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Learning Analytics at CQUniversity

What is it?

Along with the burgeoning adoption of online education, comes the problem of the online student being essentially invisible to teaching and support staff. Advances in technology have lead to the facilitation of learning interactions in the form of online courses, as well as the ability to record and analyse user behaviors within these online courses. The process of using this recorded data is broadly known as analytics.

There are three key concepts associated with analytics in higher education:

  • Educational data mining is an emerging discipline that is concerned with developing methods for exploring the unique types of data that come from educational settings and using those methods to better understand students and the settings in which they learn (Siemens, 2011).
  • Academic analytics has been described as business intelligence for HEI and is focused on the needs of the institution, such as recruitment, retention and pass rates (Open University, 2012).
  • Learning analytics is loosely defined as the “measurement, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for the purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs” (Siemens & Baker, 2012).
A CQUniversity sponsored research project running out of the Office of Learning and Teaching, has been exploring analytics since 2007. While the Indicators project has been working across all three of the listed concepts, it has recently focused on learning analytics and how to better present information to course coordinators and students. The project is concentrating on the identification of ‘at risk’ students, who to inform about the risk and the facilitation of academic interventions.

Who do contact for more information?

Colin Beer or Damien Clark - Educational Development Team

Additional resources

References

Open University. (2012). Learning Analytics. Innovating Pedagogy 2012, 1,
Siemens, G. (2011). Learning and Knowledge Analytics.   Retrieved 1/11/2011, 2011, from http://www.learninganalytics.net/?p=131

Siemens, G., & Baker, R. S. J. d. (2012). Learning analytics and educational data mining: towards communication and collaboration. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge.