UNE’s strategic plan, Future Fit, is built around four portfolios that will drive its implementation over the next 10 years. The first of these is Digital +.

Digital + is a digital transformation program to support our Future Fit strategy that is made up of eight large scale projects that will be rolled out across the next decade. Learning Analytics is part of the Data Insights project and is specifically focused on improving student success.

Learning Analytics

Student engagement and retention are two key components of student success. UNE has for some time gathered a range of data indicators around these metrics to drive interventions to improve student success. Learning Analytics has the potential for much broader application than this though, and the Learning Analytics project is in the early stages of exploring these possibilities.

Learning Analytics can be broadly defined as “the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimising learning and the environments in which it occurs” (https://www.solaresearch.org/about/what-is-learning-analytics).

The team, led by Annabel Calkin, comprises staff from Education Futures and external partner OES. They are currently exploring the complex learning and teaching landscape at UNE in order to develop a framework and implementation roadmap that will guide the maturation of Learning Analytics at UNE over the next three to five years.

“We’ve learned valuable lessons from current and previous analytics solutions and student support initiatives. This knowledge will be captured as key guidelines in the analytics framework, for example the need to have custom and actionable solutions, the importance of continuous improvement and transparency, centralised access to timely data, measurement and reporting requirements, and a robust set of ethical principles within which to operate,” Annabel said.

To date, and following discussions with a diverse cross-section of stakeholders, the team has identified seven focus areas that cover a range of use cases.

“The stakeholders we have spoken to all have a keen interest in data-driven decision making and include end user groups such as academics, professional staff, students and learning design teams,” Annabel said.

“Key focus areas include outbound student support decision making; unit level insights for learning and teaching improvements; inbound student support and student self-service assistance; student facing analytics such as Intelligent Tutoring Systems; analytics on learning and teaching products such as Studiosity; unit, course and institutional level insights for strategic purposes; and applications for other parts of the student life cycle such as dynamic career and employability tracking.”

“Once the Learning Analytics framework and roadmap are finalised the team will shift their focus to identifying priority use cases to develop and implement.

“Our goal is to map out at least three pilot projects for implementation from the first quarter of 2022 onwards.”

To learn more or become involved with the Learning Analytics project email acalkin@une.edu.au.