Terms like “learning analytics” and “data-informed teaching” have been thrown around quite a bit in last several years.
But what do they mean? The Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR) define learning analytics as, “the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs” (2011). Essentially, learning analytics are the pieces of data provided by students. This is data that instructors and administrators can review to identify patterns and trends than ultimately shape decisions in how a course is designed and/or taught.
Here are some examples of learning analytics in action include:
- An instructor observes that the majority of students miss one specific question on the midterm exam. The next time they teach the course, they adjust one of their lectures to focus more intently on the content addressed in the aforementioned question
- An instructor uses the Brightspace Content Reports tool and can see that students are not regularly accessing assigned readings before class meetings. Before the next class, the instructor creates a social annotation exercise with the next assigned reading to increase the number of prepared students
- An instructor using Perusall uses its “Confusion Report” to see which areas of a personal essay students have the most questions about. The instructor uses this insight to guide the next in-class discussion.
This is far from an exhaustive list. There are countless different examples of using learning analytics. As with most things, an instructor’s use of learning analytics vary greatly depending on the course and discipline. Many of the tools within Brightspace gather learning analytics by default. For example, in any course you can access the Content Reports tool (Course Reports –> Content Report) to see which course materials students are accessing and how frequently. In any course, you can also access the Class Progress tool (Course Reports –> Class Progress) to get a “snapshot” of a student’s progress throughout your class. A number of its integrated tools like Perusall and Gradescope also track their own learning analytics. The possibilities are endless!
For course and assignment-level support on learning analytics, feel free to your Office of Teaching Excellence & Innovation liaison.
If you’re interested in larger scale learning analytics projects, such as comparing learning analytics across multiple courses and multiple semesters, feel free to reach out the Learning Analytics team.
Reference:
What is Learning Analytics? (2011). Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR). https://www.solaresearch.org/about/what-is-learning-analytics/