Co.Thi.: using Learning Analytics to measure the acquisition of Computational Thinking skills

Computational Thinking skills, such as abstraction, debugging, decomposition, generalization and algorithmic thinking, are central assets of the body of knowledge of Informatics, and have general-purpose potential to benefit individuals from all walks of life. Recent literature suggests that: (1) students can acquire those skills since early age; (2) their learning associates positively with motivation to carry on learning Informatics in higher education; (3) these skills correlate positively with cognitive development, in particular with Executive Functioning. Learning Analytics is the practice of collecting ethically-cleared data about students’ learning activities, to better understand and improve the learning process. This work leverages Learning Analytics to further the study of the correlation between Computational Thinking and Executive Functioning, and collect deeper and wider quantitative evidence in favor of the argument that Informatics should be taught in schools throughout all of K-12 curricula.