Towards A Student-Facing Dashboard to Support Learning of Inquiry Competencies in Interactive Simulations

Inquiry-based learning with interactive simulations is widely used in STEM education, yet its open-ended nature presents challenges for learners. To support students in reflecting on their inquiry processes, Learning Analytics Dashboards (LADs) offer a promising solution. While learning analytics has been used to analyze inquiry patterns, no prior studies, to our knowledge, have developed learner-friendly dashboards to help middle school students visualize their inquiry processes. Addressing this gap, this study presents the design of two mockups for dashboard aimed at supporting inquiry in interactive simulations. Using a participatory design approach, study 1 involved collaboration between middle school students (n = 18), teachers (n = 5), and a designer to co-design inquiry dashboards, investigating students’ preferences for visual design elements that effectively represent inquiry process. This resulted in two mockups: the Island Design, which integrates a story-like metaphor for engagement, and the Venn Diagram Design, which prioritizes simplicity. Study 2 evaluated interpretation of the designs with 119 students. Results showed that while the Island Design strongly conveyed most inquiry competencies, students preferred the Venn Diagram for its simplicity, highlighting the need to balance engagement with clarity. We present key design preferences and how these are applied in the designs, as well as trade-offs between design elements. This paper marks a step toward developing inquiry dashboards to support inquiry learning in simulations.