The Use of Learning Analytics to Support Improvements in Teaching Practice

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The Use of Learning Analytics to Support Improvements in Teaching Practice
The Use of Learning Analytics to
                           Support Improvements in
                                    Teaching Practice

iru.edu.au
Charles Darwin University / Flinders University / Griffith University / James CookwUniversity
                                                                                    iru.edu.au > /   1
La Trobe University / Murdoch University / Western Sydney University
The Use of Learning Analytics to Support Improvements in Teaching Practice
Authors:

                                               Deborah West                                 Flinders University
                                               Ann Luzeckyj                                 Flinders University
                                               Bill Searle                                  Charles Darwin University
                                               Danny Toohey                                 Murdoch University
                                               Richard Price		                              Flinders University

    To cite this publication:
    West, Luzeckyj, Searle, Toohey & Price (2018). The Use of Learning Analytics to Support Improvements in
    Teaching Practice. Innovative Research Universities. Melbourne, Australia.

    ISBN-13: 978-0-646-98756-9							                                                                                                          Published April 2018

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    Charles Darwin University / Flinders University / Griffith University / James Cook University / La Trobe University / Murdoch University
The Use of Learning Analytics to Support Improvements in Teaching Practice
Table of Contents
The Use of Learning Analytics to Support Improvements in Teaching Practice...........................................................................................1
Executive summary..........................................................................................................................................................................................4
Introduction......................................................................................................................................................................................................6
Background literature......................................................................................................................................................................................6
Overview of the project...................................................................................................................................................................................9
Stage 1: Finding the baseline: Malaysian/Australian comparison.................................................................................................................9
    Methodology................................................................................................................................................................................................9
    Findings......................................................................................................................................................................................................10
        Interest in learning analytics................................................................................................................................................................10
        Each country is at a different stage of their learning analytics journey............................................................................................11
        Considerable variation in the use of LMS between Malaysia and Australia.....................................................................................12
    Discussion...................................................................................................................................................................................................15
Stage 2: Exploring teacher metrics................................................................................................................................................................16
    Methodology..............................................................................................................................................................................................17
    Findings of the focused literature review................................................................................................................................................18
    The CoI model............................................................................................................................................................................................19
    Findings of survey mapping to CoI...........................................................................................................................................................21
    Findings of the focus groups.....................................................................................................................................................................21
        What learning and teaching questions do teaching staff want answered?......................................................................................21
    Review of report visualisations scores and comments..........................................................................................................................23
    Review of transcripts from focus groups................................................................................................................................................24
    Discussion.................................................................................................................................................................................................25
Stage 3: Testing the metrics and case studies............................................................................................................................................27
    Case study methodology.........................................................................................................................................................................27
    Findings.....................................................................................................................................................................................................28
        Flinders Case Study 1: The Learning Analytics Community of Practice...........................................................................................28
        Flinders Case Study 2: Use of Learning Analytics in a Flipped Classroom
        Genetics, Evolution and Biodiversity (Dr Masha Smallhorn)............................................................................................................28
        Flinders Case Study 3: Learning Analytics for a First Year Psychology Research Methods Topic
        (Associate Professor Nathan Weber).................................................................................................................................................28
        Murdoch Case Study 1: Development of Learning Analytics at Murdoch University.....................................................................29
        Murdoch Case Study 2: Learning Analytics in a Multi-Mode IT Unit (Danny Toohey)....................................................................29
        Charles Darwin University Case Study 1: Institutional Development..............................................................................................29
        Charles Darwin University Case Study 2: Tertiary Enabling Program (Dr James Valentine)...........................................................30
        Charles Darwin University Case Study 3: Using analytics for decision making on grade boundaries (Dr Brian Phillips)..............30

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The Use of Learning Analytics to Support Improvements in Teaching Practice
Summary and conclusion......................................................................................................................................................................30
     Identify the range of learning analytics functions available in partner institutions which are related to teaching practice....30
     Identify the ways in which learning analytics can be used to improve teaching..........................................................................30
     Develop a set of metrics based on learning analytics to improve teaching practice...................................................................31
     Test the set of metrics for improving teaching based on students’ retention, engagement and motivation............................31
References..............................................................................................................................................................................................33
Appendix 1: Report visualisations.........................................................................................................................................................36
     Definitions..........................................................................................................................................................................................36
     Personalised learning designer.........................................................................................................................................................36
     Active user block...............................................................................................................................................................................36
     Unit at a glance.................................................................................................................................................................................36
     Student at a glance...........................................................................................................................................................................36
     Early intervention clustering tool....................................................................................................................................................36
     Heat map...........................................................................................................................................................................................37
     Progress bar......................................................................................................................................................................................37
Appendix 2: Data points from the Australian Academic Survey ........................................................................................................38
Appendix 3: Data points from the Malaysian Academic Survey ........................................................................................................41

 4            < The Use of Learning Analytics to Support Improvements in Teaching Practice >
               Charles Darwin University / Flinders University / Griffith University / James Cook University / La Trobe University / Murdoch University
The Use of Learning Analytics to Support Improvements in Teaching Practice
Executive Summary

