

985

61.6

615

38.4

1600

File Manager

2277

58.2

1635

41.8

3912

Group Forum

360

42.7

484

57.3

844

Group News System

462

60.8

298

39.2

760

Home Page

12466

55.9

9851

44.1

22317

Past Projects

252

55.4

203

44.6

455

Resource Search

176

59.9

118

40.1

294

Time Tracker

7209

55.1

5883

44.9

13092

Administration

129

63.2

75

36.8

204

General information

1440

56.8

1093

43.2

2533

Surveys

49

59.8

33

40.2

82

Total

26513

56.2

20625

43.8

47138

 

Time spent on tasks on the WIER site

In addition to more frequent access of the WIER site, the female students spent more time than the males using WIER. The median session time for females was 340 seconds compared with 251 seconds for males.

The female students spent more time on every task, except for the Calendar of Events, and in most cases Mann-Whitney U tests showed this difference was significant. These results are shown in Table 10. To examine this further, activities within tasks were examined. The male and female activity times for the six activities performed on the Time Tracker (Add, Doit, Edit, Filter, Change and Read) were compared and these showed that the females spent more time on each activity and in every case this difference was significant.

 

Table 10 Comparison of Male and Female Students’ Task Times

Page Category

Male

Female

U

n

median

(seconds)

n

median (seconds)

Calendar of Events

371

25

215

19

  

Discussion Groups

297

63

105

82

  

Document Templates

946

17

594

19

*

File Manager

1947

88

1344

119

*

Group Forum

338

47

462

80

*

Group News System

439

39

287

45

*

Home Page

12058

21

9574

23

*

Past Projects

238

15

190

29

*

Resource Search

173

11

118

15

*

Time Tracker

6537

90

5431

101

*

Administration

126

21

72

22

  

General information

1308

47

1005

63

*

Surveys

47

56

32

94

*

Overall

24825

34

19429

38

*

* p < 0.05 (Mann-Whitney U tests)

 

 

 

 

 

Comparison of Student Usage Based on Subject Performance

To compare the site usage of students based on performance, the top 25% and bottom 25% of the student group ranked according to their final results were compared. There were 43 students in each group.

Frequency of student access to the WIER site

There were 1887 accesses by low achieving students and 2450 accesses by the high achieving students to the WIER site recorded over the 27 week data collection period; a mean of 44 accesses per low and 57 accesses per high achieving group. The high achieving students accessed most resources more than the low achieving students; an exception was the Group Forum. However, cross tabulations showed these differences were not significant.

Table 11 Frequency of Low and High Performance Student Access of Pages on WIER

Page Category

Low Performance

High Performance

Total

n

%

n

%

Calendar of Events

168

50.5

165

49.5

333

Discussion Groups

52

35.6

94

64.4

146

Document Templates

352

40.9

508

59.1

860

File Manager

737

37.6

1224

62.4

1961

Group Forum

229

79.5

59

20.5

288

Group News System

195

51.0

187

49.0

382

Home Page

4835

43.6

6262

56.4

11097

Past Projects

110

47.2

123

52.8

233

Resource Search

72

50.7

70

49.3

142

Time Tracker

2828

42.2

3875

57.8

6703

Administration

52

51.0

50

49.0

102

General information

557

43.6

721

56.4

1278

Surveys

16

38.1

26

61.9

42

Total

10203

43.3

13364

56.7

23567

Time spent on tasks on the WIER site

 

There were differences in the times the high achieving and low achieving students spent on accessing resources on WIER. These results are shown in Table 12. The high achieving students spent more time on the more critical project tasks, the Time Tracker and File Manager, and also the General Information. However the Low achieving students spent more time on the resources provided for support, the Document Templates, Past Projects and the Group Forum. Mann-Whitney U tests showed these differences were significant.

To examine this further, activities within tasks were examined. The activity times for high and low performing students for the the six activities performed on the Time Tracker (Add, Doit, Edit, Filter, Change and Read) were compared and these showed that the high performing students spent more time on the Add, Doit, Filter and Change activities and in each case this difference was significant.

