The impact of visualizations with learning paths on college students’ online self-regulated learning

The success of online learning relies on college students’ self-regulated learning. The common visualizations (e.g., presentation learning behaviors’ frequency and duration) are widely used to enhance online self-regulated learning. But most college students still have difficulty in accurately understanding their learning patterns and self-regulating. Online self-regulated learning follows a phased and cyclical process, and compared with the common visualizations, the learning paths can better show these characteristics. However, learning paths visualizations are seldom provided to students for supporting online self-regulated learning. This study aimed to explore the impact of visualizations with learning paths on students’ online self-regulated learning. Sixty-eight college students were randomly divided into two groups (experimental group = 34, control group = 34), and the experiment lasted 12 weeks. The study measured the results including students’ learning performance (academic achievements and online self-regulated learning abilities), behavior patterns and satisfaction. The results indicated the positive effects of visualizations with learning paths on students’ academic achievements and partial online self-regulated learning abilities (task strategies, time management, and self-evaluation). In addition, visualizations with learning paths optimized students’ online self-regulated learning process, making their learning patterns more regular and efficient. Besides, college students expressed high satisfaction with the visual learning paths. The findings suggest a new direction for optimizing visualizations and have implications for promoting the quality of online learning.