Uncovering Students’ Temporal Quiz-Taking Behavior Patterns Using Sequence Analysis

This chapter aims to identify temporal quiz-taking behavior patterns of students in a distance course. To this end, students’ interaction logs with the quiz activities were analyzed. Additionally, students exhibiting different behavioral patterns were compared regarding their academic achievements. The quiz-taking behaviors of students were examined in terms of their first-attempt scores, last-attempt scores, and whether they reviewed the quiz. During the data analysis, the behaviors of 59 students regarding 9 quizzes were initially transformed into behavioral sequences, and the degree of similarity among these sequences was calculated. Subsequently, using the agglomerative hierarchical clustering method, students were grouped into clusters based on the similarity of their quiz-taking behavior patterns. As a result of the analysis, students were grouped into four distinct clusters. Finally, obtained clusters were named while considering the quiz-taking behaviors and academic achievements of the students within the clusters. The obtained clusters were named as follows: At-Risk Learners, Surface Learners, Deep Learners, and Strategic Learners. It is expected that the findings obtained will contribute to the literature in understanding the dynamics of students’ quiz-taking behavior patterns. Furthermore, the results were discussed regarding how learning design, assessment design, and course content influence students’ quiz-taking behaviors.