Moodle interactions and academic performance: educational data mining in a Philippine university

Abstract

Poor academic performance remains among the most concerning educational issues, especially in higher education and online learning. To address the concern, institutions like the University of Southeastern Philippines (USeP) leverage educational data mining (EDM) techniques to generate relevant information from learning management systems (LMS) like Moodle, supporting the overall student learning experience. Moodle, considered the most widely used LMS platform, allows researchers and educators to access course logs to generate valuable insights. This EDM study at USeP explored the relationship between Moodle interactions and academic performance using data wrangling and correlation analysis. By examining various interactions from 16 courses collected with a sample size of 682, the study revealed weak correlations between students' Assignment, Create, and Forum actions and academic performance. While Assignment and Create actions show a weak positive association, Forum actions exhibit a weak negative correlation. The majority of Moodle interactions demonstrate a negligible relationship with academic performance. These findings aim to inform educators and administrators about optimizing the use of Moodle to foster a supportive digital learning environment at USeP. This study recommends further explorations, analyses, and other approaches to deepen understanding of the relationship between Moodle interactions and academic performance.