Analyzing the effects of instructional strategies on students’ on-task status from aspects of their learning behaviors and cognitive factors

This study aims to track college students’ on-task rate during the teaching process and to analyze the influence of instructional strategies on on-task rate through the aspects of observable and internal engagement indicators. Thirty-six undergraduate students at a higher education institution in China participated in the study. Students’ behaviors and their EEG signals were recorded from fifty-one learning activities. Analyses have been focused on identifying the determinants of student’s engagement levels and revealing the impacts of behavioral sequences and cognitive sequences on student’s engagement levels. The results show that (1) instructional strategies, classroom behaviors, and cognitive states were significant predictors of students’ on-task rate; (2) the continuity of classroom behaviors improved the on-task rate; and (3) the standard deviations of attention and cognitive load were positively correlated with the on-task rate. This study describes a case of integrating multimodal data analysis in classroom teaching and discusses practical implications for improving classroom teaching.