Detection of dynamic changes of electrodermal activity to predict the classroom performance of college students

It is emphasized in the Self-regulated learning (SRL) framework that self-monitoring of learning state is vital for students to keep effective in studying. However, it’s still challenging to get an accurate and timely understanding of their learning states during classes. In this study, we propose to use electrodermal activity (EDA) signals which are deemed to be associated with physiological arousal state to predict the college student’s classroom performance. Twenty college students were recruited to attend eight lectures in the classroom, during which their EDA signals were recorded simultaneously. For each lecture, the students should complete pre- and after-class tests, and a self-reported scale (SRS) on their learning experience. EDA indices were extracted from both time and frequency domains, and they were furtherly mapped to the student’s learning efficiency. As a result, the indices relevant to the dynamic changes of EDA had significant positive correlations with the learning efficiency. Furthermore, compared with only using SRS, a combination with EDA indices had significantly higher accuracy in predicting the learning efficiency. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that the EDA dynamics are sensitive to the changes in learning efficiency, suggesting a promising approach to predicting the classroom performance of college students.