The future of learning analytics: make data your organisation’s priority
You already have the data. Make the most of it.
This blog is a summary of an in-depth discussion that took place on our Tech Takes podcast. Listen to the full episode: Tech Takes: delivering learning analytics fit for the future.
We have ever more data to inform and support our decisions and approaches. For educators, that’s where learning analytics comes in. But what is it and where is it going?
Learning analytics is a system that brings together your key data streams, providing visualisations to create actionable insights.
It’s important to remember that learning analytics doesn't have to be everything all at once. It's a question of starting with the data you trust and making sure that your staff have got the right levels of access.
Our evidence suggests there are three core data sources in terms of student engagement: attendance, virtual learning environment usage, and submission.
Make lasting change: connect with your colleagues
It’s essential you get buy-in from the people who affect the quality of your data.
Implementing learning analytics is not just about technology, it’s about organisational change: the culture, the way people behave, the way they act. The policy and processes.
Some view tracking data as somewhat sinister and fear that they are being monitored and punished if they don’t meet targets, but that approach guarantees failure. Learning analytics puts the right information in front of the right people, at the right time. If your systems and processes are not mutually supportive, they won’t succeed. The Jisc learning analytics team will help to make the transition seamless for your staff and your students, from discovery through to implementation.
How a learning analytics system uses the data can feel vague, or confusing: “We’ve got a metric about this student, but what does it mean?”
Our system has been designed with users to be easy to understand even when representing a complex data set comprised of multiple components.
More than just a number: students at the heart of data
We are always listening to our user community and the wider sector and a core theme is to not to lose sight of the bigger picture of the student. Keep open channels of communication with your student representatives and your wider student community about learning analytics. Above all, be very clear about what your expectations are for students from the beginning, in particular distinguishing between compliance and support.
Interventions can produce a substantial workload for staff, but our interactions and biography features bring student support processes into a single platform. A catch up, a phone call, or an involvement with a friendly member of support staff can start getting that student back on track. The human element is always vital.
Students also have to be very confident that their sensitive information is only available to those members of staff who need to have it.
As the trusted data experts, we build privacy and security into all of our products to give people actionable insight at the right time. You can also grant access to the people who need it. Our attendance monitoring and learning analytics products give granular control over the roles and the scope.
The future of learning analytics
We’re in a fast-moving age of digital expansion and software development, and we've planned for future initiatives and growth in data infrastructure. This means we can expand and adapt as required, rather than adding technical debt with each ‘add-on’.
We've also used the opportunity to introduce new features, with more planned on our development roadmap:
- Data validator: an event-driven processor to identify issues with your data, allowing you to identify and fix issues quickly and easily
- A comprehensive student biography pulling in vital information to give you a holistic understanding of the student’s needs
- Sensitivity model: a best-in-class data protection toolset allowing the right staff to access the right information to deliver student success whilst controlling access to sensitive information
Launch your data journey with our consultancy services
We’re committed to working with the sector, for the sector.
As part of our data consultancy we are completely vendor neutral. We don’t sell-in our platform at any cost. We've worked with universities using self-build solutions for learning analytics, using other products from other vendors. We’ve worked with organisations that are doing nothing at all, or those looking to restart a project with us.
This is part of our commitment to deliver a service that is reliable, efficient, easy to use, but most of all, competitively priced: there are no hidden costs whether you continue with your existing services or opt for our attendance monitoring or the full suite.
We never lose sight that the most powerful resource that all organisations have is their people.
Further information
About the authors
Alongside the other senior analytics consultants, I support the delivery of learning analytics into educational organisations from pre-sales to deployment and maintaining customer relations. I also use my experience of working in student facing services to provide advice on guidance on using analytics for wellbeing.