{"id":1119,"date":"2011-11-07T10:29:30","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T10:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsletter.alt.ac.uk\/?p=1119"},"modified":"2011-11-07T10:29:30","modified_gmt":"2011-11-07T10:29:30","slug":"supporting-learners-with-activity-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2011\/11\/supporting-learners-with-activity-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting Learners with Activity Data"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whenever your students do any activity online they leave traces of that activity in log files. These traces can be used to monitor their behaviour and support them to improve their learning processes.<\/p>\n

The idea is not a new one. Barclaycard have been analysing transactions for early fraud identification for over 25 years. Tesco use loyalty cards to individualise their marketing based on your actual purchase history. Thus if you buy cat food then they might also be able to sell you other things for your cat. If you have never bought cat food then there is not much point in trying to sell you other things for a cat (although I suppose they might try selling you a cat!). The point is that through sophisticated analysis of the information they can gain insight into their customers\u2019 behaviour. Obviously, Tesco does this in order to increase their profits. Can we do something similar in education, not to increase profits but to support our learners?<\/p>\n

The answer is yes. It goes under a variety of names including academic analytics (in the US), activity data (JISC) and business intelligence (guess where). Not only is the answer yes, but some universities and colleges are already making effective use of activity data to support their students. One of the earliest to make use of activity data was Purdue University, which introduced a system called Traffic Lights<\/a> which it uses to inform students of how their engagement with the course compares to their peers (Figure 1).\u00a0 This system gives student a green \/ yellow \/ red light for each of their courses; yellow or red lights come with suggestions as to how they can improve their engagement (?).\u00a0 One lecturer highlighted that \u201cBefore, no one would e-mail me and say, ‘I’m at 58 per cent and I want to get to 72 per cent, what do I need to do?\u2019 But students who get a red light almost all contact me immediately to ask how to raise their grades.\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Figure 1: Traffic Lights (Purdue University image\/Alex Kingman)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The above example highlights one of the key ways in which activity data can be used to empower students.\u00a0 By providing them with feedback on their studies, together with supporting information, it can help the students to take control of their study and perform better.\u00a0 Of course, the information can also be used by lecturers and support services to target their support at those students most in need of it; which may not necessarily be those students who are asking for help.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most telling in the effect that using activity data can have is provided by Iowa Community College Online Consortium (ICCOC)<\/a>, who wanted to raise the proportion of students completing their degrees.\u00a0 In the US 30% of college students drop out in their first year, and 50% never graduate.\u00a0 ICCOC wanted to raise their completion and success (C grade or higher) rates, and already had in place a manual system to identify students at risk.\u00a0 However this system was slow and expensive and interventions were often too late to have much impact.\u00a0 With the introduction of an automated system (based on Pearson LearningStudio’s Enterprise Reporting suite) they have raised the completion rates from 77% to 85% and success rates from 62% to 68%.<\/p>\n

It is worth thinking about the types of data that might be used to identify sub-optimal behaviours.\u00a0 One JISC funded project Student Tracking And Retention (Next Generation): (STAR-Trak)<\/a> at Leeds Metropolitan University\u00a0created a dashboard to support students drawing on data from a wide variety of sources:<\/p>\n