A blog about learning, student engagement, data & learning analytics in HE
One of the benefits of learning analytics is the capacity to not just automatically analyse data, but also to automate some or all of the next steps. I'm primarily interested in learning analytics for student success, for me the automatic alert when a student is potentially at risk of failure is key. Whether red flags …
Continue reading Issues using data-based alerts in learning analytics
In November 2018, the UK Parliamentary All Party Group on Data Ethics launched a call for evidence about the use of data and machine learning in four areas: Education Healthcare Autonomous vehicles Policing With the help of some excellent colleagues, I submitted a paper on behalf of the institution (Nottingham Trent University) outlining our great …
Continue reading Submission to the All-Party Group on Data Ethics
I hate writing policy. I agonise over the words that feel so important at the time and know damn well that almost no-one's going to read it. But imperfect as it is, it's a framework/agreed set of standards that we can work towards. This piece is a work in progress, a public draft if you …
I've spent the past week thinking (probably overthinking) about this. So I've written up a modified learning analytics cycle. Obviously it starts with Doug Clow's model as discussed in the last entry. However, I've added details about the institutional infrastructure and decision-making needed to actually enable learning analytics to happen. Each of the branching arms …
Continue reading A modified learning analytics cycle (I really need to write more exciting titles)
One of my first jobs after graduating was training students in transferrable skills. I read an enormous amount of training theory, text books on time management, systems-thinking, NLP, public-speaking etc. Certain keystone ideas stuck. One was of course David A Kolb's (1984) experiential learning cycle. I can remember explaining it by modelling the process of …
One of my many failings is my inability to live tweet conference sessions. I mean that I just about manage to quote profound micro statements with an out-of-focus picture of a slide, but I generally have no idea what it meant two weeks later. Let's see if I can make anything better from my 35 …
LSAC 2018 presentation In a fit of unexpected organisation (I'm clearly procrastinating from a less pleasant task), I've uploaded our presentation for the 2nd Learning & Student Analytics Conference, Amsterdam, 22-23 October. If you've just loaded this page because it's the end of the session and you wanted the slides - hello. Everyone else - …
I'm most of the way through Nate Silver's "The Signal and the Noise: the art and science of prediction" I'm really struck by the fact that as I'm reading, I'm learning new tools and reference points to critique our learning analytics work. It's quite possible that if I'd a background in social sciences, mathematics or computer …
I recently wrote a pre-conference workshop for the European First Year Experience Conference called "Arguably the First Year Experience is 109 years old: How up to date are you?"(1) with my colleague Diane Nutt. This post outlines some of theory relevant to anyone seeking to better understand the transitions associated with becoming a first year …
Continue reading Students in Transition: the challenges of becoming a first year student
If students are to use learning analytics to change their own behaviour, we need to find ways to communicate the need to change to them. Our fundamental model of learning analytics is that the learning analytics resource generates opportunities for both students and staff to regulate or even moderate their engagement. Students do this by …
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