Students' walk through tutoring: Using a random walk analysis to profile students

The purpose of this study was to investigate students ’ patterns of interactions within a game-based intelligent tutoring system (ITS), and how those interactions varied as a function of individual differences. The analysis presented in this paper comprises a subset (n=40) of a larger study that included 124 high school students. Participants in the current study completed 11 sessions within iSTART-ME, a game-based ITS, that provides training in reading comprehension strategies. A random walk analysis was used to visualize students ’ trajectories within the system. The analyses revealed that low ability students ’ patterns of interactions were anchored by one feature category whereas high ability students demonstrated interactions across multiple categories. The results from the current paper indicate that random walk analysis is a promising visualization tool for learning scientists interested in capturing students ’ interactions within ITSs and other computer-based learning environments over time