Coherence Over Time: Understanding Day-to-Day Changes in Students' Open-Ended Problem Solving Behaviors

James Segedy, John S. Kinnebrew, Gautam Biswas

Abstract: Understanding students’ self-regulated learning (SRL) behaviors in open-ended learning environments (OELEs) is an on-going area of research. Whereas OELEs facilitate use of SRL processes, measuring them reliably is difficult. In this paper, we employ coherence analysis, a recently-developed approach to analyzing students’ problem solving behaviors in OELEs, to study how student behaviors change over time as they use an OELE called Betty’s Brain. Results show interesting patterns in students’ day-to-day transitions, and these results can be used to better understand the individual student’s characteristics and the challenges they face when learning in OELEs.