wagner analytics bb world2012

Making Learning Analytics Matter in the Educational Enterprise

Ellen Wagner Partner and Sr. Analyst , Sage Road Solutions, LLC

Executive Director, WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET)

Sage Road Solutions LLC 1

Are You in the Right Place?

• You have been hearing a lot about “analytics” lately and are wondering what the buzz is all about

• You are worried that “analytics” is a code word for “statistics”

• You just want someone to explain what analytics are, why they matter and what you need to know

What I will be covering in today’s session

• What analytics are and why they are taking the world by storm

• Tips for navigating the analytics ecosystem

• Why learning analytics are particularly interesting

• Things to keep in mind about making learning analytics matter in your educational enterprise

WHY ANALYTICS ARE TAKING THE WORLD BY STORM

Data Are Optimizing Online Experience

The digital “breadcrumbs” that online technology users leave behind about viewing, engagement and behaviors, interests and preferences provide massive amounts of information that can be mined to better optimize online experiences.


DATA IN DAILY LIFE: LOTS OF DATA, ALL THE TIME

6 Sage Road Solutions LLC

Major Trends at Play

• Data Warehouses and “the Cloud” make it possible to collect, manage and maintain massive numbers of records.

• Sophisticated technology platforms provide computing power necessary to grind through calculations and turn the mass of numbers into meaningful patterns.

• Data mining uses descriptive and inferential statistics —moving averages, correlations, regressions, graph analysis, market basket analysis, and tokenization – to look inside patterns for actionable information.

• Predictive techniques, such as neural networks and decision trees, help anticipate behavior and events.


Gartner Pattern Based Strategy, 2010:

From reacting to events that had major effects on business strategy to proactively seeking patterns that might indicate an impending event.

The interest in Pattern-Based Strategy is likely to grow as we understand the technologies that are emerging to seek patterns

– from both traditional (financial information, customer order data, inventory, etc.)

– nontraditional sources of information (social media, news, blogs).

Gartner Research, Inc. 3 August 2010 ID Number: G00205744. p.4

Emergence of Business Intelligence

• Research typically reports empirical evidence to prove the tenability of ideas concepts and constructs.

• Business Intelligence uses analytical techniques to mine data to make decisions and create action plans.

• Techniques for analyses include many of the same tools, but the focus on structuring the research question is very different.

Putting Your Information to Work

Courtesy Phil Ice, American Public University System

Learning Organizations and Data Analytics

• Analytics have ramped up everyone’s expectations for accountability, transparency and quality.

• Learning and development organizations simply cannot live outside the enterprise focus on measurable, tangible results driving IT, operations, finance and other mission critical applications.


The Case for Analytics in Learning

• The learning world is starting to discover what Internet marketers have known for years.

• The digital “breadcrumbs” that learners leave behind about their engagement behaviors and interests provide massive amounts of data that can be mined to improve and personalize educational experiences

• This is making learning pros very, very nervous



Will Data REALLY Optimize Educational Experience?

RETENTION

Where to Begin?

• Uncertainty about where to start – No established industry best practice about what to measure

– No established industry best practice around methodology

• Organizational Culture, Learning Culture and Status Quo – Enterprise concern about what the data will show

– Competing priorities and lack of incentive for collaboration between different groups

• Siloed data across the enterprise sure doesn’t help.

Courtesy Phil Ice, American Public University System, 2012

Institutional Data Sources: One Example

Where Learning Data Typically Live

ERPs and SISs Demographics, financials, operations Macro level transactions

Learning Management System (LMS) Learning transactions Learning outcomes Latent data

End of Course Survey Perceptual data

“The LMS Problem”

LMSs have messy data bases The primary function was not data collection per

se, but learning (artifact) management and tracking

Years of additions have created the equivalent of a bowl of “data spaghetti”

Good analytical solutions will pay attention to how data is extracted

Learning Analytics Applications in the .edu Enterprise

Lessons from Moneyball

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (ISBN 0-393-05765-8) Michael Lewis, 2003


SOME THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN PUTTING ANALYTICS TO WORK


(1) Analytics are here

today, and they are here to

stay. Get on board or get

left behind!

(2) SOMEONE on your

team needs to know

statistics, databases

and research

techniques.

(3) Doing research on

analytics is fundamentally

different than applying

analytics results to help

learners succeed.

(4) It’s what we do with

the analytical findings

that really matter.

(5) We already have

more data than we can

handle. That means we

need to find better ways

to handle it.

(6) Even more

interesting data

collecting opportunities

await.

(7) We need to be

prepared to live under

the “sword of data.”

(8) There's no such

thing as “sort of”

transparent.

(9) We have just started to

understand the true power

that analytics bring to the

learning enterprise.

THANKS for your interest

Ellen Wagner

[email protected]

http://wcet.wiche.edu

www.sageroadsolutions.com

http://twitter.com/edwsonoma

+1.415.613.2690 mobile

(9) We haven't even begun to scratch the

surface of the possibilities.

wagner analytics bb world2012

Documents