Experience, whether personal or vicarious, plays an influential role in shaping human knowledge. Through these experiences, one develops an understanding of the world, which leads to learning. The process of gaining knowledge in higher education transcends beyond the passive transmission of knowledge from an expert to a novice. Instead, students…

While utilizing assessment data has been a pervasive practice in educational reform for decades, and teachers are expected to use assessment data to improve instruction, little is known about how the practice of requiring teachers to review test data affects their perception of effectiveness in addressing the learning gaps of student groups. This…

Clustering, a prevalent class of machine learning (ML) algorithms used in data mining and pattern-finding--has increasingly helped engineering education researchers and educators see and understand assessment patterns at scale. However, a challenge remains to make ML-enabled educational inferences that are useful and reliable for research or…

A major problem faced by instructors post-implementation of unsupervised online assessments is that they may lack real-time access to the students' actual learning behaviors. Limitations in student-feedback, limited know-how of accessing and analyzing log data, and large class sizes could restrict instructors' access to learners' behaviors. This…

The present work reviewed the literature associated with the low levels of student achievement in literacy among early grade students in Brazil, the problem of practice. Under an ecological systems theory perspective, I identified that the usage of assessments, phonological awareness instruction, and quality learning materials could be key factors…

This dissertation presents various machine learning applications for predicting different cognitive states of students while they are using a vocabulary tutoring system, DSCoVAR. We conduct four studies, each of which includes a comprehensive analysis of behavioral and linguistic data and provides data-driven evidence for designing personalized…

A lack of fundamental information literacy skills for college students can be a barrier to academic success. This study sought to investigate how the availability of asynchronous and mobile-friendly learning modules in Canvas impacts students' information literacy learning and to improve students' information literacy skills at a community college…