Collaborative learning through PBL and virtual monitoring

Abstract

E-learning has increased in recent years and has become an essential element in education. In this paper, we show how we have carried out a collaborative learning implementing a project-based learning and how analyzing information that the Moodle platform stores but does not display in a teacher-friendly way can be useful for professors to track learning evolution of the students effectively and efficiently. Twenty topics have been defined on which students could work in groups of 3-5 people and create a tutorial that would be made available to the rest of their peers. We have developed a Python script that processes a set of metrics such as concurrent connections, relationship between connections and students as well as between members of the groups and periods of connections. From this kind of interactions, we have related the degree of participation of each student, how each group has been involved, when the students of the same group have met in Moodle at the same time, and the grades obtained. In the PBL, 56 students have participated and at the end of the process we have obtained feedback from 38 students through a Likert-type survey. The results of the virtual monitoring show that peer-to-peer learning and continuous interaction among the members of the PBL groups reduce the isolation of the students in virtual environments and favor the successful completion of the course.