Counting clicks is not enough: Validating a theorized model of engagement in learning analytics

Student engagement is often considered an overarching construct in educational research and practice. Though frequently employed in the learning analytics literature, engagement has been subjected to a variety of interpretations and there is little consensus regarding the very definition of the construct. This raises grave concerns with regards to construct validity: namely, do these varied metrics measure the same thing? To address such concerns, this paper proposes, quantifies, and validates a model of engagement which is both grounded in the theoretical literature and described by common metrics drawn from the field of learning analytics. To identify a latent variable structure in our data we used exploratory factor analysis and validated the derived model on a separate sub-sample of our data using confirmatory factor analysis. To analyze the associations between our latent variables and student outcomes, a structural equation model was fitted, and the validity of this model across different course settings was assessed using MIMIC modeling. Across different domains, the broad consistency of our model with the theoretical literature suggest a mechanism that may be used to inform both interventions and course design.