The Use of Learning Analytics to Support Improvements        environments in Australia and Malaysia. The survey
in Teaching Practice is a joint Innovative Research          instrument had been trialled and tested in Australia
                                                             in 2014 as part of the Australian Government funded
Universities (IRU) and Malaysian Research Universities
                                                             project, Learning Analytics: Assisting Universities with
(MRUN) project. The project’s overall aim was to             Student Retention (West et al. 2015); a modified version
explore the use of learning analytics by teaching staff      of the same survey was subsequently used in Malaysia
to enhance improvements in teaching practice. The            in 2016. (As the survey was modified, Australian
                                                             project members provided advice and guidance to
project’s specific goals were to:
                                                             Malaysian colleagues to ensure comparability would
•    identify the range of learning analytics functions      be maintained.) Numerous similarities and differences
     related to teaching practice available in partner       were observed across the two countries.
     institutions                                            In Stage 2, the focus groups, the project focused on
                                                             the development of teacher metrics in an effort to
•    identify ways in which learning analytics can be        determine ways to use learning analytics to improve
     used to improve teaching practice                       teaching and learning. Two critical questions arose out
                                                             of Stage 1:
•    develop a set of metrics based on learning analytics
                                                             • Is the community of inquiry model (CoI) appropriate
     to improve teaching practice
                                                                as a conceptual framework within which to situate
•    test this set of metrics’ effectiveness for                the development of teacher metrics to support the
     improving teaching, based on students’ retention,          use of learning analytics to improve learning and
                                                                teaching outcomes?
     engagement and motivation.
                                                            • Can learning analytics impact on learning and
These goals were achieved in three stages:                     teaching outcomes across a variety of teaching
                                                              settings?
1.   duplicating surveys previously conducted in
     Australia in Malaysia to provide a comparison of       Focus groups were conducted with teaching staff in
                                                            Australia to explore their perspectives on learning
     development in the two countries
                                                            analytics and how they could see it being used in their
2.   conducting focus groups to explore teacher             teaching practice. Participants in the focus groups were
                                                            asked to note key questions they wanted answered
     requirements and views of visualisations
                                                            in relation to learning and teaching and to reflect on
3.   developing case studies to demonstrate how             what data they would find useful. (The focus groups
     learning analytics is being used by teachers in        in Malaysia are, however, still to be undertaken, so
                                                            data from those could not be included in the project
     partner institutions.
                                                            findings).
Each of these project stages includes a methodology,
                                                            Seven report visualisations from across the institutions
findings and implications for the next stage. The first
                                                            were also presented to focus group participants; each
two stages also included a literature review.
                                                            included a title and brief explanation. Participants
Stage 1 of the project used surveys with teaching           were asked to rate reports in relation to their potential
staff to explore and compare the learning analytics         usefulness.

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Stage 3, the final stage of the project, was originally                                                         •      There was great variation in the knowledge
    designed to develop and test teacher metrics. Due                                                                      and skills of teaching staff in relation to their
    to issues with timelines, institutional readiness and                                                                  appreciation of learning analytics reports and
    infrastructure, this stage was modified. Instead eight                                                                 applications; however, teachers are more likely to
    institutional case studies were developed, describing                                                                  invest in learning about and using the reports if
    how teachers are using the data available to them.                                                                     there is a clear appreciation of the value offered by
                                                                                                                           the report.
    Overall, the project produced several significant results:
                                                                                                                    These findings support the following actions and
    •       Learning analytics development must be
                                                                                                                    considerations regarding the use of learning analytics to
            considered in context at multiple levels.
                                                                                                                    support staff in improving their teaching practice.
    •       There is considerable variation in terms of stages
                                                                                                                    •      It is important to determine institutional readiness
            of development and readiness which operates at
                                                                                                                           to gather, process and apply data from a broad
            various levels.
                                                                                                                           range of sources and ensure teaching staff are
    •       The questions that most teaching staff currently                                                               included in discussions and decision making.
            seek to answer are at the level of descriptive.
                                                                                                                    •      A clear plan for learning analytics, focusing on
    •       The usefulness of any learning analytics report/                                                               teaching and learning and taking into account
            visualisation will be connected to the purpose of                                                              institutional readiness and context, needs to be
            the report in relation to the role of the university                                                           developed and articulated to staff in a timely
            teacher, their discipline and pedagogical approach                                                             manner.
            as well as the learning and teaching lifecycle.
                                                                                                                    •      In order to improve the take up and the use
    •       Teaching staff are most interested in reports                                                                  of reports by teaching staff, the reports’ value
            that can help improve student success (beyond                                                                  will need to be made clear; they will also need
            retention) and classroom analytics (data within the                                                            to be easy to access and use, and professional
            teaching context) which can assist in understanding                                                            development will need to be provided.
            student success.

    Introduction

        The Use of Learning Analytics to Support Improvements                                                       •      identify the ways in which learning analytics can be
        in Teaching Practice is a joint Innovative Research                                                                used to improve teaching
        Universities (IRU) and Malaysian Research Universities
                                                                                                                    •      develop a set of metrics based on learning analytics
        (MRUN) project. The overall project aim was to explore
                                                                                                                           to improve teaching practice
        the use of learning analytics to support improvements
        in teaching practice; its specific goals were to:                                                           •      test the set of metrics for improving teaching
                                                                                                                           based on students’ retention, engagement and
        •    identify the range of learning analytics functions
                                                                                                                           motivation.
             available in partner institutions which are related to
             teaching practice

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     Charles Darwin University / Flinders University / Griffith University / James Cook University / La Trobe University / Murdoch University
In order to achieve these goals, the project was            3.   Developing case studies to demonstrate how
undertaken in three stages:                                      learning analytics is being used by teachers in
                                                                 partner institutions.
1.   Duplicating surveys previously conducted in
     Australia in Malaysia to provide a comparison of       This report begins with a brief literature review to set
     development in the two countries                       the scene and then presents the methodology, findings
                                                            and a discussion relevant to each stage of the project.
2.   Conducting focus groups to explore teacher
                                                            It concludes with a general discussion which returns to
     requirements and views of visualisations
                                                            the key goals and overall findings.

