July 30th, 2020

Fourth-year doctoral student Dandan Yang (right) is first author of a new article in Assessment for Effective Intervention on the use of stealth assessment in a digital reading platform. The title of the article is “Using Interactive E-Book User Log Variables to Track Reading Processes and Predict Digital Learning Outcomes.”

Co-authors are fifth-year doctoral student Elham Zargar, Postdoctoral Scholar Ashley Marie Adams, Project Scientist Stephanie Day, and Chancellor’s Professor Carol M. McDonald.
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For her doctoral work, Yang is specializing in Teaching, Learning, and Educational Improvement. Her research interests include child development, literacy, bilingual education, English language acquisition, and technology in education. She is advised by Professor Mark Warschauer and Associate Professor Penelope Collins.

Zargar’s research foci include enhancing and individualizing education, classroom instruction and technology, science of learning, and cognitive science principles. She is specializing in Learning, Teaching, Cognition, and Development and is advised by Associate Professor Susanne Jaeggi.

Adams, a licensed bilingual speech-language pathologist, is project manager for the Early Learning Research Network assessment team and a postdoctoral scholar in the Individualizing Student Instruction (iSi) lab. Her research focuses on developing and implementing literacy interventions for Spanish-English dual language learners.

Day’s research centers on the complex relations between children’s learning difficulties, the classroom environment, and achievement. She is a project director in the Individualizing Student Instruction (iSi) laboratory

Abstract
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Stealth assessment has been successfully embedded in educational games to measure students’ learning in an unobtrusive and supportive way. This study explored the possibility of applying stealth assessment in a digital reading platform and sought to identify potential in-system indicators of students’ digital learning outcomes. Utilizing the user log data from third- to fifth-grade students ( n = 573) who read an interactive Word Knowledge E-Book, we examined various user log variables and their associations with word knowledge and strategic reading outcomes. Descriptive analysis provided a depiction of the real-time reading processes and behaviors in which students engaged while digitally reading. Multiple regression analysis with classroom fixed effects demonstrated that user log variables relevant to answering questions and making decisions (i.e., percentage of embedded questions answered correctly; number of attempts to answer the questions; and making implausible decisions) were significantly associated with students’ word knowledge and strategic reading outcomes. Variables indicating reading time and frequency, however, were not significantly associated with these outcomes. This study highlights the potential of interactive e-books as another digital learning environment to establish stealth assessment, which may allow researchers and educators to track students’ reading processes and predict reading outcomes while supporting digital learning.