Welcome to Policy and Strategy for Learning Analytics Deployment

Introduction

The collection and analysis of data in the educational process has drawn interest from all levels of the education sector. Teachers, learners, faculty, support staff and administrators can all benefit from using data to understand what's happening in classrooms and how to improve and optimize learning.

The activity or research organizations, such as SoLAR and IEDMS, has resulted in a rapidly growing literature and research base about how data can be used to improve learner success. Specifically, researchers have advanced understanding of social networks, predictive models, and nuanced and fine-grained recognition of how a specific action on the part of a learner influences learning and concept mastery. The fields of learning analytics and educational data mining have also increased connections with other fields of inquiry, notably learning sciences, computer supported collaborative learning, machine learning, and "big data"/business intelligence.

Why this course?

While research in learning analytics has advanced, limited attention has been paid to the larger policy and strategy considerations that influence the adoption and deployment of analytics in educational settings. Educational data is complex. Different state and provincial agencies collect a range of data on learner and institutional performance. International organizations such as OECD collect and compare performance of learners in the primary and secondary levels. In higher education, annual rankings produce bragging rights for advancing universities and soul searching declining universities.

The problem of data, at a systems level, seems too large and too complex to tackle. Over the last four years, the Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR) has hosted conferences, workshops, MOOCs, summer institutes, launched a journal, and organized regional events on analytics. During these activities, it has become clear that policy and strategy considerations are hindering the adoption and deployment of LA. More importantly, for researchers, in order for grant-making agencies and foundations to develop research-support programs, the role and value of LA in the education sector needs to be clearly articulated.

This symposium, supported with a grant from Australia's Office for Learning and Teaching, will engage with researchers and practitioners around the opportunities to advance LA by exploring the various state/provincial/institutional strategy and policy framework. For regions that make effective use of educational data, important competitive advantages exist in the international educational landscape. Our goal over the next two weeks is to evaluate what it means to provide policy and strategy support for systems that are transitioning to data-intensive operations.

Short video introduction:

http://youtu.be/SpjJXYvzBMo

Next Steps:

Open Discussion

The main activity of this short symposium is scheduled for Oct 8-11 where international presenters will detail how they have planned and deployed learning analytics within their organization. In advance of those presentations, several readings will be presented and used as discussion starters.

More information is available here: Open Discussion

Presentations

During Oct 8-11, we will engage with numerous international experts around LA deployment.

Please see Presentation Schedule for more information.