        Background Literature

 Learning analytics is defined as the ‘measurement,          Much of the work in the sector to date has been
 collection, analysis and reporting of data about            focused on addressing student retention and, to a
 learners and their contexts, for the purposes of            lesser extent, student success, with a clear emphasis
 understanding and optimising learning and the               on ‘at risk’ students (Lawson et al. 2016; Marbouti et
 environments in which it occurs’ (Siemens & Long            al. 2016; Joksimović et al. 2015; Zacharis 2015). This
 2011, p. 34). Learning analytics can take a variety of      focus is probably the result of government drivers in
 forms including dashboards, recommender systems,            the countries leading learning analytics development.
 predictive analytics, and alerts/warnings/interventions.    Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom
 Papamitsiou and Economides (2014) conducted a review        are all seen as leaders in this field (Sclater et al.
 of literature on learning analytics and educational data    2016), and all these countries have clear government
 mining, identifying 40 key studies conducted between        agendas regarding student retention. It is therefore
 2008 and 2013. These studies explored various areas         unsurprising that learning analytics development has
 of use for learning analytics and data mining with most     been motivated to determine how to identify and
 investigating, ‘student/student behaviour modelling         retain ‘at-risk’ students. While retention is an important
 and prediction of performance, followed by increase of      application of learning analytics, it shifts the focus
 students’ and teachers’ reflection and awareness and        to an issue prioritised most often by the institution
 improvement of provided feedback and assessment             rather than areas of teaching that teaching staff might
 services’ and recommendation of resources (p. 53).          consider a focus. Several studies have explored the
 These issues have not changed since 2013.                   level of interest by teaching staff in the field of learning
                                                             analytics (e.g. Corrin et al. 2016; West et al. 2015).
 Learning analytics provides scope to address concerns
 related to a broad range of teaching and learning areas.    These studies found that while teaching staff are
 These areas include: retention and student success          interested in the use of learning analytics, they
 (Arnold & Pistilli 2012; de Freitas et al. 2015; Gašević    often have little understanding of how it can be
 et al. 2016); improvement of learning design, units,        utilised or of what is available in their context (Corrin
 courses and teaching practice (Dyckhoff et al. 2012;        et al. 2016; West et al. 2015). Additionally, while
 Haya et al. 2015; McKenney & Mor 2015; Persico &            retention is of some interest, teaching staff tend to
 Pozzi 2015; Toetenel & Rienties 2016); the development      be more concerned with the broader issue of student
 of personalised learning pathways; and student support      success and how learning analytics can be used to
 (Liu et al. 2017). However, the realisation of using        improve learning and teaching within the ‘classroom’
 learning analytics to their full potential in addressing    environment.
 these various teaching and learning areas has yet to be
 fully achieved.

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et al. 2016; West et al. 2015; Greller & Drachsler
    As the use of information technology has expanded                                                        2012). Institutions which regularly utilise a range
    in education, the traditional classroom environment                                                      of educational technologies (learning management
    has evolved to include a range of modalities, from                                                       systems, online classrooms etc.) are therefore better
    the traditional face-to-face approach to the use of                                                      placed to harness the affordances of learning analytics
    information technology to ‘blend’ face to face and                                                       than those who do not. Additionally, institutional
    online learning, through to fully online courses/                                                        readiness is related to the idea that the more reliant
    programs. This increased use of information technology                                                   an institution is on information technology the more
    in higher education provides the foundation for the                                                      digital data it is likely to have, and consequently the
    use of learning analytics, and teaching staff have begun                                                 more relevant and of greater value the processing and
    using them to measure students’ engagement in online                                                     delivery of this data to stakeholders will be.
    contexts (Beer et al. 2010). However, the use of learning
    analytics to determine what students do as they learn                                                    In addition, learning analytics data and development
    (and indeed all aspects of the use of learning analytics)                                                can be seen to operate on several continua. First is
    is variable across the sector (Atherton et al. 2017; Liu et                                              the idea that data can be accessed and utilised from
    al. 2015).                                                                                               one system (e.g. from either the student information
                                                                                                             system (SIS) or the learning management system (LMS),
    By definition, learning analytics relies on the use of                                                   independently of each other) to provide some insights,
    digital data relating to students’ learning journeys. It is                                              or it can integrate data from two systems (such as
    therefore heavily dependent on the use of information                                                    the SIS and the LMS together), or it can be federated,
    technology to collect the data in a useful format,                                                       drawing in data from multiple systems. The capacity
    and preparedness for this varies considerably across                                                     to extrapolate more and greater insights is generally
    institutions and countries (Sclater et al. 2016). This                                                   enhanced as the number of relevant data sources being
    state of preparedness, often referred to as ‘institutional                                               integrated is increased.
    readiness’, is dependent in the first instance on
    technological infrastructure and use, but is also                                                        The levels of complexity and sophistication in the data
    connected to the culture of the institution, including                                                   processing, and the application involved, also have a
    its strategy, policy frameworks and understanding                                                        significant effect on learning analytics outcomes. As
    regarding learning analytics (JISC 2017; Colvin                                                          noted earlier, learning analytics can take a variety of

    Figure 1: Analytics maturity curve (from Morgan & Duncan 2016)

