Riccardo Mazza, Marco Bettoni, Marco Faré and Luca Mazzola.

1. MOCLog
Monitoring Online Courses
with log data
Marco Bettoni & Luca Mazzola
1st Moodle Research Conference
15.9.2012, Heraklion, Crete
Convention Center Creta Maris

2. Outline
1. Introduction: What, Why, How, Who (Marco)
2. E-learning Model (Marco)
3. Concept Map & Solution Map (Marco)
4. Ten Use Cases (Marco)
5. Implementation of the tool (Luca)
6. Demonstration of the tool (Luca)
7. Conclusion (Luca)
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3. Introduction
WHAT
 Visualise (interpret) log data based on a didactical interpretation model
 Processes and outcomes of learning and teaching
WHY
 Monitoring learning is essential but logfiles are seldom used for that
 Monitoring user interaction traces in terms of learning
HOW
 Moodle plugin whose design implements a didactical model
WHO
 FOR: students, teachers, study program managers, administrators
 BY: four Swiss UAS = FFHS (lead), USI, FHNW and BFH 3

4. E-Learning Model by Reinmann, G. (2003)
- SUPSI.5: MOClog Reinmann-Rothmeier, G. (2003). Didaktische Innovation durch Blended Learning. Bern:
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Hans Huber

5. Concept map
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6. Solution map
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7. Ten Use Cases
1. Students’ Collaboration: for monitoring 6. Course Activity: for monitoring the level
how much the student collaborates with of usage of courses (administrators
other students only)
2. Teacher-Student Interaction: for 7. Tool Use: for monitoring which tools
monitoring the interactions between a are used more and which less
teacher and individual students. (administrators only)
3. Knowledge Testing: for monitoring the 8. Teacher Facilitation: for monitoring the
students’ use of their available level of activity of teachers in facilitating
knowledge in tests learning (study program managers
4. Information Access: for monitoring the only)
students’ access to resources (file, 9. Students’ Total Learning: for monitoring
HTML page, IMS package), over all the indicators the total level of
assignments and quizzes. activity of students in learning (study
5. Organization of Learning: for program managers only)
monitoring how students organizes 10. Course Learning: for monitoring the
their own learning process by planning, level of facilitation by teachers and the
preparing exams, etc. level of learning by students (study
program managers only).
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8. Implementation of the Tool
 Plugin for moodle 2.x (tested with 2.3.2): uses Moodle logs and
stores semi-aggregates information inside its tables.
 Some prebuilt configurations to evidence:
 Distribution (of resources)
 Participation (in activities)
 Interaction (between participant)
 For supporting the activity of study-program managers and admins.
 They can see and analyze:
 the course activities
 the tool activities
 teacher facilitation activities
 students’ total learning
 the level of facilitation and learning across the whole course
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9. Implementation of the Tool
 Exported logs lifetime management
// "Anoymize" MocLog Log File after $CFG->loglifetime days!
if (!empty($CFG->loglifetime)) {
$cutdate = date('Y-m-d', time() - ($CFG->loglifetime * 3600 * 24));
$DB->set_field_select('block_moclog_log', 'userid', 0, 'date < '' . $cutdate .
'' AND userid != 0');
mtrace("... anonymized old Moclog log records older than " .
$cutdate);
}
}
 Anonymaze the user, when the userid of the record is equal to 0
// Add 'anonymous' user 0 $users[0] = (object) array("lastname" =>
"anonymous", "firstname" => "", "id" => 0);
 No needs to delete record, even complying with strict privacy
regulations on the data collection and conservation.
// Include anonymized users in the result (having user id = 0) ...
$courseusers[0] = $users[0]; 9

10. Implementation of the Tool
 Contents differentiated for profiles
// Check if admin, in this case print out the fact that the data for learner is
hidden...
if (has_capability('block/moclog:administrate', $context)) { $selection .=
"<li>" . get_string("restricted_to_courses_to_admin", "block_moclog") .
"</li>"; }
 Allows to offer the analysis of the single learner activity when called
by the teacher of the course
// Check for user capabilities to display the expand button
if ($vis_users && (!has_capability('block/moclog:administrate',
$context))) {
$line["fullname"] = "<b>" . $course->fullname . " <span
id=expanderguy>+/-</span><b>";
} else {
$line["fullname"] = "<b>" . $course->fullname . "<b>";
}
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11. Implementation of the Tool
 Runs using the cron , with an incremental approach (max number
for each execution) ; not all the logs are relevant for this function
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12. „Demonstration“ of the Tool
Report Launch & Configurations
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13. „Demonstration“ of the Tool
Activity profiles
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14. „Demonstration“ of the Tool
Profile Settings
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15. „Demonstration“ of the Tool
Group Settings
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16. „Demonstration“ of the Tool
Filters Applied
Analitycal Results for
Course Activity
Semi-aggregated data considered 16

17. „Demonstration“ of the Tool
Visual Results for
Tool Activity
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18. Conclusions
 Moodle 2.X Plugin for undestanding online what is happening in:
 Courses
 Tools usage
 Groups activity
With the possibility to export information for further offline analisys
 Easy to use for teacher/category administator, almost real-time
 With a didactical approach
 Freely Available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/moclog/
Open Issues / Next Steps
 Computational power required for high-traffic instances (or for the
first alignment runs, in platform already established)
 Needs of developing the personalized didactical templates, if
required different didactical aggregations
 Making easier the confrontation between different datasets
(courses, tools usage within groups, type of activities adopted, ecc)18

19. Thanks for the Attention
Questions?
MocLog WebSite : http://moclog.ch/
Marco Bettoni Luca Mazzola
Research Management Unit eLab – eLearning laboratory
http://www.elearninglab.org/
FFHS - FernfachHochSchule Schweiz USI – Università della Svizzera italiana
http://www.ffhs.ch http://www.usi.ch
marco.bettoni@ffhs.ch luca.mazzola@usi.ch
mazzola.luca@gmail.com
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Thanks to SWITCH for financially supporting MOCLog