Longitudinal Learner Participation Profiling in Online Learning: Heterogeneous Consensus Clustering under Unequal Observation Windows
Learning management system traces are clustered to identify participation profiles, but unequal observation windows may cause profiles to reflect duration rather than participation alone. Using 16,448 complete learner--course sequences from 4,599 learners across 152 courses at a South African public university, we evaluated eight participation measures. All remained related to observation-window length even when expressed as rates or shares. Course-grouped adjustment reduced these relationships. Five retained measures were evaluated using K-means, Gaussian mixtures, Ward agglomerative clustering and K-medoids, with standardised measures and principal-component summaries. Evidence supporte...
| Authors | David Otoo-Arthur, Terence L. van Zyl |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.LG |
| Published | 12 October 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 12 October 2026 |
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