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forms including dashboards, recommender systems,           Analysis and Pedagogical Practice (SNAPP) (Dawson
predictive analytics, and alerts/warnings/interventions.   2010).
All of these have a purpose but some are able to
                                                           Alongside these advances, Garrison, with various
achieve their purpose with smaller data sets, while
                                                           colleagues and over a number of years (Garrison et al.
others require larger data sets in order to build
                                                           2001; Garrison & Anderson 2003; Garrison & Arbaugh
sophisticated, predictive models.
                                                           2007; Garrison et al. 2012), developed the CoI model
Figure 1, produced by Gartner (Morgan & Duncan             for teaching in online contexts. The advantage of the
2016), shows a maturity curve for the field of data        CoI model is its acknowledgement of the significance
analytics.                                                 of the social aspects of learning while also recognising
                                                           the importance of the particular roles played by both
 The diagram should not be interpreted as suggesting
                                                           teachers and students.
that descriptive analytics, positioned as the lower,
beginning point of the diagram, are not as useful          As recognised by the work of Garrison, his colleagues
as predictive analytics (positioned at the top of the      and others (e.g. Corrin et al. 2016; Siemens et al. 2013;
diagram), as the use and value of each type of analytics   West et al. 2015), it is imperative to advance learning
will depend on its overall purpose and context. In         analytics in ways useful to teachers such that they
relation to learning and teaching in higher education,     will actually engage in using them. As discussed by
each type of analytics indicated on the diagram will       Keppell et al. (2015) the alignment of ‘pedagogical,
have a value and will speak to a different stage of        technical and administrative issues remains a necessary
learning analytics development and will be relevant to     condition of success in creating an engaging learning
different institutional audiences.                         environment’ (p. 6).
However, while work continues in the broader learning      Data science work and progress in learning analytics,
analytics field, research and development in the area      which is also important, must, therefore, be grounded
of learning and teaching interactions has remained         in, and connected to, good pedagogical practice and
somewhat limited. Calls for research to focus on           educational theory; otherwise, either group runs
what can be termed ‘classroom analytics’ have been         the risk of moving forward in isolation. Additionally,
increasing (Siemens et al. 2013), though few studies       all practitioners need to be mindful that all work in
report on the specific types of data and reports           learning analytics may be either enhanced or limited
teachers would find useful. West et al. (2015) highlight   by its developmental context, including organisational
that the majority of questions teaching staff want         culture and infrastructure.
answered could be provided through the integration of
                                                           The literature review, overall, provided evidence for the
SIS and LMS data.
                                                           need to determine how learning analytics could best
The work by Corrin et al. (2016) also draws attention      be used to further support teaching staff in ‘classroom’
to the key role of pedagogy in the design of learning      contexts. This project was established to identify
analytics reports. Also, as online learning using ‘Web     a means to determine the current ‘state of play’ of
2.0’ technologies has gained momentum, interest has        learning analytics in IRU and MRN institutions and to
grown in considering pedagogical practices specifically    determine how it might be better used to support and
related to supporting online teaching and learning.        enhance teaching practice.
Acknowledging the importance of learning as a social
activity (i.e. not something that occurs in isolation),
the learning theory known as connectivism (Siemens
2004) was put forward as one that could support
online learning. However, as critiqued by Clarà and
Barberà (2013), connectivism was developed to support
Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) and ‘has mainly
been disseminated in a large number of blog posts
and articles on Internet sites (without peer-review
processes)’ (p. 198). Research into the networks and
interactions developed by students with their peers
has also progressed, with tools such as Social Network

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Overview of the Project

     As noted above, the overall project aim was to explore                                                 •       testing the set of metrics, based on student
     the use of learning analytics to support improvements                                                          retention, engagement and motivation.
     in teaching practice, with the specific goals of:
                                                                                                            In order to achieve these goals, the project was
     •    identifying the range of learning analytics functions                                             undertaken in three stages each with its own
          available in partner institutions which are related                                               methodology, findings and implications for the next
          to teaching practice                                                                              stage. The following section outlines each stage
                                                                                                            separately and the summary integrates data from the
     •    identifying the ways in which learning analytics can
                                                                                                            previous stages.
          be used to improve teaching
     •    developing a set of metrics, based on learning
          analytics, to improve teaching practice

             Stage 1: Finding the baseline:
             Malaysian/Australian comparison

     The first stage of the project involved exploring and                                                 al. 2015), were used to gather a range of information.
     comparing the learning analytics landscape in Australia                                               Data collection in Australia had taken place in late 2014
     and Malaysia. This stage was essential for gaining                                                    as part of this previous project, with 353 responses
     understanding of the two countries readiness for                                                      to the academic survey. Initial discussions with the
     learning analytics in terms of both infrastructure and                                                Malaysian researchers indicated that these surveys
     academic perspectives.                                                                                could potentially be used to gather the same data in
                                                                                                           Malaysia and support a comparison of results across
                                                                                                           the two countries. The IRU institutions provided
     Methodology                                                                                           practical support to their MRUN colleagues by checking
                                                                                                           for consistency across the two surveys and offering
     In order to undertake a comparison between the                                                        advice and guidance as required.
     two countries, two surveys (one academic, one
     institutional), initially developed for the Australian
     Government funded project Learning Analytics:
     Assisting Universities with Student Retention (West et