 

Table 12 Comparison of Low and High Performance Student’ Task Times

Page Category

Low Performance

High Performance

U

n

median

(second)

n

median (seconds)

Calendar of Events

156

24

164

22

  

Discussion Groups

50

45

90

72

  

Document Templates

337

21

488

17

*

File Manager

640

78

971

110

*

Group Forum

211

48

56

26

*

Group News System

186

44

175

37

  

Home Page

4685

20

6076

23

  

Past Projects

100

29

121

17

*

Resource Search

71

15

69

10

  

Time Tracker

2639

88

3523

107

*

Administration

51

22

49

20

  

General information

513

42

666

58

*

Surveys

15

41

25

89

  

Overall

9654

34

12473

36

  

* p < 0.05 (Mann-Whitney U tests)

 

 

Intended and Actual Tasks Attempted

A poll was available for students to fill in each time they logged on to the WIER site. The poll asked students to nominate which tasks they intended to do during the session. Only a subset of the most functional resources was presented. From the times recorded on the log files it was possible to match these intended tasks with the actual tasks attempted.

A total of 1742 responses were made to the poll from 118 different students (69% of the group). Two students responded a large number of times (347) and these students were removed from the analysis as their selection of similar tasks biased the results. This left 1395 responses in the analysis. The demographic breakdown showed that 70.8% of the responses were received from high performing students and 37.2 % from female students .

The students’ selections of intended tasks are shown in Table 13. Most of the students intended to use the Time Tracker or the File Manager. When these intentions were compared to actual tasks, this showed that 49% of the students attempted exactly the tasks intended, and 18% attempted more tasks than they nominated. However, 33% of the students did not attempt all tasks they nominated as shown in Table 14.

Table 13 Students’ Selection of Intended Tasks

Page Category

Number of tasks intended

Percentage of students selecting task

Percentage of students attempting task

Calendar of Events

147

10.5

5.0

Discussion Groups

105

7.5

8.7

Document Templates

70

5.0

8.5

File Manager

478

34.2

26.5

Past Projects

73

5.2

3.1

Resource Search

122

8.7

2.3

Time Tracker

888

63.6

61.0

 

Table 14 Tasks Intended but not Attempted

Page Category

Tasks intended but not attempted

Percentage of students

Calendar of Events

114

8.2

Discussion Groups

91

6.5

Document Templates

47

3.4

File Manager

166

11.9

Past Projects

63

4.5

Resource Search

111

8.0

Time Tracker

146

10.5

 

 

 

Supervisor Usage of WIER

Frequency of Access to the WIER Site

The frequency of individual supervisor access to WIER as shown in Table 15 indicates that only a small number of supervisors used the site to any extent.

The supervisor access to WIER over the semester showed a similar pattern to the student access, indicating that the supervisors tend to use the site at similar times to their students (Figure 10). Most access to the site was during the week, with very little access on the weekend (Figure 11). The supervisor access to resources shown in Table 16.however shows a different pattern to the student access. The most frequently accessed resources were the General Information and File Manager.

The overall median session time was 100 seconds (1 minutes 40 seconds) and the mean was 205 seconds. The median overall task time was 25 seconds. These are lower than the student times and indicate that most supervisor activity was little more than browsing and reading.

Table 15 Frequency of Supervisor Access to WIER

Number of supervisors

Number of
Accesses

4

1

3

2

2

3

2

4

1

5

1

8

1

9

2

12

1

16

1

22

1

33

1

34

Total

175

 

Table 16 Frequency of Supervisor Access of Pages on WIER

Page Category

Frequency

Percent

Calendar of Events

68

4.2

Discussion Groups

40

2.5

Document Templates

88

5.5

File Manager

159

9.9

Group Forum

5

0.3

Group News System

88

5.5

Home Page

620

38.4

Past Projects

59

3.7

Resource Search

24

1.5

Time Tracker

69

4.0

Administration

22

1.4

General information

337

20.9

Surveys

39

2.4

Other

13

0.8

Total

1613

100.0

Figure 10 Frequency of Supervisor Access to WIER Site per Week

Figure 11 Frequency of Supervisor Access to WIER Site per Day of the Week

 

Client Usage of WIER

The client access to resources on WIER is shown in Table 17. This shows a similar pattern to the supervisor access with the most frequently accessed resources being the General Information and File Manager. The frequency of individual accesses is shown in Table 18 shows that only three clients used the site.

