Workshop on Educational and Social Sciences, 19-21 Jul, at the National University of Singapore. Research Talk

1. Welcome to the
Workshop on Education and Social
Science Technologies
(WESST 2017)
&

3. Agenda
Welcome Address by SoC – TAN Kian Lee
Welcome Address by ALSET – Robert KAMEI
ALSET’s Data Lake – Chris BOESCH
ALSET Research – Min-Yen KAN

4. SoC - NUS School of Computing
in Numbers
Faculty Established
1 July 1998
Formerly known as
Department of Information Systems and Computer
Science
(DISCS)

5. SoC - NUS School of Computing
in Numbers
Faculty Strength:
105
Academic Staff
137
Research Staff
Student Population:
2,330
1,800
Undergraduate Students
530
Graduate Students

6. SoC - Recent Rankings
QS World University Rankings by Subject
(Computer Science & Information Systems)
Times Higher Education
(Computer Science)
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology ETH Zurich
2 Stanford University California Institute of Technology
3 University of Oxford University of Oxford
4 Harvard University Massachusetts Institute of Technology
5 Carnegie Mellon University Georgia Institute of Technology
6 University of Cambridge Carnegie Mellon University
7 University of California, Berkeley Imperial College London
8 ETH Zurich École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
9 National University of Singapore Technical University of Munich
10 Princeton University National University of Singapore
11 University of Toronto Cornell University
12 Imperial College London University College London
13 The University of Melbourne University of Washington

7. SoC - Research Strengths

8. SoC - Missions & Aspirations

9. SoC - Undergraduate
Programmes

10. Thank you!

11. Agenda
Welcome Address by SoC – TAN Kian Lee
Welcome Address by ALSET – Robert KAMEI
ALSET’s Data Lake – Chris BOESCH
ALSET Research – Min-Yen KAN

12. ALSET - The NUS Institute for
Application of Learning Science
& Educational Technology
ALSET’s mission is to apply learning science and
educational technology to advance teaching and
learning.
Our vision is to be a global thought leader in
education, with a niche in the translation of learning
science to practice.

13. ALSET - Mission
We help learners learn.
Research
We conduct original
research on learning
science, technology,
and pedagogy.
Innovation
We promote novel and
entrepreneurial
projects that improve
learning outcomes.
Education
We work to ensure the
latest research and
learning technologies
have broad impact.

14. ALSET - The Challenge
• More research needed on how learners learn
• New technologies, pedagogies, and policies are changing
how students and teachers approach education
• Most research until now happened in the United States and
Europe → understanding of Asian contexts still limited
• Best practices don’t always make it to the classroom
• Proven technologies and pedagogies are often overlooked
• Students, teachers, and administrators lack data about their
effectiveness and how to improve

15. ALSET - Approach
ALSET uses the latest advances in data and
technology to achieve impact.
Data
We manage a “data
lake” for NUS that
includes data on
student behaviors,
performance, and
long-term outcomes.
Technology
Our team includes
experts in machine
learning, data
analytics, learning
science, and education
technology.
Impact
We help translate the
latest advances in
learning science and
technology into
solutions for students
and teachers.

16. Leadership
Our executive team includes experts in education,
research, and technology.
Chris Boesch
Deputy Director
Robert Kamei
Director
Min-Yen Kan
Deputy Director

17. Core Faculty
Our core faculty hails from a diverse range of
academic disciplines.
Patricia Chen
Core Faculty
(Psychology)
Joseph Jay Williams
Core Faculty
(Computer Science)
Fun Man Fung
Core Faculty
(Chemistry)
and others to be recruited...

18. Advisory Board
Our advisory board includes leading figures in
learning science and education technology.
Ranga
Krishnan
Ranga
Krishnan
Trevor W.
Robbins
Andreas
Schleicher
Lori
Breslow

19. Agenda
Welcome Address by SoC – TAN Kian Lee
Welcome Address by ALSET – Robert KAMEI
ALSET’s Data Lake – Chris BOESCH
ALSET Research – Min-Yen KAN

20. Data Lake Objectives
To facilitate BI/Analytics and research activities
involving University Data by:
•Consolidating multiple datasets from multiple sources and system for analysis
•Supporting “Big Data”
•Enabling access to raw (or near-raw) data for Data Scientists/Analysts
•Initial phase to support institutional research/analytics on student-related data