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         Charles Darwin University / Flinders University / Griffith University / James Cook University / La Trobe University / Murdoch University
The surveys were reviewed and amended by the project                These similarities and differences are explored in more
team to clarify language, meaning and appropriateness               detail below. It should be noted that a more in-depth
for the Malaysian context. They were then piloted in                article on this comparison has been submitted for
Malaysia and further reviewed by a Malaysian expert                 publication and that the figures presented below are
panel. Reliability testing of the survey was undertaken             duplicated in that article.
using a Rasch Model technique returning a Cronbach
Alpha (KR-20) value of 1.0, indicating that the survey
had a high level of reliability. The academic survey in
Malaysia yielded 224 responses.                                     Interest in Learning Analytics
                                                                    Although the surveys were distributed at different
Findings                                                            times, with the Australian survey conducted in 2014
                                                                    and the Malaysian survey in 2016, a great deal of
Conducting the survey across two countries and
                                                                    interest in learning analytics is evident across both
cultural contexts illustrated a number of similarities and
                                                                    countries. Teaching staff were asked to indicate their
differences. These include:
                                                                    level of involvement in particular learning analytics
•    a great deal of interest in learning analytics across          related activities: Figure 2 illustrates the varied
     both countries                                                 activities in which they were involved.
•    the two countries being at different stages of                 In both countries the highest percentage of responses
     learning analytics development                                 concerned using learning analytics to help with analysis
                                                                    and decision making and reading about learning
•    considerable differences between the two
                                                                    analytics for personal professional development.
     countries in the use of LMS
                                                                    The greatest differences were around conducting
•    differences in the ways in which institutional
                                                                    formal research and/or publishing work on the
     context and infrastructure influence the
                                                                    topic of learning analytics, advocating the use of
     expectations and understandings of staff and their
                                                                    learning analytics to colleagues and none of the
     capacity to use learning analytics
                                                                    listed choices (i.e. other activities around learning
•    variations in institutional capacity in meeting the            analytics). Malaysian teaching staff indicated that they
     needs, expectations and understandings of staff                are conducting formal research and/or publishing
     and their capacity to use learning analytics                   in learning analytics more than their Australian
•    differences in ethical concerns, which were evident            colleagues, while Australian teaching staff are more
     across both countries, which may be a reflection               often advocating the use of learning analytics and were
     of institutional policies, understandings or cultural          involved in more unlisted activities.
     differences.

    Figure 2: Types of learning analytics related activities in which Australian and Malaysian teaching staff indicated
    involvement

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Discussions regarding learning analytics are also an                                                   staff in other areas. The discussions are relatively
      indicator of interest in the topic. Figures 3a and 3b                                                  infrequent (with most occurring less than monthly)
      illustrate the frequency of discussions and with whom                                                  across institutions in both countries, though teaching
      they are held. It is evident that conversations in relation                                            staff in Malaysia report having conversations more
      to learning analytics occur at all levels, although they                                               frequently.
      occur less with institutional management than with

      Figure 3a: Frequency and staff members with whom learning analytics is discussed (Malaysia)

     Figure3b: Frequency and staff members with whom learning analytics is discussed (Malaysia) (cont.)

     Each country is at a different stage of                                                               and more sustained focus on at-risk students and
                                                                                                           retention in Australian institutions as a result of
     learning analytics development                                                                        government policies linked to widening participation.
     As understanding and interest in the use of learning                                                  The differences in interest may also be linked to
     analytics have developed, the way it is applied within                                                perceptions regarding responsibilities, culture,
     teaching and learning contexts has also grown and                                                     academic autonomy, perceptions of academic freedom
     changed.                                                                                              and ethical considerations.
     For example, as shown in Figure 4 below, Malaysian
     teaching staff tended to show more interest in areas
     of learning analytics relating to student retention and
     success, while in Australia there was more variation in
     interest regarding the topic.
     The differences in interest may be related to a longer

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Figure 4: Percentage distribution of Malaysian and Australian teaching staff interest in learning analytics
   applications that can be linked to student retention and success (n varies)

Differences in the use of LMS                                     support services is low in both countries. These results
                                                                  influence the survey findings in terms of the usage and
between Malaysia and Australia                                    relevance of learning analytics and may be indicative
Figure 5 (below) illustrates survey responses regarding           of the stage of the learning analytics journey that each
access to sources of data relating to the students’               country is at, as well as of a greater focus on online
learning journey. In Australia teaching staff have more           learning, reflected by the use of LMS in teaching and
access to data from the LMS than Malaysian colleagues,            learning contexts in Australia.
who have more access to SIS data. Access to data
from the library, learning support services and student

   Figure 5: Access to sources of data relating to the student journey

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Influence of institutional                                                                            Variations in institutional
     context and infrastructure                                                                            capacity
     When adopting learning analytics, stakeholders require                                                Ways in which institutions can meet the needs and
     appropriate infrastructure that allows relevant data                                                  expectations of teaching staff as well as support their
     to be suitably captured, integrated and presented. It                                                 capacity to use learning analytics, include providing
     also requires staff to have opportunities and access                                                  access to data and systems that allow staff to identify
     to professional development so they may acquire the                                                   how their intended outcomes for students are being
     skills and abilities to become competent in accessing,                                                met and how students are using the resources provided
     understanding and using learning analytics data.                                                      to them. In addition, institutions can provide access
     The capacity for institutions to provide the support that                                             and support to training and professional develop
     adequately underpins learning analytics demonstrates                                                  opportunities that develop staff understanding,
     the different stages of the learning analytics journey                                                aptitude and confidence. Figures 6 and 7 indicate
     experienced in each country reflected in questions                                                    the differences across Australia and Malaysia in staff
     related to access to student data from the LMS or                                                     perceptions’ of institutional capacity to meet their
     Student Information System (SIS) (discussed above and                                                 needs.
     reflected in Figure 5); institutional capacity to meet
     staff needs and expectations and understandings of
     staff and their capacity to use learning analytics; and,
     institutional infrastructure and questions related to
     ethics (all discussed below).

     Figure 6: Staff perceptions of institutional capacity to meet their needs (Malaysia)

     Figure 7: Staff perceptions of institutional capacity to meet their needs (Australia)

     It is evident from these results that staff in Malaysia and                                            These findings may be an indicator that Australian
     Australia have differing perceptions and expectations                                                  teaching staff are at a different part of the learning
     regarding their institutions’ capacity to meet their                                                   analytics journey and therefore have different
     needs regarding learning analytics. In Malaysia,                                                       expectations of their needs and the institutional
     teaching staff rated the components of institutional                                                   capacity to meet those needs. Ethical considerations
     capacity more highly (giving all seven a good/very good                                                may also be linked institutional capacity as they
     score) while their Australian counterparts rated the                                                   are linked to policies, understandings and cultural
     same categories as poor/very poor.                                                                     differences.

14       < The Use of Learning Analytics to Support Improvements in Teaching Practice >
        Charles Darwin University / Flinders University / Griffith University / James Cook University / La Trobe University / Murdoch University
Differences regarding ethical                                     their ethical concerns and how they felt these might
                                                                  influence their adoption and acceptability of learning
concerns                                                          analytics, specifically where it related to their teaching
The literature on ethics in learning analytics indicates          practice. The responses indicate that ethical concerns in
that teachers’ views on this need exploration. Teaching           Australia and Malaysia differ, as shown in Figures 8 and
staff were asked a number of questions regarding                  9, below.

 Figure 8: Concerns regarding ethics and learning analytics (Malaysia)

   Figure 9: Concerns regarding ethics and learning analytics (Australia)

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Teaching staff in Malaysia indicate a high level of                                                    incorporate into data warehouses. The provision of
     concern about ethical issues across all areas, while in                                                teaching data involves several issues, including the level
     Australia the responses varied more, depending on the                                                  of use of educational technology which can collect the
     aspect of ethics broached.                                                                             relevant interactions between students, teachers and
                                                                                                            systems. Much of the teaching taking place occurs in
                                                                                                            a face-to-face or ‘blended’ mode which limits the use
     Discussion                                                                                             of learning analytics, as some important data is simply
                                                                                                            not captured or not seen as a priority to capture. For
     The results of these surveys make contributions to the                                                 some programs, primarily in the arts and humanities,
     understanding of what is currently available in data                                                   the use of the LMS may be seen to be restricted to
     systems, and the types of data and business questions                                                  administrative and communication purposes, again
     that teaching staff feel would be useful. However,                                                     further limiting the opportunities for data collection.
     the results also highlight several tensions in the
     development of learning analytics capacity and usage.                                                  The findings of this study suggest that educational
     These include balancing business needs and priorities                                                  technology is more widely used in Australian
     with academic priorities and capacities to provide                                                     institutions, which tend to have a greater focus on
     the information being requested. They also highlight                                                   blended and fully online educational approaches. Other
     a tension regarding institutional capacity to build the                                                data such as library access or access to support services
     kind of more advanced predictive models which rely on                                                  is challenging as many institutions do not have systems
     bigger data sets.                                                                                      in place to capture this in an electronic format which
                                                                                                            can be subsequently integrated with other data sets.
     For many institutions the focus is on the development
     of learning analytics to address problems of student                                                   The second factor regarding data collection concerns
     retention, which may or may not be related to the types                                                institutional priorities on the integration of data.
     of questions teaching staff would like to pursue (such                                                 Building data warehouses and ingesting data sets (even
     as curriculum improvement). While it is acknowledged                                                   where they are available) presents significant challenges
     that issues like curriculum design do contribute to                                                    regarding the preparation of data, integration systems,
     retention, this is not necessarily the main contributor                                                and building the appropriate analysis and visualisation
     to attrition. In recent times institutions have generally                                              elements. Preparing, integrating and presenting data
     been looking for the ‘quick wins’ around retention,                                                    is costly and time consuming, and therefore requires
     including investigating the demographics and behaviour                                                 institutions to prioritise its development. At this stage
     patterns of students who are most likely to attrite and                                                institutions have prioritised data integration relating
     developing programs to support these students.                                                         to broader concerns such as finance, human resources,
                                                                                                            teaching load and retention.
     Whilst some improvements in retention have been
     realised through these programs, they have often not                                                   Despite these challenges the survey respondents
     yielded the rates of return (i.e. reduced attrition) that                                              expressed a need for a broad range of descriptive
     were originally hoped. Consequently, institutions are                                                  statistics, with some respondents also expressing
     beginning to embrace a whole-of-institution approach                                                   interest in some metrics such as student grades, unit
     to retention that involves looking at the results of                                                   readiness given prior learning, tasks/assessments which
     institution-wide predictive models in conjunction with                                                 best predict final grade, and patterns of resource usage.
     the analysis of data at the unit/classroom level for each                                              However, the ability to build predictive models requires
     of a student’s enrolled units, in order to gain a more                                                 ‘big’ data, but many institutions do not have enough
     holistic view of a student’s risk profile.                                                             data available/collected for it to fit into this category.
     Essentially, respondents indicated that they would like                                                Currently, the main application of big data analytics
     key teaching and learning data integrated with other                                                   within the higher education sector is the use of whole-
     relevant data (such as demographic data or library                                                     of-institution predictive models regarding student
     access) to be available to them to incorporate within                                                  retention rates. These models are typically developed
     their analyses. However, this is often not available, or                                               using machine learning approaches (such as decision
     when it is, it is not in a form that can be readily utilised.                                          trees, neural networks or support vector machines)
                                                                                                            trained on several years of admissions, demographic,
     This unavailability of data is mainly due to two                                                       grade, LMS activity and wireless logins data, for often in
     factors: the collection of various data in digital form,                                               the order of 100,000 students.
     and the competing priorities institutions face when
     making decisions regarding the choice of data sets to

16        < The Use of Learning Analytics to Support Improvements in Teaching Practice >
         Charles Darwin University / Flinders University / Griffith University / James Cook University / La Trobe University / Murdoch University
In contrast to this collection and manipulation of            applications. However, most teaching staff suggest
big data, classroom analytics, which operate at the           there is great value in being able to utilise descriptive
individual unit of study level, are unlikely to have the      forms of data which do not require large data sets. The
required volume of data to build such models. Whilst in       type of questions teaching staff would like to be able to
a relatively small number of units it is possible for there   answer is explored further in Stage 2.
to be several hundred students enrolled per offering,         In summary, Stage 1 found that teaching staff in both
for many institutions the average number of students          Malaysia and Australia had strong interests in exploring
enrolled in a unit is typically much less.                    learning analytics and determining how it could be used
Even assuming little change occurs to the curriculum          to improve teaching and learning. However, the findings
and learning design over a five-year period, this only        also highlighted the different levels of understanding
yields a small number of training examples, which             and development in thinking as well as institutional
is insufficient to build a reliable predictive model.         capability and readiness. These results reinforce the
Consequently, whilst not impossible, modellers need           stand-alone findings of the Australian study (West et
to develop greater capacity for using smaller data sets       al. 2015), which drew attention to the critical role of
when building predictive models for classroom analytics       context in learning analytics development.

            Stage 2: Exploring teacher metrics

The second stage of the project focused on the                based on three core elements: teacher presence,
development of teacher metrics.                               cognitive presence and social presence. These elements
                                                              are seen as interrelated and, of relevance to this
The work undertaken in Stage 1 raised two critical
                                                              project, together provide a framework that can be used
questions related to the broad development of teacher
                                                              to understand ‘the process of the complexities of online
metrics in this context. The first question concerns the
                                                              learning’ (see Garrison & Archer 2000; Anderson et al.
conceptual framework within which the development
                                                              2001; Garrison & Anderson 2003; Garrison & Arbaugh
of classroom analytics can take place, and the second
                                                              2007; Garrison et al. 2010).
to the potential impact of learning analytics. More
specifically:                                                 The second research question uses the CoI model to
                                                              explore the metrics that could be used by teaching staff
•   Is the CoI model appropriate as a conceptual
                                                              to better understand learning and teaching processes,
    framework within which to situate the
                                                              activities and course design. This is complicated by the
    development of teacher metrics to support the
                                                              wide variety of settings where contemporary teaching
    use of learning analytics to improve learning and
                                                              takes place, including: face-to-face, blended, online,
    teaching outcomes?
                                                              external or distance education, most of which use
•   Can learning analytics impact on learning and             some form of learning management system or learning
    teaching outcomes across a variety of teaching            information technology to enable the achievement of
    settings?                                                 learning outcomes. Investigation into the CoI model
The first question arises from the need to draw on            allowed a clearer focus on how metrics could be useful
educational theory regarding learning analytics               to teachers.
development as outlined above in the Background
literature section. The CoI (discussed at length below
in The CoI model section) is a conceptual framework

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Methodology                                                                                            Issues identified in the academic survey that were
                                                                                                            further explored in Stage 2 were concerned with what
     To answer the questions outlined above, Stage 2 of the                                                 aspects of learning analytics teaching staff saw as being
     project first conducted a focused literature review to                                                 potentially useful to them in improving learning and
     explore theoretical educational frameworks, drew on                                                    teaching outcomes; in particular, the questions they
     insights from key questions in the academic surveys and                                                would like to be able to answer, the reports, and the
     conducted a series of focus groups. These processes                                                    data from which those reports were generated.
     also provided scope for further verification and
     exploration of the findings from Stage 1 (as discussed                                                 Focus groups were then conducted with teaching staff
     above) in relation to the Stage 2 questions.                                                           in three Australian (IRU) universities to explore their
                                                                                                            perspectives on learning analytics, and how they could
     As noted above, and highlighted in Stage 1, the teaching                                               see it being used in their teaching practice. (The focus
     approach taken will have a critical influence on learning                                              groups that were planned for Malaysian universities
     analytics. The literature was revisited in an attempt                                                  are yet to be undertaken, so results from them are not
     to explicitly identify specific teaching models which                                                  included in the findings.) Ethics approval to conduct
     operationalise learning analytics in the classroom. The                                                the focus groups was received via Charles Darwin
     literature review was undertaken prior to the focus                                                    University’s Human Ethics committee, and the focus
     groups and the summary of this work is presented                                                       groups were conducted during March and April 2017.
     in the Findings of the focused literature review
     section below. It is situated in this part of the report                                               Participants were recruited via an email which was sent
     to illustrate the developmental nature of thinking                                                     to all teaching staff in each institution inviting them to
     regarding learning analytics, and to provide a specific                                                attend a focus group to explore teachers’ views and
     theoretical framework for the analysis of particular data                                              requirements regarding learning analytics.
     from the focus groups.                                                                                 A total of nine focus groups with 48 participants were
                                                                                                            held across the three institutions, as shown in Table 1.

     Table 1: Focus group participation

     Participants came from a wide range of disciplines                                                    2.     A discussion where participants shared with each
     including creative arts, business, education, health                                                         other the questions they had written down to
     sciences, physical sciences, and IT, thus providing a                                                        explore ideas and the types of data that might be
     good mix of views and insights into academic challenges                                                      required to answer those questions.
     and teaching approaches.
                                                                                                           3.     An exercise where seven learning analytics reports/
     The focus groups were conducted over 1.5 hours and                                                           visualisations were presented to participants, who
     were facilitated by the project team members in their                                                        were then asked to grade the reports’ usefulness
     own institutions. In order to provide some level of                                                          on a scale of 1 to 5, and to describe what
     consistency the focus groups were structured with a                                                          enhancements to those reports might be useful.
     set of questions and activities and followed the same                                                        An ongoing discussion was held during this exercise
     process in each institution:                                                                                 to explore each report, its applications and the
                                                                                                                  reasons for giving the specific score to each report.
     1.   An exercise where participants were asked to write
          down individually, on ‘sticky notes’, questions that                                             4.     A discussion regarding what other reports teaching
          they would like to be able to answer or have insight                                                    staff might see as useful.
          to in relation to teaching/learning in their classes.

18          < The Use of Learning Analytics to Support Improvements in Teaching Practice >
           Charles Darwin University / Flinders University / Griffith University / James Cook University / La Trobe University / Murdoch University
All the focus groups were audio-recorded and then           teaching, or are teaching in contexts which easily lend
transcribed. All participants were de-identified in the     themselves to the collection of data.
process and the focus group findings are presented
                                                            In the second review of literature we deliberately
at an aggregate level both overall and by institution.
                                                            sought to identify material which specifically discussed
Further methodological elements are incorporated
                                                            the collection of data in classroom settings, as this
in the Findings sections below as the data set was
                                                            literature better responded to our goals of identifying
analysed in a variety of ways; it is best read within the
                                                            the ways learning analytics may be used to improve
context of the Findings of the focus groups, which is
                                                            teaching, and to develop a set of metrics based on
presented as a follow-on to the Findings of the focused
                                                            learning analytics to improve teaching practice. Studies
literature review.
                                                            which discuss pedagogical designs aligned with the use
                                                            of learning analytics were identified (Corrin et al. 2016;
Findings of the focused literature
                                                            Koh et al. 2016; Martin & Whitmer 2016; Toetenel &
review                                                      Rienties 2016; Rodriquez-Tirana et al. 2015) but few of
A further review of literature was undertaken to            these discuss ways of capturing the complex elements
ascertain where practitioners and researchers were          that address both teaching and learning activities.
developing links between learning analytics and
classroom practice. As the focus on online learning         The Col Model
increased in the late 1990s, the need to identify           In attempting to discuss the complexity related to
a suitable pedagogical practice that supported              capturing data related to both teaching and learning
online learning and teaching increased. Numerous            activities, Stage 2 of this project works at the
practitioners and researchers worked to develop a           intersection of teaching and learning pedagogy/theory
suitable pedagogy to support online practice (Garrison      and data science. The CoI model, which is based on a
& Anderson 2004; Laurillard 2002; Siemens 2005;             social constructivist approach to learning and teaching,
Stephenson 2001). Garrison and Anderson (2004)              was found to offer an effective and appropriate starting
recognised that online learning complicated the role of     point.
teaching staff who became responsible for supporting
                                                            The CoI model for online learning has been developed
students to find ways of navigating ‘through this chaos,
                                                            over a number of years and is theoretically grounded
provide order and create the conditions to encourage a
                                                            in social constructivist models of learning and teaching
deep approach to learning’ (p. 17).
                                                            and learning community theory (see Garrison & Archer
Other early practitioners identified the missing            1999; Anderson et al. 2001; Garrison & Anderson 2003;
elements in learning theories in an attempt to              Garrison & Arbaugh 2007; Garrison et al. 2010). The
determine how a new paradigm of learning might allow        model, as delineated in Table 2, is based on three core
the capture and use of potentially unknown data to be       elements, teacher presence, cognitive presence and
associated with the development of new knowledge.           social presence, that are seen as interrelated and which
Siemens (2005), for example, argued that conventional       ‘can provide order and parsimony to the complexities of
learning theories (such as behaviourism, cognitivism,       online learning’ (Garrison & Arburgh 2007, p. 158).
and constructivism) were limited because they focused
                                                            Anderson et al. (2001 in Garrison et al. 2010) define
on the individual learner, rather than what was being
                                                            teacher presence as ‘the design, facilitation and
learned. He suggested that connectivism provides
                                                            direction of cognitive and social processes for the
an answer as it is ‘driven by the understanding that
                                                            purpose of realising personally meaningful and
decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations’
                                                            educationally worthwhile learning outcomes’ (p. 32).
(p. 5) and therefore offers a paradigm for learning in a
                                                            In essence, this summarises the role of the teacher in
digital age.
                                                            online learning from the curriculum design aspects
The focus on connectivism became particularly               through to teaching activities and assessment.
significant as interest in learning analytics developed
                                                            Cognitive presence is related to the student’s learning
alongside the increasing reliance on teaching in
                                                            process and incorporates four key stages: ‘definition of
online contexts. Online teaching and learning
                                                            a problem or task; exploration for relevant information/
provides the opportunity to capture the interactions
                                                            knowledge; making sense of and integrating ideas;
between students and their learning, as it provides
                                                            and finally, testing plausible solutions’ (Garrison et al.
an environment for capturing data on what students
                                                            2010, p32). Social presence is defined as ‘the ability of
actually do as they learn. However, to date the missing
                                                            participants to identify with the community (e.g. course
elements for creating an effective environment where
                                                            of study), communicate purposefully in a trusting
data may be used to inform teaching and pedagogy
                                                            environment, and develop inter-personal relationships
remain elusive, as staff researching learning analytics
                                                            by way of projecting their individual personalities’
are often either not those at the ‘coal face’, engaged in
                                                            (Garrison 2009 in Garrison et al. 2012, p. 32).
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