Heterogenous Network Analytics of Small Group Teamwork: Using Multimodal Data to Uncover Individual Behavioral Engagement Strategies

Individual behavioral engagement is an important indicator of active learning in collaborative settings, encompassing multidimensional behaviors mediated through various interaction modes. Little existing work has explored the use of multimodal process data to understand individual behavioral engagement in face-to-face collaborative learning settings. In this study we bridge this gap, for the first time, introducing a heterogeneous tripartite network approach to analyze the interconnections among multimodal process data in collaborative learning. Students' behavioral engagement strategies are analyzed based on their interaction patterns with various spatial locations and verbal communication types using a heterogeneous tripartite network. The multimodal collaborative learning process data were collected from 15 teams of four students. We conducted stochastic blockmodeling on a projection of the heterogeneous tripartite network to cluster students into groups that shared similar spatial and oral engagement patterns. We found two distinct clusters of students, whose characteristic behavioural engagement strategies were identified by extracting interaction patterns that were statistically significant relative to a multinomial null model. The two identified clusters also exhibited a statistically significant difference regarding students' perceived collaboration satisfaction and teacher-assessed team performance level. This study advances collaboration analytics methodology and provides new insights into personalized support in collaborative learning.