Small is beautiful: an antidote to Big Data Stephen Powell & Sheila MacNeill

About this workshop An opportunity to consider analytics, in particular achievable ambition to improve and enhance the practice and management of education: Unpacking Analytics (15 mins – pres) Raising Questions and Concerns (10 mins - plenary) Case Studies & Survey of Analytics in Practice (10 mins – pres) Discussing Achievable Ambition (20 mins - round table)

Cetis Analytic Series Case Study, Acting on Assessment Analytics Case Study, Engaging with Analytics Infrastructure and Tools for Analytics The impact of analytics in Higher Education on academic practice A Brief History of Analytics Institutional Readiness for Analytics A Framework of Characteristics for Analytics Analytics for Understanding Research What is Analytics? Definition and Essential Characteristics Legal, Risk and Ethical Aspects of Analytics in Higher Education

1. Unpacking analytics “Analytics is the process of developing actionable insights through problem definition and the application of statistical models and analysis against existing and/or simulated future data.”

1. Unpacking analytics What interest? Business Intelligence Learning, Teaching and Assessment However, this is not entirely new… Exam boards HESA returns Extensive use of data in school sector

1. Unpacking analytics Suggested purposes across the educational system: individual learners predictors of students requiring extra support functional groups within an institution institutional administrators enhanced regulation and accountability methods and tools to help teachers

1. Unpacking analytics Some institutional considerations: Why does your institution collect data What data is collected Where is data collected and stored Who has access to data When is it available Provision of data, interpretation and visualisation, taking action…

Ethical and Legal Issues Stakeholder aims: In assuring educational benefits As businesses To satisfy expectations Guiding principles: Clarity Comfort and care Choice and consent Consequence and complaint

2. Raising questions and concerns (10 mins) What do we imagine an educationally meaningful analytics initiative would look like?

3. Case Study 1: Engaging with Analytics A richer of understanding of the student journey to scope a Support system for staff and students. The team began with a list of questions: What is actually happening to students, how can we find out? What are the touch points with between students and the institution? What are the institutional "digital footprints" of our students? What really matters to our students? (Sheila MacNeill [CETIS] & Jean Mutton [University of Derby])

3. Case Study 1: Engaging with Analytics Engagement analytics have allowed the team to look "beyond the classroom" and help identify patterns of behavior, both academic and non-academic, that might lead to student withdrawal. This has led to insights into how the withdrawal process could be redeveloped to offer better support to “at risk” students.

3. Case Study 2: Acting on Assessment Analytics …e-submission and e-marking tools allows the collection of and access to far more detailed levels of assessment data… …using collective data from previous cohorts it is possible to visualize common errors and their impact on final marks… …once the assignment is completed and marked, a follow up workshop provides a collective view of group performance… …this opportunity for students to see common mistakes and contextualize their own performance within a cohort is proving to be very motivating… (Sheila MacNeill [CETIS] and Dr Cath Ellis [University of Huddersfield])

3. State of Analytics Survey, UK HE & FE 2013

4. Achievable Ambition (20 mins) Small group discussion followed by plenary feedback will develop and share improved thinking on practical ways forward for enhancing student experience and outcomes at an institutional or sectoral level.

Licence This presentation by of Cetis is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence