This document summarizes an implementation of interactive learning objects for German language acquisition in primary schools based on learning analytics measurements. The project aimed to monitor students' learning processes, provide motivation and help through exercises, and help teachers create better exercises. Five types of spelling and vocabulary exercises were created, evaluated in a field test, and analyzed to understand students' performance and feedback. Future work will improve the exercises, add more types, and make the tools available on mobile devices.

1. SCIENCE
PASSION
TECHNOLOGY
Implementation of Interactive Learning Objects for
German Language Acquisition in Primary School
based on Learning Analytics Measurements
Markus Ebner, Marko Burazer and Martin Ebner
EdMedia + Innovate Learning 2020, Online;
June 23-26, 2020

2. Outline
• Introduction to IDeRBlog
• Background
• Goals of the project
• Implementation of Learning Objects (Exercises)
• Presentation of the Exercises
• Evaluation and Data Analysis
• Summary
• Future Work
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3. IDeRBlog ii - Individually differentiated spelling with blogs
• Erasmus+ Project
• Partners in
• Belgium
• Germany
• Austria
• Combine development of writing skills and
the acquisition of orthographic competences
• Primarily for children, age 8 to 12
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4. Ideas and main points
• User friendly web-based platform
• Writing a text and get automatic feedback for autonomous correction
• German orthography is known to be difficult to master.
• Help pupils who struggle with the acquisition of German orthography
• Help them improve writing and spelling
• Provide qualitative analysis of orthographic
problems for teachers
• Provide exercises for training
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5. IDeRBlog ii
•Children write their own blogs
•Checked by teachers and an
intelligent dictionary
•Online and offline exercises on our
website http://iderblog.eu
•Many exercises
• Monitoring learning process not possible
• Exercises are on different servers
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6. Goals of IDeRBlog ii
•Monitor learning process
• Help and motivate children
•Find out what can be learned from user data
•How do children react and like the exercises (evaluation)
•Help teachers to create more (better) exercises
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7. Exercise Types
German (English)
1. Einsetzen (Insert)
2. Fehlerstellen (Fault Locations)
3. Merkwörter (Cue Words)
4. Zuordnen (Assign)
5. Glücksrad (Wheel of Fortune)
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8. Exercise 1 - Einsetzen (Insert)
• Typical cloze text exercise
• Gaps have to be filled with correct words or letters
• several sentences
• Tooltips are available for students
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9. Exercise 2 - Fehlerstellen (Fault Locations)
• Locate fault locations
• One or more errors in each sentence
• Errors can be found by clicking on a word
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10. Exercise 2 - Fehlerstellen (Fault Locations)
• If correct the student has to justify the decision.
• This verifys if the student completed the exercise based on own knowledge
or by cheating
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11. Exercise 3 - Merkwörter (Cue Words)
• focus are the user-specific spelling errors
• Singe words only
• Take closer look and think about possible problems that could arise
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12. Exercise 3 - Merkwörter (Cue Words)
• Click on those problems
• Exercise helps students & teachers to know the weaknesses of their
students better
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13. Exercise 4 – Zuordnen (Assign) – Drag & Drop
• A word is presented to the students
• Students need to assign the word to the certain categories
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14. Exercise 4 – Zuordnen (Assign) – Drag & Drop
• Solutions are displayed
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15. Exercise 4 – Zuordnen (Assign) - Write
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16. Exercise 5 - Glücksrad (Wheel of Fortune)
• Similar to cue words exercise – but word is not shown
• Only listen to the word and then write it in the field
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17. Exercise 5 - Glücksrad (Wheel of Fortune)
• In case of a mistake the solution will be displayed
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18. Evaluation and DataAnalysis
• Field Test in elementary school
• 3rd grade school class
• 21 children (11 girls, 10 boys)
• Anonymous
• Duration 1.5h
• Afterwards
• Questionnaire with 4 statements to be rated by the kids for each
exercise
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19. Questionaire
1. I knew what the task was
2. I could solve the task myself
3. It was fun to practice
4. I also want to do the exercise at home
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20. Evaluation and DataAnalysis
Statement 1:
• I knew what the
task was
Statement 2:
• I could solve
the task myself
Statement 3:
• It was fun to
practice
Statement 4:
• I also want to
do the exercise
at home
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21. DataAnalysis
• Insert
• Most mistakes because of inaccurate description and typing
errors
• Using past tense instead of present tense
• Some kids knew how to write the word, but added a white
space character
• fault locations
• Some kids didn‘t take this exercise serious
(clicking on every word until error was found)
• Word „Blüte“ (blossom) clicked 21 times in total
(20 times by the same user)
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22. DataAnalysis
• Cue words (easy)
• Although not clear in beginning what to do, only a few typical
typing errors
• Cue words (hard)
• Many mistakes, lots of empty input fields
• Average error rate: 71.5%
• Not a single session was error free
• Assign (Drag & Drop)
• Average error rate: 21.1%
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23. Summary
• Despite little time well received by children
• Descriptions for every exercise is essential for success
• Immediate and visual feedback important
• Fault locations: Kids thought exercise is finished
• Young children are rather slow at typing
• Should be considered when analysing data
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24. Future Work
• Improve current exercise prototypes (Usability)
• More different exercises
• API provides access to data
• Making exercises available on mobile devices
• Tablets
• Smartphones
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25. Thank you!
For further information about the project
and partners please visit: http://iderblog.eu
Acknowledgements
The IDeRBlog-project and the IDeRBlog-ii project are funded by the European
Commission in the framework of Erasmus+ (IDeRBlog: VG-SPS-SL-14-001616-
3, 2014-2017; IDeRBlog-ii: VG-IN-SL-18-36-047317, 2018-2021).
Project-team of IDeRBlog-ii: Germany: LPM Saarland (M. Gros = coordinator, N.
Steinhauer); Gebundene Ganztagsschule Dellengarten (S. Pfeifer, J. Gregori);
Austria: PH Steiermark (K. Edtstadler, E. Herunter); TU Graz (M. Ebner, M.
Ebner); Belgium: Gemeindeschule Raeren (A. Huppertz, V. Kistemann);
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