Project Lighthouse trace analysisearly results

Alan Dix18/3/2016

Talis and University of Birmingham

http://alandix.com/academic/papers/LS2016/

2014/15 essential reading 55 students

two phases teaching period revision period

2015/2016 supplementary reading 3 students !

one document …

2015 run of course

Trace 1 – triage only

~ 50 secs

page 14 only half-way throughdocument

Trace 2 – skim read and top-and-tail

~ 5 mins

4 minute gap

brief return to text

top-and-tailreads from start,

appears to get bored,reads backwards

from end

Trace 3 – start at end

starts at endbut student isnot returningfirst view of

document – odd

~ 10 mins

page withnice diagrams

firstexamples

2014 run – revision

revisionperiod

Trace 4 – full skim

assume browserwindow left open

~ 2 mins

reads rightto end, but toofast for proper

reading

Trace 5 – skim and pause

stops half-waythrough document

~ 4 mins

Trace 6 – top-and-tail

~ 45 secs

Trace 7 – skim + pause

~ 7 mins

two and half mins on this page includingshort recap

pause onpages withdiagrams, but skip

the maths!

2014 run - teaching

teachingperiod

Trace 8

~ 25 mins

~ 3 mins recap plus skim to end

~ 10 mins initial read to page 20

~ 10 mins on page 20 browser openbut not reading?

Trace 9

~ 3 ½ mins

skim to page 21

1 min skim to page 14

50 secs on pages 14&15

25 secs on

page 21

skim to end

Trace 10

~ 30 mins

another skim forward then gives up

20 mins on first three pages working hard, but finding it tough

quick peek forward and skip

spends 8/9 mins on pages 8 to 12 (state diagrams)

Trace 11 – repeated skims

7 hours

each consists of two 1 or 2 min skims30 mins apart

two 30 min sessions about 7 hours apart

~ 30 mins

~ 30 mins

growing understanding

… and very messy

lots of work still to do!