Visual Attention in Open Learner Model Presentations: An Eye-Tracking Investigation

Using an eye-tracker, this paper investigates the information that learners visually attend to in their open learner model, and the degree to which this is related to the method of displaying the model to the learner. Participants were fourteen final year undergraduate students using six views of their learner model data. Results suggest some views of the learner model information may be more likely to encourage learners to inspect information about their level of knowledge, whereas in other views attention is directed more towards scanning the view, resulting in a lower proportion of time focussed on knowledge-related data. In some views there was a difference according to whether the learner model view was one of the participants' preferred formats for accessing their learner model information, while in other views there was little difference. This has implications for the design of open learner model views in systems opening the learner model to the learner for different purposes.