With the growth of the online higher education sector, educational institutions are increasingly creating asynchronous online courses resembling Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), characterised by reduced interpersonal interactions. While these courses offer higher flexibility for students, much remains unknown about how the design of these courses impacts student behaviour and performance. This study combines learning analytics and learning design (via Open University Learning Design Initiative (OULDI) taxonomy) to examine effective online course design elements in a 100 % online environment. Effectiveness is evaluated based on the impact of design elements on student engagement and performance. Student engagement patterns throughout the degree are also explored. Results show that while assimilative activities are those most frequently undertaken by students, they rank as fourth in impact on performance. Experiential, interactive/adaptive, and productive activities, though more impactful, are less common and constitute only a fraction of online course design activities. Students were also more likely to engage with videos as opposed to readings, indicating a preference for this type of content in the online learning environment. Furthermore, an inverse correlation was found between students attempting a range of activities, and the need to communicate with staff (i.e., asking for clarification/guidance). Results also identified six types of student engagement patterns, revealing a transition over time towards an assessment focus, where students self-optimise and prioritise assessment completion (over other content/activities). In an online environment, where introducing sequential/scaffolding activities may prove difficult, findings indicate that activities should be clearly linked to assessments to cater for student engagement patterns.

中文翻译：

---

自适应在线课程设计：分析整个学位生命周期中学生行为的变化


随着在线高等教育领域的发展，教育机构越来越多地创建类似于大规模开放在线课程 （MOOC） 的异步在线课程，其特点是减少了人际互动。虽然这些课程为学生提供了更高的灵活性，但关于这些课程的设计如何影响学生的行为和表现，仍有许多未知数。本研究结合了学习分析和学习设计（通过开放大学学习设计倡议 （OULDI） 分类法），以检查 100% 在线环境中有效的在线课程设计元素。有效性是根据设计元素对学生参与度和表现的影响来评估的。还探讨了整个学位的学生参与模式。结果表明，虽然同化活动是学生最常进行的活动，但它们对表现的影响排名第四。体验式、互动/适应性和生产性活动虽然更具影响力，但不太常见，仅占在线课程设计活动的一小部分。与阅读相比，学生也更有可能参与视频，这表明在线学习环境中更喜欢此类内容。此外，发现学生尝试一系列活动与需要与工作人员沟通（即要求澄清/指导）之间存在负相关。结果还确定了六种类型的学生参与模式，揭示了随着时间的推移向评估重点的过渡，即学生自我优化并优先考虑评估完成（而不是其他内容/活动）。 在在线环境中，引入顺序/脚手架活动可能很困难，研究结果表明，活动应与评估明确关联，以适应学生的参与模式。