Eye tracking and studying examples: how novices and advanced learners study SQL examples

Type of content
Journal Article
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
University of Canterbury. Computer Science and Software Engineering
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2015
Authors
Shareghi Najar, A.
Mitrovic, Antonija
Neshatian, Kourosh
Abstract

Eye tracking provides information about a user’s eye gaze movements. For many years, eye tracking has been used in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) research. Similarly, research on computerised educational systems also relies heavily on students’ interactions with systems, and therefore eye tracking has been used to study and improve learning. We have recently conducted several studies on using worked examples in addition to scaffolded problem solving. The goal of the project reported in this paper was to investigate how novices and advanced students learn from examples. The study was performed in the context of SQL-Tutor, a mature Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) that teaches SQL. We propose a new technique to analyse eye-gaze patterns named EGPA. In order to comprehend an SQL example, students require the information about tables’ names and their attributes which are available in a database schema. Thus, if students paid attention to the database schema, they would understand SQL examples more easily. We analysed students’ eye movement data from different perspectives, and found that advanced students paid more attention to database schema than novices. In future work, we will use the findings from this study to provide proactive feedback or individualised amounts of information.

Description
Citation
Shareghi Najar, A., Mitrovic, A., Neshatian, K. (2015) Eye tracking and studying examples: how novices and advanced learners study SQL examples. Journal of Computing and Information Technology, 23(2), pp. 171-190.
Keywords
Worked examples, eye tracking, data mining, eye-gaze behaviour, SQL-Tutor
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Field of Research::08 - Information and Computing Sciences::0806 - Information Systems::080602 - Computer-Human Interaction
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