Using learning analytics to analyze writing skills of students: A case study in a technological common core curriculum course

Pedagogy with learning analytics is shown to facilitate the teaching-learning process through analyzing student's behaviours. In this paper, we explored the possibility of using learning analytics tools Coh-Metrix and Lightside for analyzing and improving writing skills of students in a technological common core curriculum course. In this study, we i) investigated linguistic characteristics of student's essays, and ii) applied a machine learning algorithm for giving instant sketch feedback to students. Results illustrated the necessity of improving student's writing skills in their university learning through elearning technologies, so that students can effectively circulate their ideas to the public in the future.