I'm increasingly convinced that one of the most important survival skills for working in higher education is being able to hold (at least) two mutually incompatible ideas in your head at the same time. I think the issue arises because we try and apply rules, principles and realities at an institutional level with thousands of …
Tag: Learning Analytics
The problem with wellbeing analytics (& what we need to do to fix it) (part 2 – metrics)
There's something potentially of real value in developing and using wellbeing analytics, but there are also some challenges that need careful consideration. If the first set is defining wellbeing, the second is ‘metrics’. In essence, what’s the meaning that we can ascribe to the masses of data that we’ve got? Most importantly, what’s the association …
The problem with wellbeing analytics (& what we need to do to fix it (part 1))
At the time of writing (Summer 2023), the UK higher education sector has implemented learning analytics fairly widely (albeit in fits and starts). We have been using ‘engagement’ or ‘student success’ analytics since the early 2010s. Truthfully, the technology has proven to be good at identifying students at risk of early departure, but finding ways …
Continue reading The problem with wellbeing analytics (& what we need to do to fix it (part 1))
A Typology of Student Engagement Activity
Students drop out from their courses for a variety of reasons. Early withdrawal is shaped by Socio-economic forces, students' personal goals/ mission for being at university, the lived experience of studying and sometimes just bad luck. We may not be able to precisely weight these factors, but they appear pretty consistently in studies. The sector …
Who traces the tracers? Algorithm Watch Report 2021
The book I’ve found most challenging and rewarding recently is ‘Irrationality’. First written in 1992, the book both identifies significant flaws in the human thinking process and advocates for a more standardised scientific approach. It’s a good case. However, nearly 30 years later, we are living through the lived realities of that way of thinking: …
Continue reading Who traces the tracers? Algorithm Watch Report 2021
Slides from my keynote for the Kompetansenettverk for Studenters Suksess I Høyere Utdanning – 7th December 2021
Largely through the hard work and enthusiasm of Harald Åge Sæthre I know that colleagues in Norwegian universities have invested considerable time thinking about the issues of helping students cope with the transition into the first year. One outcome of this work is the Kompetansenettverk for Studenters Suksess I Høyere Utdanning (competence network for students' …
Living Learning Analytics Blog 