Slides of the SEFI 2017 workshop delivered by the STELA and ABLE Erasmus+ project in Tampere, Finland.

1. CAN LEARNING ANALYTICS IMPROVE
ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN BOTH MOOC
AND TRADITIONAL LEARNING CONTEXTS?
Tinne De Laet
Jan-Paul van Staalduinen

2. Presentation Overview
• Introduction to STELA and ABLE projects
• Considerations for using learning analytics
• Demonstration of learning analytics dashboards
• Reflections on using learning analytics in different contexts

3. Introduction to the STELA and ABLE Projects

4. STELA Project
• Successful Transition from secondary to higher Education using
Learning Analytics
• Project partners:
• The main goal of the STELA project is to enhance a successful
transition from secondary to higher education by means of
learning analytics.
• The STELA project…
 Involves designing and building student and staff-facing analytics dashboards
 Aims to develop dashboards that go beyond identifying as-risk students;
allowing actionable feedback for all students on a large scale
STELA Project: 562167-EPP-1-2015-1-BE-EPPKA3-PI-FORWARD
www.stela-project.eu
@STELA_Project

5. ABLE Project
• Project partners:
• The main goal of the ABLE Project team is to research strategies
and practices for using learning analytics to support students
during their first year at university.
• The ABLE project…
 Involves developing the technological aspects of learning analytics
 Focuses on how learning analytics can be used to support students
ABLE Project: 2015-1-BE-EPPKA3-PI-FORWARD
www.ABLEproject.eu
@ABLEproject_eu

6. Considerations for using learning analytics

7. What is Learning Analytics?
• no universally agreed definition
“the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about
learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and
optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs” [1]
[1] Learning and Academic Analytics, Siemens, G., 5 August 2011, http://www.learninganalytics.net/?p=131
[2] What is Analytics? Definition and Essential Characteristics, Vol. 1, No. 5. CETIS Analytics Series, Cooper, A.,
http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/2012/521
“the process of developing actionable insights through problem
definition and the application of statistical models and analysis
against existing and/or simulated future data” [2]

8. What is Learning Analytics?
8
[3] Learning Analytics and Educational Data Mining, Erik Duval’s Weblog, 30 January 2012,
https://erikduval.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/learning-analytics-and-educational-data-mining/
“learning analytics is about
collecting traces that learners
leave behind and using those
traces to improve learning”
[Erik Duval, 3]
† 12 March 2016
• no universally agreed definition

9. Is it about institutional data?
• high-level figures:
provide an overview for internal and external reports;
used for organisational planning purposes.
• academic analytics:
figures on retention and success, used by the institution to assess performance.
• educational data mining:
searching for patterns in the data.
• learning analytics:
use of data, which may include ‘big data’,
to provide actionable intelligence for learners and teachers.
[4] Learning analytics FAQs, Rebecca Ferguson, Slideshare,
http://www.slideshare.net/R3beccaF/learning-analytics-fa-qs

10. Discussion
• Please spend 5 minutes talking to others on the table about the
following:
1. What are your core questions about learning analytics?
2. What are your initial thoughts on causes of concern and/or
perception of benefits for first year students?

11. Demonstration of learning analytics dashboards

12. study advisor STUDENT
interaction
self-reflection

13. interaction
self-reflection1
2
3
scores scores
learning skills
study advisor STUDENT
1 Erasmus+ project ABLE 2 Erasmus+ project STELA3

14. interaction
self-reflection1
2
3
scores scores
learning skills
study advisor STUDENT
1 Erasmus+ project ABLE 2 Erasmus+ project STELA3

16. interaction
self-reflection1
2
3
scores scores
learning skills
study advisor STUDENT
1 Erasmus+ project ABLE 2 Erasmus+ project STELA3

21. interaction
self-reflection1
2
3
scores scores
learning skills
study advisor STUDENT
1 Erasmus+ project ABLE 2 Erasmus+ project STELA3

29. Learning analytics for learners
Do learners change their behaviour when confronted
with their learning performance relative to that of
successful learners?
Tracker deployed
in the Drinking
Water MOOC
Dan Davis, Guanliang Chen, Ioana Jivet, Claudia Hauff, and Geert-Jan Houben. Encouraging Metacognition
& Self-Regulation in MOOCs through Increased Learner Feedback. LAL Workshop 2016.
5,462 learners
were exposed to
the intervention
TU Delft MOOC learning tracker

30. Do learners change their behaviour when confronted
with their learning performance relative to that of
successful learners?
Dan Davis, Ioana Jivet, Rene Kizilcec, Guanliang Chen, Claudia Hauff, and Geert-Jan Houben. Follow the Successful
Crowd: Raising MOOC Completion Rates through Social Comparison at Scale, LAK, pp. 454-463, 2017.
Social comparison raises MOOC completion
rates
Learning Tracker
deployed in 4
MOOCs
33,726 learners
were exposed to
the intervention

31. Reflections on using learning analytics in different contexts

32. Workshop Activity
• On your tables please pick one of the Dashboards to discuss and
consider:
1. How might your institute use the Dashboard to support student
transition?
2. How might the Dashboard work with other initiatives at your
institution to support student transition?
3. If you were designing your own learning analytics tool which
elements would you keep or enhance and remove or edit?
Assign one person for a “one minute”
plenary statement at the end

33. Thank you for listening.
Any questions?
www.ABLEproject.eu
@ABLEproject_eu
www.stela-project.eu
@STELA_Project