The Evolution of the Learning Leaderboard

OJS
R
Author

Venkata Nekkanti

Modified

June 7, 2025

From Concept to Reality

This project began with an insightful idea sparked by Professor Biagio Palese to create a fun, interactive, and competitive way for students to track their performance. The goal was to foster engagement in the class and make learning more dynamic. After several brainstorming sessions, we envisioned a basic version of the leaderboard to get things started.

The Initial Version

In the early stages, I developed a basic dashboard that tracked student scores but lacked the more advanced features we have today. It was simple, but it laid the foundation for what was to come.

A short video showcasing the early dashboard version:

The Evolution to Today’s Advanced Dashboard

After refining our concept and receiving feedback and insights from my professor, I transitioned to an advanced version of the dashboard. This version incorporates dynamic rankings, real-time updates, and gamification elements such as using companies and NFL teams as “students” to make it more engaging and competitive.

The transition from the basic version to the current version includes: - Real-time updates to reflect weekly performance changes. - Enhanced visualizations to track student progress and performance trends. - Gamification with teams and companies, making the leaderboard more interactive and fun.

A short video showcasing the latest dashboard version:

Key Features

  • Real-Time Weekly Updates: The dashboard updates every week to reflect students’ latest performance data.
  • Dynamic Ranking System: Students’ ranks fluctuate based on their performance in multiple scoring categories. This dynamic ranking system allows students to see where they stand relative to others.
  • Performance Tracking: The performance trend for each student is shown over time, with visualizations depicting how their scores have changed throughout the course.
  • Category-Based Scoring: The leaderboard tracks multiple categories, providing a detailed view of how students are performing in each.
  • Visualized Metrics: The dashboard includes:
    • Overall Learning Score: Displays the total score accumulated by each student.
    • Performance Percentage: Shows how each student is performing as a percentage against the maximum score.
    • Performance Trend: A trendline that shows the student’s performance growth or decline over time.

Dashboard Interaction

The dashboard is highly interactive, offering real-time ranking updates and detailed trend analysis. Students can easily track their performance, identify areas for improvement, and stay motivated to move up the leaderboard.

You can view the full, live leaderboard dashboards and explore the rankings and performance trends here:

About the Project

This project was developed using R for data processing, OJS for interactivity and Quarto for rendering the interactive dashboard. It integrates weekly updates and utilizes efficient visualization techniques to ensure that students can access actionable insights at any time.

To make it more fun and competitive, we have chosen companies and NFL teams as “students” to represent the participants in the leaderboard. This approach adds an element of gamification to the dashboard, encouraging students to improve their scores in a more engaging and dynamic way.

Disclaimer: Please note that the scores and rankings in this dashboard are entirely fictional and in no way reflect the performance of any real companies or NFL teams. The leaderboard is a fun and educational tool for students to track and improve their learning progress.