ERIC Number: EJ1479018
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Jul
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1360-2357
EISSN: EISSN-1573-7608
Available Date: 2025-02-04
Identifying Factors Influencing Online Learning Outcomes for Middle-School Students -- A Re-Examination Based on XGBoost and SHAP
Sa Yang1; Sha Zhu2
Education and Information Technologies, v30 n11 p15071-15094 2025
Accurately identifying the factors that influence the online learning of middle-school students is crucial for improving its effectiveness. However, existing studies rarely focus on the factors influencing the learning outcomes of middle-school students, and traditional methods often struggle to identify the nonlinear relationships among those factors. This study aims to fill this gap, exploring the factors influencing online learning outcomes for middle-school students and their nonlinear impacts. Therefore, the study constructed a CIPP (Context, Input, Process, and Product) theoretical framework, and integrated the XGBoost (Extreme Gradient Boosting) and SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) methods to reveal the nonlinear impact of various factors on online learning outcomes and explore the interactive effects between these factors, based on the questionnaire responses of 142,514 middle-school students. The results indicate the following: (1) Affective engagement is a key factor influencing online learning outcomes. (2) The top four factors -- affective engagement, social engagement, self-regulation strategy, and teaching presence -- show a nonlinear trend from stable to improved online learning outcomes. Meanwhile, information literacy, the fifth key factor, displays a U-shaped nonlinear trend. (3) Both interactions involving affective engagement -- one with social engagement and the other with self-regulation strategy -- are beneficial for middle-school students' online learning. This study holds significant value as it has the potential to enhance educational practices, thereby improving student learning experiences and outcomes.
Descriptors: Middle School Students, Outcomes of Education, Electronic Learning, Online Courses, Learner Engagement, Self Management, Teacher Student Relationship, Information Literacy, Affective Behavior
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Central China Normal University, Faculty of Artificial Intelligence in Education, Wuhan, P.R. China; 2Central China Normal University, National Engineering Research Center for E-Learning, Wuhan, P.R. China