An Exploratory Study to Understand the Phenomena of Eye-Tracking Technology: A Case of the Education Environment

Abstract

Technology has played a pivotal role in revolutionizing the formative aspects of learning and teaching in the current digital age. Due to technology, there is an expectation of having customized medicine, customized interaction, and customized formative communication instead of traditional mass reporting approaches. Formative assessment within higher education teaching and learning environments are no exception to such an approach in the 21st century digital environment. Eye-tracking technology in recent years has provided an insight to understand the human eye movements and concentration patterns, which has application in education. Eye-tracking can be used to examine the processes of individuals in their learning to establish how learning contents are delivered and perceived by all involved (e.g., teaching staff, students, and markers). This chapter proposes that critical and specific information from eye-tracking software can lead to tailored educational content to accommodate, customize, and optimize the unique learning methods for an individual student as per their learning habits. This chapter describes the available eye-tracking technologies and their application in educational processes.