The Impact of Ramadan on Online Learners Behaviour: What Can We Learn from Tracking Learners’ Data?

The flexibility of online courses means that people are able to fit them around other commitments, often studying during holiday times. However, there is limited research examining the behaviour of online learners during holidays and special events. It is important to understand this in order to know when learners will be active and therefore when they might be contactable or require online support. We conducted this study to examine the changes in behaviour of online learners during Ramadan, a period when Muslims are required to fast between sunrise and sunset. This change in mealtimes affects Muslims’ wake-sleep cycles and work patterns as well as all other aspects of their lives. The results can be used to infer an understanding of their lifestyle during this period.

The insights that this provides are important in the context of online learning but also many other application domains where users’ availability and openness to interaction are important.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Wad Ghaban

Robert Hendley

Rowanne Fleck

Conference

Publication date: July 2021

Publication date (Print): July 2021

Pages: 289-293

Affiliations

[0001]School of computer science

University of Birmingham

B15 2TT

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2021.31

SO-VID: 4621c3fa-6ece-4f50-9e7f-734af8f5f00d

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: 34th British HCI Conference

Conference acronym: HCI2021

Conference number: 34

Conference location: London, UK

Conference date: 20th - 21st July 2021

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Post-pandemic HCI – Living Digitally

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2021.31

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

A. I. Al-Ghadir and A. M. Azmi (2019), ‘A study of arabic social media users—posting behavior and author’s gender prediction’, Cognitive Computation 11(1), 71–86.
M. Ally (2004), ‘Foundations of educational theory for online learning’, Theory and practice of online learning 2, 15–44.
A. Bahammam (2006), ‘Does ramadan fasting affect sleep?’, International journal of clinical practice 60(12), 1631–1637.
D. Harrison, P. Marshall, N. Bianchi-Berthouze and J. Bird (2015), Activity tracking: barriers, workarounds and customisation, in ‘Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing’, ACM, pp. 617–621.
J. Ramadan (2002), ‘Does fasting during ramadan alter body composition, blood constituents and physical performance?’, Medical Principles and Practice 11(2), 41–46.
T. Reilly and J. Waterhouse (2007), ‘Altered sleep–wake cycles and food intake: The ramadan model’, Physiology & behavior 90(2-3), 219–228.
R. Roky, F. Chapotot, F. Hakkou, M. T. Benchekroun and A. Buguet (2001), ‘Sleep during ramadan intermit- tent fasting’, Journal of sleep research 10(4), 319–327.
B. E. Shelton, J.-L. Hung and P. R. Lowenthal (2017), ‘Predicting student success by modeling student interaction in asynchronous online courses’, Distance Education 38(1), 59–69.
J. Shinwell and M. A. Defeyter (2017), ‘investigation of summer learning loss in the uk-implications for holiday club provision’, Frontiers in public health 5, 270.
N. Vlajic, M. El Masri, G. M. Riva, M. Barry and D. Doran (2018), Online tracking of kids and teens by means of invisible images: Coppa vs. gdpr, in ‘Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Multimedia Privacy and Security’, ACM, pp. 96–103.
D. Wilson, B. Drust and T. Reilly (2009), ‘Is diurnal lifestyle altered during ramadan in professional muslim athletes?’, Biological Rhythm Research 40(5), 385–397.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] A. I. Al-Ghadir and A. M. Azmi (2019), ‘A study of arabic social media users—posting behavior and author’s gender prediction’, Cognitive Computation 11(1), 71–86.

[2] M. Ally (2004), ‘Foundations of educational theory for online learning’, Theory and practice of online learning 2, 15–44.

[3] A. Bahammam (2006), ‘Does ramadan fasting affect sleep?’, International journal of clinical practice 60(12), 1631–1637.

[4] D. Harrison, P. Marshall, N. Bianchi-Berthouze and J. Bird (2015), Activity tracking: barriers, workarounds and customisation, in ‘Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing’, ACM, pp. 617–621.

[5] J. Ramadan (2002), ‘Does fasting during ramadan alter body composition, blood constituents and physical performance?’, Medical Principles and Practice 11(2), 41–46.

[6] T. Reilly and J. Waterhouse (2007), ‘Altered sleep–wake cycles and food intake: The ramadan model’, Physiology & behavior 90(2-3), 219–228.

[7] R. Roky, F. Chapotot, F. Hakkou, M. T. Benchekroun and A. Buguet (2001), ‘Sleep during ramadan intermit- tent fasting’, Journal of sleep research 10(4), 319–327.

[8] B. E. Shelton, J.-L. Hung and P. R. Lowenthal (2017), ‘Predicting student success by modeling student interaction in asynchronous online courses’, Distance Education 38(1), 59–69.

[9] J. Shinwell and M. A. Defeyter (2017), ‘investigation of summer learning loss in the uk-implications for holiday club provision’, Frontiers in public health 5, 270.

[10] N. Vlajic, M. El Masri, G. M. Riva, M. Barry and D. Doran (2018), Online tracking of kids and teens by means of invisible images: Coppa vs. gdpr, in ‘Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Multimedia Privacy and Security’, ACM, pp. 96–103.

[11] D. Wilson, B. Drust and T. Reilly (2009), ‘Is diurnal lifestyle altered during ramadan in professional muslim athletes?’, Biological Rhythm Research 40(5), 385–397.

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