Strathclyde’s main objectives regarding learning analytics are centred around improving the student experience and ensuring students are supported, engaged and on track. A further key driver is assessment and feedback.
The university is currently using learning analytics to target fully online courses and graduate apprenticeships which are predominately online. There is a joined-effort approach to supporting these students. For example, having one staff member making contact if there are concerns rather each academic getting in touch with the student. Staff members will have control of reports being produced by the VLE. For example, deciding what is important and what constitutes a ‘complete’ element. This is beneficial because the data put in is meaningful to the people using it and ensures the process is not all automated.
To further enhance learning analytics within the university two new tools are being trialled. An Engagement Report has been launched and is generating an activity completion report through Moodle allowing data (live included) to be sorted and filtered. There is also a first phase development taking place on an Assessment & Feedback Workload Planning tool.
Furthermore, sharing practice with other higher education institutions is a key objective of the university.
Future goals:
Moving forward Strathclyde aims to incorporate learning analytics into all other major institutional strategies and existing projects. A business case will be used to recruit for building a data mart, analysing to look for relationships in the data and developing a front-end dashboard.
A key aim is to provide a feedback portfolio for student which can also feedforward to other assignments. It will also be used to monitor student workload and ensure students are not overloaded.
Students have been heavily involved throughout the learning analytics process. From the beginning student interns were running student focus groups to capture their feedback on learning analytics. Student interns were hired in the 2018-2019 academic year to develop a wiki for all higher institutions regarding learning analytics. A plan is also in place for a further two student interns in the 2019-2020 academic year to write an ethics policy surrounding learning analytics.