A recomendação pedagógica em tempo real baseada na atenção dos estudantes utilizando computação afetiva

Abstract

Mobile devices are actually used more and more by the population. Young people have used this kind of devices at any time, especially for the purpose of exchanging messages and this has adversely affected their concentration in the classroom. On the one hand, methods that restrict the use of such devices in the classroom can be used to reduce the level of distraction, but these methods cause problems that may affect students who use the devices for study purposes. On the other hand, it is possible to use alternative methods that involve the use of filter applications to the education of society about the negative effects that distraction can cause. The restrictive methods should be applied with caution since their effectiveness is variable and difficult to measure. Classroom distraction using mobile devices becomes a problem in which classroom education deals lately. In view of this, this work aims to present an alternative approach to solving the problem of distraction in the classroom by means of a recommendation process. This process is based on the use of pedagogical recommendations based on the engagement level of student, detected through computational systems. For that, theories and techniques of affective computing, for the detection of the engagement, and mobile devices, were used to send the recommendations. We consider students’ lack of engagement, characterized by lack of attention in class, as the main focus of the research problem. The proposal of this work was tested in the classroom, through a controlled experiment where pedagogical recommendations were sent to students’ cell phones, after measuring students’ level of attention. These recommendations were meant to get the student to turn his attention to class, fighting distraction. This experiment was carried out in a real scenario where, in fact, the problem in question was present during the lesson. Three higher education groups from the Universidade Federal de Alagoas (UFAL) participated in the experiment, covering three existing areas: Exact Sciences (Mathematics), Biological Sciences (Nursing) and Human Sciences (Administration). In total, 38 students participated in the experiment. Through the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data, we conclude that the use of pedagogical recommendation based on the affective states of the students sent throughmobile devices to combat the distraction caused by the same is not a good alternative solution to the problem, since it is generated in the students the anxiety to check the recommendations sent, and continue to distract. Finally, we raise other questions and hypotheses for future work.