How often students check their grades online is the
best way to predict how well they will do in a class, according to a report
from Blackboard. The educational technology firm found that students who accessed
its gradebook function were the most successful in a class, while those who
never accessed their grades were more likely to fail.
“This surprised me, given that other tools (like assessments)
directly and tangibly influence a student’s grade,” John Whitmer, director of
analytics and research at Blackboard, wrote in a blog post about the study. “This is an independent behavioral measure and yet is a very
strong predictor.”
The data came from spring 2016 courses that were filtered
by size of class, average course time, and use of the online gradebook. The
filtered results provided information on more than 600,000 students.
The research found that students spent most of their
time on the learning management system to look at content. Surprisingly, those who
spent more than the average amount of time on course content earned lower
grades.
“Students
who have mastered course materials can quickly answer questions; those who
ponder over questions are more likely to be students who are struggling with
the material,” Whitmer wrote. “The relationship is stronger in assessment than
assignments because assessments measure all time spent in the assessment,
whereas assignments don’t measure the offline time spent creating the material.
Regardless, this trend of average time spent as the most frequent behavior of successful
students is consistent across both tools, and is a markedly different
relationship than is found in other tools.”