The overall median session time was 234 seconds (3 minutes 54 seconds) and the mean was 250 seconds. The median overall task time was 22 seconds. These are lower than the student times and indicate that most supervisor activity was little more than browsing and reading.

Table 17 Frequency of Client Access of Pages on WIER

Page Category

Frequency

Percent

Calendar of Events

5

5.8

Discussion Groups

1

1.2

Document Templates

2

2.3

Group News System

18

20.9

Home Page

37

43.0

Past Projects

2

2.3

Resource Search

1

1.2

Administration

1

1.2

General information

19

22.1

Total

86

100.0

 

Table 18 Frequency of Client Access to WIER per Week

Number of
clients

Number of
Accesses

2

1

1

9

Total

175

 

 

 

Appendix A

Table 19 Description of Data Collected for Each Interaction

Field

Description

Usage log id

Unique identifier of interaction

User id

Site user identifier

User type

Type of user (student, supervisor, client, coordinator)

IE group id

IE group identifier

Semester

Semester in which the user commenced their IE project

Year

Year in which the user commenced their IE project

Page URL

URL of page accessed

Category

Type of page accessed (refer Table 1)

UL type

Type of interaction (refer Table 20, Appendix A)

UL data

Data associated with the interaction. Used to qualify interaction

Week

Week number of IE project

Date

Date of interaction (dd-mm-yyyy)

Time

Time of interaction (hh:mm:ss)

Julian date

Date of interaction in Julian format

Day

Day of interaction

Epoch time

Time of interaction in epoch time

 

Table 20 Categorisation of Activities withinType of Page

Activity

Description
  1. Add

Displays menu to allow entering details
  • Delete
    		•

    Delete action
  • Do it
    		•

    Committing to a task

  • Download
    		•

    Download a file or a file group
  • Edit
    		•

    Displays menu to allow editing details
  • Expand
    		•

    Expand to show files in a group
  • Filter
    		•

    Filter by user
  • Login
    		•   
  • Pre-download
    		•

    Locking file
  • Pre-delete
    		•   
  • Preview
    		•

    Preview posting
  • Read
    		•

    Default option when entering a task
  • Reply
    		•

    Reply to posting
  • Search
    		•   
  • Upload
    		•

    First stage of uploading a file
  • Vote

    • Survey action

    Appendix B

    WIER ul_type and ul_data classifications (major components)

     

    Table 21 WIER ul_type and ul_data classifications for the Time Tracker

    Page_url

    ul_type

    ul_data (qualifier of ul_type)

    Notes

    /gupo/task-tracker.php

    filter

    		  

    Usually shows when the user is filtering by userid

    /gupo/task-tracker.php

    expand

    		  

    Expanding the tree to show all tasks or collapsing the tree to show only base tasks.

    /gupo/addtask.php

    edit

    		  

    Adding a new task (entering in details)

    /gupo/addtask.php

    doit

    		  

    Committing new task to database

    /gupo/logtime.php

    add

    		  

    Logging time against a task (entering in details)

    /gupo/ logtime.php

    doit

    		  

    Committing logged time to database

    /gupo/change_time_est.php

    edit

    initial estimate

    Editing task’s initial estimated time (modifying details)

    /gupo/change_time_est.php

    edit

    current estimate

    Editing task’s current estimated time (modifying details)

    /gupo/change_time_est.php

    doit

    		  

    Committing new estimated time to database

    /gupo/edittasks.php

    edit

    		  

    Editing task details

    /gupo/edittasks.php

    doit

    		  

