Using data from every mouse click a student makes doing online
course work, researchers from three University of Wisconsin
institutions hope to identify students at risk of doing poorly
and potentially dropping out of school. The goal of the project
by the University of Wisconsin Colleges, UW-Madison and UW-
Platteville is to help more students succeed. The project is
funded by a three-year grant worth about $650,000. The grant
comes from the UW System, which spends about $2 million annually
on grants aimed at improving retention and graduation rates,
according to Mark Nook, the system's senior vice president for
academic and student affairs. Using principles similar to those
that Amazon.com uses for book recommendations, a computer
program will track students' activity during online course work,
looking at things such as how long a person is logged on, how
much time is spent on particular problems and whether discussion
boards are being used, said Aaron Brower, UW-Madison vice
provost for teaching and learnin