21. Dataset Load Timeline
Apr 2017 Sep 2017
Datalake (Hadoop Platform)
Jul/Aug 2017
SIS Phase 1: Student biodata, education, programme of study
SIS Phase 2: Academic records and activity — class, milestones, enrolment
SIS Phase 3: Financials — student financial info, financial aid
IVLE Phase 1: Audit logs — info on IVLE services used or accessed
Research Publications: Publication data from Elements
Data Catalog/Business Glossary: to be built at the same time with respective datasets
IVLE Phase 1
IVLE Phase 1
IVLE Phase 1
new
IVLE Phase 1
Research
Publications*
SIS
Phase 2
new
new
SIS Phase 3
Dec 2017
SIS Phase 2
SIS Phase 1
SIS Phase 3
SIS Phase 2
SIS Phase 1SIS Phase 1
SIS Phase 1

22. 2018 Envisioned Datasets
1. Graduate Employment Survey
2. WiFi Logs
3. LMS Transaction Logs (IVLE)
4. Email metadata
5. Student Feedback
6. Job Placement and salary data
7. Co-curricular Activities
8. Student Housing
9. Internship
10. Medical Excuse Logs

23. Qlik
Dashboards
Vision for BI/Analytics
Data Lake Access
Jupyter
Notebooks
Hadoop
HDFS
R Server
Hive SparkHawq
Firewall
Knox Gateway (future authentication service end-point)
HUE
JDBC/O
DBC
Authentication,
Audit
(app end-point)
Authentication,
Authorization, Audit
(data/service end-point)
Ranger
(futureauthorization
service)Secured, user
application/access
gateways

24. Agenda
Welcome Address by SoC – TAN Kian Lee
Welcome Address by ALSET – Robert KAMEI
ALSET’s Data Lake – Chris BOESCH
ALSET Research – Min-Yen KAN

25. ALSET Research Office
SoC FASS YLLSoMFoE FoS SDE
NUS Faculties
...

26. Granting
Agencies NRF
ALSET Research Office
NIE
SoC FASS YLLSoMFoE FoS SDE
MOE
NUS Faculties
...
IAL

27. Granting
Agencies NRF
ALSET Research Office
NIE
SoC FASS YLLSoMFoE FoS SDE
MOE
NUS Faculties
Office of the Deputy President – Research and
Technology (ODPRT)NUS wide
...
IAL

28. Granting
Agencies NRF
ALSET Research Office
NIE
SoC FASS YLLSoMFoE FoS SDE
MOE
NUS Faculties
Office of the Deputy President – Research and
Technology (ODPRT)NUS wide
NUS ALSET
(under Provost)
...
IAL

29. ALSET Faculty
Core Faculty: whose research has a strong connection
towards understanding and improving learners' ability to
learn. Has impact beyond their particular discipline's
expertise, longitudinally or across modules.
Affiliated Faculty: whose research is enhanced by
ALSET data lake.

30. Service to Faculty
Preparation of grant proposals (e.g., literature review)
Internal review board (IRB) application assistance
Bridge funding for targeting external funding
Core: Access to soft funds, privileged access to data lake
Responsibilities:
Attend (or organize) ALSET functions at least once
(twice) per year

31. Related Research Grants
Teaching Enhancement Grant (TEG)
Learning Innovation Fund – Technology (LIF-T)
– Ministry of Education Tertiary Research Fund (MOE
TRF)
– MOE-NIE eduLab
– MOE Academies Fund (MAF)
– Workforce Development Applied Research Fund
(WDARF) - Presentation later
– Social Science Research Council (SSRC)
– National Research Foundation’s Science of Learning
(NRF SoL)
– NRF’s upcoming AI.SG initiative
NUS
Internal
External
Funding

32. Steady State Scheme
1. Faculty link with an ALSET programme: Data Lake,
Learning to Learn course, University-wide Surveys or
Learning Innovation Lab
2. Faculty win the grant
3. Provost provisions ALSET with additional percentage
funding, similar to an indirect research cost overhead,
but which comes from the Provost, not from faculty’s
grant.

34. Archipelago Invite - For
Discussion and Panel