Author: Josep Figueroa Cañas
Programme: Doctoral Programme in Education and ICT (e-learning)
Language: Spanish
Supervisor: Dr Teresa Sancho Vinuesa
Faculty / Institute: eLearn Center
Subjects: Higher Education, Universities
Key words: e-learning, online mathematics, quizzes, dropout prediction, intervention, learning analytics

Area of knowledge: e-Learning

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Summary
This thesis adopts a learning analytics approach and focuses on two online mathematics courses at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC): Calculus and Statistics. Our findings suggest that final exam scores are related to taking quizzes, as well as to quiz scores. Specifically, we show that not taking or succeeding in the final exam can be predicted from students' scores on the first few quizzes of the academic year. A teaching intervention was designed and implemented to allow students to take any of the quizzes that they had not submitted before the original deadline. Analysing the effectiveness of this intervention, we have found that it improves students' chances of taking the final exam, and therefore reduces student drop-out in the Statistics course. This doctoral thesis has allowed us to conclude that, for online mathematics courses, being engaged throughout the course by taking quizzes with automatic correction and feedback helps students achieve their learning goals.