{"id":3712,"date":"2014-10-13T10:35:19","date_gmt":"2014-10-13T09:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs-new.it.ox.ac.uk\/adamweblearn\/?p=3712"},"modified":"2014-10-13T10:35:19","modified_gmt":"2014-10-13T09:35:19","slug":"learning-analytics-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-new.it.ox.ac.uk\/adamweblearn\/2014\/10\/learning-analytics-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning Analytics workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAHELA (South African Higher Education Learning Analytics) Workshop<\/h2>\n

(In cooperation with the Stanford Learning Analytics Summer Institute)<\/p>\n

Pretoria, South Africa, 15 September 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Learning analytics (LA) is becoming an increasingly important area of investigation \u2013 to recognise students who are \u2018at risk\u2019, to address the risks, and ultimately to improve student retention. Institutions are moving towards interoperability and most VLEs now build in LA capability. At Oxford we are investigating the Sakai Open Academic Analytics Initiative (OAAI)<\/a> and participating in online webinars with other Sakai institutions.<\/p>\n

Educause provides a collection of useful documentation \u2013 the Analytic Research Centre<\/a> (academic analytics in higher education); a questionnaire to assess an institution\u2019s Analytics Maturity Index<\/a>; and a presentation at the forthcoming Educause conference (30 Sept 2014) about building institutional capacity to implement LA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Questions to consider are: \u2018What data is flowing in an institution?\u2019 and \u2018How can we harness it to improve student success?\u2019 Similar questions can be asked about an institution\u2019s VLE in terms of data about teaching and learning.<\/p>\n

Among others, the following two case studies were presented at the workshop:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. University of Pretoria: first year Molecular Biology students (1600- 1800 students with three lecturers) \u2013 they use Turning Point software with \u2018clickers\u2019 for formative assessment in class, providing instant feedback to students, and reporting the statistics automatically in the VLE (clickers are preferred to mobile phones, due to poor network connectivity \u2013 students are required to buy their own clickers; in future this cost will be incorporated in student fees;<\/li>\n
  2. Medical University of South Africa: the Student Support Referral System \u2013 a coordinated process to identify and support students at risk (academically, psychologically, socially), in collaboration with their Centre for Academic Excellence \u2013 all forms and documentation previously maintained in Excel were converted to interactive forms using Sharepoint workflows.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    International activities<\/b><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Signals project \u2013 Purdue University \u2013 traffic light signals for three risk groups: http:\/\/www.itap.purdue.edu\/studio\/signals\/<\/a><\/li>\n
    2. SOLAR \u2013 Society for LA Research: www.solaresearch.org<\/a>\n