Analytics That Help Real-Time Student Learning

Measuring student achievement at every moment along the academic journey

How Do You Know What Students Are Really Learning?

When presenting to large number of students, how can an instructor identify who is struggling to understand the content? When seeking ways to improve teaching, how can instructors identify where and how to focus their efforts? When looking to increase student retention, how can a higher education institution find the most relevant data and apply it for the greatest impact?

These questions are receiving more attention as colleges and universities look to improve student performance and teaching quality through better use of learning technologies and data analytics. It all starts in the classroom, where limited instructional support tools have made it difficult to obtain real-time, actionable insights into student learning. Student information systems, learning management systems and other sources of student data don’t track the progress or roadblocks in the learning process. Without the right solutions, instructors can’t easily track the factors that contribute to a student’s learning progress, such as attending class, participating in group discussions and asking questions. And even when these tools are available, they may provide information only after the

class ends. Knowing at every moment which students are on track — and, more importantly, which students are struggling — is vital information for improving student retention.

Useful Data In and Out of Class

What instructors need to improve student learning is real-time, easy-to-use data that is available throughout the class session. With the right technologies, the instructor can view learning analytics, ask discussion questions, and generate quizzes and polls that gauge student understanding. By seeing what students need now, the instructor can adjust teaching immediately, when  it can have the highest impact.

Of course, a student’s learning doesn’t only happen in the classroom and analytics shouldn’t stop there. A holistic view of a student’s progress is possible when an instructor uses a video capture system to record lectures and learning modules for student review outside of class time. Because these videos are stored in the cloud for Web access, it’s easy for the system to collect objective data on how students are using these resources. For example, repeated views of a particular section in a lecture recording  may indicate a topic that needs more explanation. Students, in turn, benefit from personalized learning tools that allow them to customize their own study guides, ask questions anonymously and review measurements of their activities.

Guiding Improvements Across the Complete Academic Experience

When used correctly, active learning solutions, lecture capture, and other tools and their data will deliver benefits to instructors, students and the institution.

For Course Instructors

Learning analytics provide in-depth guidance to improve teaching practices in multiple ways.

Real-time insights about student learning. In-the-moment analytics give an instructor information about needed adjustments in order to meet the learning needs of the class as a whole and to deliver targeted help to struggling students.

Customizable measurements. Instructors gain more useful information when data can be tailored to focus on what’s important to their teaching — whether it be test scores, classroom participation, completion of online assignments or other factors.

Continuous feedback. Data about classroom and online activity supplements the feedback an instructor obtains from in-class polls, questions and discussions, helping to keep course materials and teaching techniques fresh and relevant.

For Students

Analytics help students become more aware of their learning needs and encourage improvement in academic performance.

More effective learning support. With analytics, students can monitor their progress, identify when they need support from the teaching staff or advisors, better prepare for exams and understand how to increase their academic achievement.

More learning success. Comprehensive, easily available learning data guides students throughout their college journey. Early alerts about lagging performance allow instructors and advisors to help students complete a course and stay on track for graduation.

More investment value. With more visibility into their own progress, students can take action to improve their studies and ensure they are getting the most value from their education investment

For the Institution

Colleges and universities that combine active learning solutions with data analytics will gain several academic advantages.

Improved teaching and learning. Better information about what’s working for instruction, both in and out of the classroom, means the institution can continuously improve academic quality. Course content and teaching techniques can be adapted more readily to changes in student needs, instructional technologies and formats for course delivery.

Increased student retention. The formula is simple: Happy students are students who stay. Analytics identify the early interventions that motivate students to stay in challenging courses. When students are successful in one class, they are more likely to be successful in others — and more satisfied with their overall college experience.

Substantiated value and differentiation. It’s hard for students and parents to accept rising tuition levels without the assurance of a good learning experience and a clear path to on-time graduation. Demonstrating the institution’s commitment to new pedagogical approaches is a key factor for substantiating the educational value delivered to students. Adopting new learning technologies and providing access to student learning indicators not only result in high return on investment for the institution in the form of better learning outcomes, but also differentiates the college or university when recruiting students.

Integration with strategic initiatives. Analytics available from active learning solutions can be integrated with data from learning management, student information and other systems to create a full view of student performance levels and needs. This integrated perspective also enables the institution to better target strategic initiatives for improving academics and student services.

Some recommendations for the successful implementation of learning analytics.

Provide Real Evidence: Learning analytics offer instructors the opportunity to explore student behaviors and the impact on learning outcomes. Instructors may be willing to try new pedagogies and tools if shown robust evidence the change results in learning and engagement improvements.

Keep it Anonymous: For administrators, reporting data in an aggregated and anonymous form will keep the focus on high-level insights for improving overall teaching quality. This approach avoids the issues that could arise from a perceived punitive review of data for individual instructors and courses.

Instructor Support Groups: Starting and supporting a discussion group will help instructors learn how to best apply learning analytics within the context of their courses and instructional goals.

Incentives: Offering institutional incentives can motivate instructors to use analytics data in the classroom. E.g. An educational organisation offers a Learning Fellows program, where instructors who adopt learning analytics are eligible to receive more research funding. The program also gives participants time and opportunity to explore analytics, and conveys the institution’s interest in supporting pedagogical change and growth.

Access: Require that vendors make all data collected from students on campus available to the institution in a form they can use to blend with other data. This opens opportunities for research as well as entrepreneurial endeavors by instructors and students.

Launching Learning Analytics on Your Campus

There are many point applications available to collect data, but the majority of them do not offer comprehensive learning analytics to identify trends and support an institution’s key initiatives. An effective learning analytics platform for a school or university is created from three core technologies:

• A lecture capture system and cloud-based learning tools that allow students to access course content before and after classroom sessions, and help instructors easily manage their recorded lectures, teaching videos and other materials.
• Active learning solutions, like in-class polling and quizzes, for use by instructors and students in the classroom to improve teaching and learning immediately.
• Analytics tools for data tracking, analysis and reporting of student progress.

I recommend that a learning analytics initiative start with a pilot project involving a small number of courses. The project should be small enough to be easily manageable, yet large enough to identify appropriate plans for broader implementation and future scalability. A key factor in the success of a pilot project is finding instructors who are willing to be early adopters and are excited about using the latest tools for teaching innovation. If you help these pilot instructors succeed, they will become evangelists who will encourage adoption by other instructors. Listening to instructors’ feedback will also reduce any perception that the institution is implementing technology for its own sake.

Schools and universities are becoming data-driven organizations and are learning how to collect, store and access all the data that’s available today. But analytics shouldn’t stop there. As an institution, we want to be looking at other measures we can pursue in the future to give us better insight into the performance of our academics and services.

Yet the focus of learning analytics should rightly remain at the critical point of interaction between instructor and student in the classroom. “I’m excited that by the second week of a course I can identify students who may be in trouble and I can take steps right away to keep them engaged. That outreach is good for the students, for my class as a whole and for the institution.