Analytics and Institutional Capabilities

Facilitators: Sheila MacNeill, Martin Hawksey, David Sherlock

"Analytics are not new to education. Collecting, using and sharing data about various activities from research publications to exam results is well established in the sector. Recent changes in statutory requirements for institutions, for example the presentation of Key Information Sets (KIS) data on all UK university websites, are currently focusing attention on the gathering and presentation of data. But, as the CETIS Analytics Series illustrates, there are increasing opportunities for the sector to use analytics to produce innovative and meaningful ways to evidence performance and success.

''With the growing interest and emphasis on Big Data and open data coupled with technological advances in data gathering and interest in business intelligence in general; analytics have been identified as a key trend for education in the short to medium term. In tandem, the emergence of new research fields such as educational data mining and learning analytics, are focusing attention on the potential impacts of educational data on improving teaching and learning practice and in turn the student experience."'' CETIS Analytics Series: Analytics; what is changing and why does it matter? http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/2012/511

Dreams and reality

In this session we will share and explore the dreams and reality of accessing and using data and analytics approaches within the education sector. Participants will be given the opportunity to share their dreams of how data and analytics could ideally be used to enhance teaching and learning at the either the micro (personal), meso (institutional) or macro (sectoral) levels. As part of this dreamscape, we are also asking participants to share with us the systems and data that they currently have access to and the ones they don’t but would like to have access to.

After brainstorming our data dreams and potential areas for developments of a number of aspects of analytics approaches within the education context, a number of speakers will demonstrate and share their current practice at each of the micro, meso and macro levels. There will be plenty of time of discussion around each of the presentations.

By the end of the session we hope to have:


 * shared and prioritised “dreams” for using data/analytics (and some practical examples to build from)
 * identified and shared common data sources, access issues, and priorities for data access at micro, meso and macro levels.
 * shared some real-world examples of how data is being used, and inspired participants to take up a data challenge at their institution.

Myles Danson (Jisc) has captured an excellent overview of the session in the post Analytics and Institutional Capabilities at JISC CETIS Conference March 13 2013

Ranjit Sidhu, Statistics into Decisions
Ranjit Sidhu (or SiD) is founder of Statistics into Decisions (or SiD). Around 1998 Ranjit fell into the internet space whilst trying to run away from a career in law. Since then he has worked at several internet based companies, but has found his niche in analysis and helping clients understand what is going on in the internet ether and how to use that information to improve what they do.

Around 7 years ago he set up SiD, Statistics into Decisions - since then the company has happily found a market for its basic ethos on making information relevant and something that can be used so much so that it now works with many top blue chip companies as well as governmental clients both in the UK and Australia.

Jean Mutton, University of Derby
Jean Mutton has been a Manager and Administrator in Higher Education for 30 years, starting out at Brighton Polytechnic and since 1987 has been at the University of Derby. In recent years Jean has worked on various projects using service design and service improvement techniques and how these can be applied in universities to improve the student experience. In 2010 Jean co-authored the paper Service Design Guide for HE and FE http://bit.ly/Nfk2TD. Jean is currently exploring how we can capture and use data to best support students particularly those who may be ‘at risk’ of dropping out or dis-engaging from their studies. The work uses a mix of learning analytics, what we have termed ‘engagement analytics’ and good old fashioned stats. One area of focus is the well documented ‘attainment gap’ of Black, Minority and Ethnic (BME) students compared to non-BME student achievement, an issue which is high on the national agenda across the educational sector at this time. More information on Jean's work is also available in this CETIS Case Study

Simon Buckingham Shum, The Open University
Simon Buckingham Shum is Professor of Learning Informatics at The Open University’s Knowledge Media Institute, an 80-strong lab at the convergence of learning sciences, web media, collaboration tools and the social/semantic web. He researches, teaches and consults on learning analytics, social learning media, collective intelligence and dialogue/argument visualization. In KMi he leads the Hypermedia Discourse group, and serves as Associate Director (Technology) interfacing KMi’s R&D with the OU’s strategic development. He is also a Visiting Fellow at University of Bristol Graduate School of Education. Simon was Programme Co-Chair for the 2012 Learning Analytics conference, a co-founder of the new Society for Learning Analytics Research, and is a regular invited speaker on the topic. He serves on the Advisory Groups for a variety of analytics initiatives in education and enterprise. His particular interests are in what learning analytics may be blind to, analytics for informal/social learning, and whether analytics can help build the learning dispositions and capacities needed to cope with complexity and uncertainty — the only things we can be sure the future holds. http://simon.buckinghamshum.net

Presentation: Simon Buckingham Shum - Building Analytics Capability @open.edu

Mark Stubbs, Manchester Metropolitan University
Professor Mark Stubbs is Head of Learning and Research Technologies at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he works closely with Library and ICT Services colleagues to provide, arrange and recommend learning technologies for staff and students.

Over the years he has enjoyed a number of roles in universities: Undergraduate Student, Sabbatical Student President, Senior Lecturer, Module Leader, Personal Tutor, Year Leader, Programme Leader, Principal Lecturer, External Examiner, PhD Student, PhD Supervisor, PhD Examiner, Project Director and is now Professor and Head of Learning and Research Technologies at Manchester Metropolitan University. Mark has also worked as a Management Consultant and been involved in a number of JISC projects, including XCRI. His action-research PhD is in working across organisational boundaries to address complex issues.

Presentation: Mark Stubbs - First steps with learning analytics CETIS13

Lightning Talks

 * Wilbert Kraan - Course data project at Bolton
 * Mark Stiles - Analytics – an IMS perspective
 * Martin Hamilton - MEGS-KT: Learning Analytics for Green Energy Heroes
 * Brian Kelly - Observing Our Community: The Reasons, the Methodology, Some Conclusions & Some Concerns
 * Shane Sutherland - Rich and valuable data - that's worth more left alone
 * Martin Hawksey - Google Spreadsheets as a data hub for rapid prototyping

Resources

 * NEW University of Derby based case study CETIS Analytics Series: Case Study, Engaging with Analytics, which is a continuation of the CETIS Analytics Series
 * Introductory slides setting the scene with 'data is oil' Cetis13 Analytics and Institutional Capabilities - Intro
 * A slice of Analytics Dreams and Realities survey results are in the bundle of session links