    Committing edited task details to database

    /gupo/edittasks.php

    delete

    		  

    Delete a task from the task tree (commits). Only allowed if no times have been posted for the task

    /gupo/task-tracker-pf.php

    read

    filter: all

    Task tracker report printer (all members)

    /gupo/task-tracker-pf.php

    read

    filter: <userid>

    Task tracker report printer (user <userid> only)

     

    Table 22 WIER ul_type and ul_data classifications for the time graph

    Page_url

    ul_type

    ul_data

    Notes

    /gupo/timegraph-view.php

    read

    		  

    Time graph viewer

    /gupo/timegraph-view-pf.php

    read

    Time graph printing

     

    Table 23 WIER ul_type and ul_data classifications for the File Manager

    Page_url

    ul_type

    ul_data

    Notes

    /gupo/file-manager.php

    read

    		  

    Filemanager (entering)

    /gupo/file-manager.php

    expand

    doc_rep: 0 group <groupname>

    Clicking on a file group. (expanding into group / showing files in group)

    /gupo/file-manager.php

    expand

    doc_rep: 0 file <filename>

    Clicking on a file. (expanding into fileversion)

    /gupo/downloadfile.php

    download

    <otherdownload file> as <otherdownload filename>

    Logged when downloading a specific file from a specific place (usually not from filemanager)

    /gupo/downloadfile.php

    download

    <groupname> as <groupname archive>

    Logged when "download entire group" is clicked (zips all the latest files in the group and downloads them as one big file)

    /gupo/downloadfile.php

    predownload

    doc_rep: 0 <filename>

    Precursor to downloading a file

    /gupo/downloadfile.php

    download

    doc_rep: 0 <filename>

    Next stage after pre-download

    /gupo/downloadfile.php

    downloaded

    doc_rep: 0 <filename>

    Logged after file is successfully downloaded (may be two of these depending on how file was downloaded)

    /gupo/uploadfile.php

    upload

    doc_rep: 0 new file to group <groupname>

    First stage of uploading a new file to a group. (entering of new file details)

    /gupo/uploadfile.php

    upload

    doc_rep: 0 new version to group <groupname>

    First stage of uploading a new version of a to a group. (entering of new version details)

    /gupo/uploadfile.php

    doit

    doc_rep: 0 new <filename>

    Actual processing of uploaded new file.

    /gupo/uploadfile.php

    doit

    doc_rep: 0 existing <filename>

    Actual processing of uploaded file (was <filename> in ul_data, changed to match new file ul_data)

    /gupo/file-edit.php

    predelete

    file: <filename>

    When a user clicks on "delete file" it asks first if they are sure.

    /gupo/file-edit.php

    delete

    file: <filename>

    Actual deleting of file

    /gupo/file-edit.php

    edit

    		  

    Editing of file’s details (modifying details)

    /gupo/file-edit.php

    doit

    		  

    Committing of file detail changes to database (database committing was unclassified)

    /gupo/file-edit.php

    doit

    		  

    Moving file to another file group (Returns to this page after file is re-grouped)

    /gupo/newfilegroup.php

    edit

    doc_rep: 0 master group

    Entering details for new master file group

    /gupo/newfilegroup.php

    add

    doc_rep: 0 sub-group of <groupname>

    Entering details for new sub file group

    /gupo/newfilegroup.php

    doit

    doc_rep: 0 group <groupname>

    Committing new group to database

     

    Table 24 WIER ul_type and ul_data classifications for the Group Forum (News View, Events View, and Discussion Forum have essentially the same usage log output)

    page_url

    ul_type

    ul_data

    Notes

    /students/group-forum.php

    read

    op: read,topicid:<topicid>,contextfield:<contextfield>,contextvalue:<contextvalue>,disid:<disid>

    The default operation when coming into the group forum is read. Topicid is the current selected topic identifier. This could refer to a discussion forum "topic" (like Site Help) or to a iegroups group forum. This is determined by the contextfield(cf) and contextvalue(cv). The cf and cv allow the "attachment" of a discussion forum or comments to anything. For news or events comments, the cf would show as newsid (the news identifier), and the cv would show as whatever the news identifier was (eg newsid 895).

