A presentation from the 20th Jisc learning analytics networking event, by Christine Couper

1. Transforming the student
experience using Learning Analytics
• “Students as our Allies”

2. Contents
• Should students be interested in Learning Analytics (LA)?
• Ingredients of a good student-staff partnership
• How we can monitor if LA makes a difference
• Greenwich as a case study
• What works
• Encouraging more active engagement from students

3. Should students be interested in
Learning Analytics (LA)?
• Potential benefits?
• Risks
• Evidence that LA works?
• Is LA better than traditional
methods of monitoring
engagement?
• What is the role for the student?

4. Ingredients of a good student-staff partnership for LA
• Clarity of purpose with students at the heart
• Advocacy from senior sponsor
• Students and permanent staff from the SU embedded as partners with
academic and professional services staff in the development from the
outset
• Governance that protects students interests
• Ethical framework that ensures students and their data are protected
• Transparency that allows students to see their own data and to know
what is being done to it
• Students playing an active role in some aspects of LA
• REGULAR MEANINGFUL COMMUNCATIONS

5. How can we monitor if LA is making a difference?
• Clear links from well-understood student behaviours
to possible, available interventions
• Feedback loop(s) to determine “what works”
• Interventions process reviewed and refined to provide
maximum benefit
• Student feedback sought at regular intervals and
acted on
• Demonstrably improved outcomes achieved by
students
• Greater understanding of teaching and learning
behaviours driving improved curriculum design
• Students using data and widely understood insights
from LA to manage their own personal learning

6. Greenwich as a case study (1)
Purpose:
• improved student engagement which should improve outcomes
Advocacy:
• Keen interest from Vice-Chancellor Professor David Maguire
• DVC (Academic) as sponsor
Partnership:
• Readiness Assessment organised with Jisc
• Good working relationship between University and Students Union
• SU represented on roll-out development group
• SU already using data to develop policy
• Planning Team supporting the SU in data interpretation
Governance:
• Benefited from the work done by Jisc as part of co-design
• Good timing – GDPR, Strengthened role of Information Commissioner
• Attendance Monitoring Policy that sat independently from the LA Policy

7. Greenwich as a case study (2)
Ethical framework:
• EU-funded Sheila project
• Jisc as part of co-design
• Input from other HEIs
• Clear statement that LA would be used to benefit students
Transparency:
• Direct access to personal data - Jisc Study Goal App for students
• Access to the Jisc Data Explorer Dashboard via Personal Tutors
Student engagement:
• Conversations between students and tutors could be more focussed
• Tutors had clearer instructions on where to direct student for additional support
• Module leaders had more information about student engagement with teaching content

8. What works
• Staff perceive that the data has value – it provides insight into their students,
their tutees and the curriculum
• Students in a pilot reported broadly positive comments with regard to using
CheckIn+ for attendance monitoring
• The SU is actively promoting LA
• Evidence that attendance and VLE data can be related to student outcomes

9. Encourage more active engagement from students
• Student visualisations
• accessed easily,
• intuitive to interpret,
• use language that students understand
• Communication
• wide variety of methods
• For both the new entrant and those with
some experience
• Training
• face to face and embedded in the tool
• make no assumptions about digital literacy
• be clear about the purpose of LA
• Links to tutor or teacher interventions
• who and how to contact
• what to expect
• New developments
• Student led
• Other teaching & learning developments
• make links
• identify overlaps and draw parallels
• optimise
• Measuring impact
• a priority
• develop case studies and share widely
• Answer the “Why Bother” with evidence

10. Thank you for listening
Dr Christine Couper
Director, CouperJones Ltd
Email: chris@couperjones.co.uk