Co-designing enduring learning analytics prediction and support tools in undergraduate biology courses

Even highly motivated undergraduates drift off their STEM career pathways. In large introductory STEM classes, instructors struggle to identify and support these students. To address these issues, we developed co-redesign methods in partnership with disciplinary experts to create high-structure STEM courses that better support students and produce informative digital event data. To those data, we applied theory- and context-relevant labels to reflect active and self-regulated learning processes involving LMS-hosted course materials, formative assessments, and help-seeking tools. We illustrate the predictive benefits of this process across two cycles of model creation and reapplication. In cycle 1, we used theory-relevant features from 3 weeks of data to inform a prediction model that accurately identified struggling students and sustained its accuracy when reapplied in future semesters. In cycle 2, we refit a model with temporally contextualized features that achieved superior accuracy using data from just two class meetings. This modelling approach can produce durable learning analytics solutions that afford scaled and sustained prediction and intervention opportunities that involve explainable artificial intelligence products. Those same products that inform prediction can also guide intervention approaches and inform future instructional design and delivery.