    /students/group-forum.php

    reply

    op: post,topicid:<topicid>,contextfield:<contextfield>,contextvalue:<contextvalue>,disid:<disid>

    Entering an item for posting to the forum.

    /students/group-forum.php

    reply

    op: reply,topicid:<topicid>,contextfield:<contextfield>,contextvalue:<contextvalue>,disid:<disid>

    Entering an item for posting to the forum, which is a reply to an existing post.

    /students/group-forum.php

    preview

    op: preview,topicid:<topicid>,contextfield:<contextfield>,contextvalue:<contextvalue>,disid:<disid>

    Previewing an item before posting it to the forum. (May still be edited at this stage.

    /students/group-forum.php

    write

    Op:

    <lastop>,topicid:<topicid>,contextfield:<contextfield>,contextvalue:<contextvalue>,disid:<disid>

    Item is actually committed to the database and is posted to the forum. Op then becomes the last operation before posting (usually read).

    Appendix C

    WIER usage log data analysis - version 6

    To prepare the WIER data for analysis, a C++ program was written. This program has the following functionality:

    Create Task Times file

    This module creates a file containing records of details of each task. A task is defined as a sequence of interactions of a user with the same type of page. The time of a task is calculated from the time interval of the first interaction on a page until the last interaction on that page type or the first interaction with another page type within the same session.

    Sometimes tasks may be included on this file which are recorded as part of a session. These tasks are not associated with a login and it is not possible to allocate them to a session.

    Create Task and Activities Times file

    This module creates a file containing records of details of activities performed within each task.

    A maximum activity time can be specified so that excessive tasks are not included.

    Sometimes tasks may be included on this file which are recorded as part of a session. These tasks are not associated with a login and it is not possible to allocate them to a session.

    Create Session Times file

    This module creates a file containing records of details of each session.

    A session begins with a login and ends when the next login is encountered, the user changes or an end of file is encountered.

    A maximum activity time can be specified so that sessions with excessive activity timess are not included.

    Create Mean Weekly Task Times File

    This module creates a file containing records of details of the mean task times per week for each user.

    Mean task times may be created for all tasks or for a selected task. A time limit can be placed on a task times that are included in this mean.

    Create Mean Weekly Session Times File

    This module creates a file containing records of details of the mean session times per week for each user.

    A time limit can be placed on a session times that are included in this mean.

    Create Intentions File

    This module creates a file containing records of details of each session for which poll responses were recorded.

    For each session for which poll responses were recorded the following is recorded:

    Create Navigation Path File

    This module creates a file containing records of details of navigation paths each session.

    The following files were created:

    File

    Number of records

    Filter

    Interactions

    204,463

    		  

    Task times

    67,536

    		  

    Session times

    11,610

    9,981

    9,214

    8,059

    All tasks included

    all tasks less than 1200 seconds

    all tasks less than 600 seconds

    all tasks less than 300 seconds

    Mean task times for each student each week

    3,746

    		  

    Mean session times for each student each week

    3,471

    		  

    Task intentions

    3,949

    tasks with all activity times less than 600 seconds

    Navigation patterns

    11.610

    9,214

    All tasks included

    tasks with all activity times less than 600 seconds

     

    Appendix D

    Frequency of Student Access to WIER over the Year

    The following graphs show the frequency of student access to each page on the WIER site, week by week, over the year.

     

     

     

     

    Appendix E Task Time Distributions for Students

    The following bar graphs show the distribution of task times for students for the year.

    Table 25 Distribution of task times of students with no task times greater than 3600 seconds

     

     

     

    Table 26 Distribution of task times of students with more than 5% of task times greater than 3600 seconds

     

     

     

    Appendix F

    The following graph shows the frequency of log-transformed times for all tasks over the year.

     

     

     

     

     

    The following graphs show the frequency of task times and log-transformed times data for each task over the year.