EASICONNECT - a whole-of-institution implementation of learning analytics used at Central Queensland University (CQUniversity) - presented by visiting scholar, Damien Clark.  EASI, or Early Alerts Student Indicators assists academics in not only identifying students at-risk of failure, but also with tools to nudge students to re-engage with their studies.  While MAV, or Moodle Activity Viewer offers an innovative way of visualising Moodle site usage, not with tables or graphs, but instead using a heat map.  It assists academics with evidence of use (and disuse), thus informing continuous improvement of Moodle sites, and ultimately, the student learning experience.  Damien discusses the technical aspects of EASICONNECT, opportunities and considerations for adoption of EASI and MAV at your institution.

1. EASICONNECT @ CQUni
Damien Clark
Twitter: @damoclarky
http://damos.world
Colin Beer
Twitter: @beerc
http://beerc.wordpress.com
Rolley Tickner
Twitter: @rolley
http://rolleys.wordpress.com

2. Is a Team Effort
Colin Beer
Rolley Tickner
Me!
Introductions

3. Is a Team Effort – Team Background
Teaching
Research
Programming
Data Analysis
System Administration
Graphic Design
DB Design
Complementary blend of skills:
Self Appointed:
Ed Tech Team (not in org. chart)
Central L&T

4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/6727304641/
The Institution
CQU Context (Brief Overview)

5. Where is CQU?
Our footprint…

6. Where is CQU?

7. Where are our HE
students?
20+ Locations
Source: CQU Student Records
+ VET - 2014
Distance Ed
International

8. Source: CQU Student Records
Distance Ed
International
Where are our HE
students?

9. Demographics
Predominantly
Regional/Remote
Enrolments

10. Live Demonstrations

11. Early Alerts Student Indicators (EASI)
Presentation

12. Estimate of Success (EOS)
Emphasises communication
between teachers and students
rather than accurate prediction
https://xkcd.com/612/
Aggressively weighted towards risk of failure
More false positives than false negatives
http://www.hangthebankers.com/5-top-economic-advisers-forecast-world-war/

13. http://sorenandersson.com/a-sustainable-nudge/
Nudge
Nudge (verb):
1. to push or poke (someone) gently, esp with the elbow, to
get attention; jog
2. To push slowly or lightly
3. To give (someone) a gentle reminder or encouragement
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/nudge

14. Nudging in Business
Amazon Marketing

15. Early Alerts Student Indicators (EASI)
Presentation

16. CQUni’s Moodle site doesn’t have MAV
No MAV links
MAV installed in browser

17. MAV Staff Self-install Page

18. Firefox Add-ons / User Scripts
MAV installed in browser

19. Moodle Activity Viewer – Under the Hood
No changes to
Moodle code ✔
Moodle
Database Copy

20. Moodle Activity Viewer – Under the Hood
No changes to
Moodle code ✔

21. Examples of Use (MAV)
http://www.doityourself.com/scat/handtools/
Responses:
“I can see which links are being
clicked on and which students
are clicking on those links and I
can see whether or not I am
wasting my time producing a
video that no-one ever
watches or if there is
something that has got the
students’ attention and there is
a lot of people clicking on it, I
can see what that is.”

22. http://www.doityourself.com/scat/handtools/
Examples of Use (MAV)

23. http://www.doityourself.com/scat/handtools/
Examples of Use (MAV)

24. IT Change Management
Recommendation:
“Implement Vanilla systems (remove or reduce
customisations unless essential or demonstrated
benefit over cost)”
(CQUniversity Information Technology Department
Restructure, 2013)
http://www.praqma.com/services/plainvanilla
https://twitter.com/vanillagames

25. Moodle Activity Viewer – Under the Hood
No changes to
Moodle code ✔
Remember this?

26. http://elevator.empowernetwork.com/blog/lifes-too-short-to-be-plain-vanilla
We think…
IT Change Management

27. https://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/6727304641/
Remember, context is everything!
IT Change Management

28. IT Management - Context
KPIs SLAs
Downtime =

29. IT Management - