Adolescent and Adult Student Attitudes Towards Progress Visualizations

Keeping students motivated for the duration of a course is easier said than done. Contextualizing student efforts with learning progress visualizations can help maintain engagement. However, progress can be visualized in many different ways. So far very little research has been done into which types of visualizations are most effective, and how different contexts affect the effectiveness of visualizations. We compare the effects of two different progress visualizations in an introductory programming course. Preliminary results show that older students prefer a visualization that emphasizes long-term progress, whereas younger students prefer a visualization that highlights progress within a single week. Additionally, students perform better and are more motivated when their visualization matches their age group’s preferred visualization. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.