TrackThinkDashboard: Understanding Student Self-Regulated Learning in Programming Study

Ko Watanabe, Yuki Matsuda, Yugo Nakamura, Yutaka Arakawa, Shoya Ishimaru: “TrackThinkDashboard: Understanding Student Self-Regulated Learning in Programming Study,” International Journal of Activity and Behavior Computing, Vol.2025, No.1, pp.1-17, 2025.

Abstract

In programming education, fostering self-regulated learning (SRL) skills is essential for both students and teachers. This paper introduces Track-ThinkDashboard, an application designed to visualize the learning workflow by combining web browsing and programming logs in one unified view. The system aims to (1) help students monitor and reflect on their problem-solving processes, identify knowledge gaps, and cultivate effective SRL strategies, and (2) enable teachers to identify at-risk learners more effectively and provide targeted, data-driven guidance. We conducted a study with 33 participants (32 male, one female) from Japanese universities—some with prior programming instruction and some without—to explore differences in web browsing and coding patterns. The dashboards revealed multiple learning approaches (e.g., try-and-error, try-and-search, and more) and highlighted how domain knowledge influenced overall activity flow. We discuss how this visualization can be used continuously or in one-off experiments, the privacy considerations involved, and opportunities for expanding data sources for richer behavioral insights.

Links

DOI: https://doi.org/10.60401/ijabc.48

PDF: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ijabc/2025/1/2025_48/_pdf/-char/en

BibTeX

code:references.bib

@article{bib:ko_trackthink_ijabc2025,

author={Watanabe, Ko and Matsuda, Yuki and Nakamura, Yugo and Arakawa, Yutaka and Ishimaru, Shoya},

title={TrackThinkDashboard: Understanding Student Self-Regulated Learning in Programming Study},

journal={International Journal of Activity and Behavior Computing},

volume={2025},

number={1},

year={2025},

pages={1--17},

url={https://doi.org/10.60401/ijabc.48},

doi={10.60401/ijabc.48}

}

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