Student Behavior and Interaction Patterns With an LMS as Motivation Predictors in E-Learning Settings

Student motivation is an important factor for the successful completion of an e-learning course. Detecting motivational problems for particular students at an early stage of a course opens the door for instructors to be able to provide additional motivating activities for these students. This paper analyzes how the behavior patterns in the interaction of each particular student with the contents and services in a learning management system (LMS) can be used to predict student motivation and if this student motivation can be used to predict the successful completion of an e-learning course. The interactions of 180 students of six different universities taking a course in three consecutive years are analyzed.