The university is currently developing a learning analytics system with the key driver of student retention at the heart of the project. This is due to the diverse backgrounds found among the students at QMU andtherefore, an interest to see what works for each individual. Access and inclusion are also being used as target areas for the development of the learning analytics system.
QMU has two items in place that currently support parts of this development process. An ERA (electronic recording of attendance) through smart card readers on all classroom doors, and an in-house developed dashboard that makes students own personal attendance data available to them in their student portal. This allows students to see their overall attended/not attended figure and also this figure broken down into the modules they are enrolled on. They can also see this in comparison to the class average.
Furthermore, to aid the development process they have used the ‘Five Things’ project which asked programme leaders which five things they would like to know about their students, that they do not already, to support their students.
Future goals:
While a specific learning analytics roadmap is not in place by the university, QMU still has goals that they are working towards to enhance their use of learning analytics in the future. To compliment the in-house student dashboard, a staff dashboard is currently in development.
Student involvement and training is at the heart of their main future plans. While students are not currently involved in the learning analytics, they will be in the future. It is also planned for students to receive more detailed information on learning analytics so they can use the data provided to get a better grasp of their own progress and improve their learning. Furthermore, staff will need to learn how to interpret the data to help their students.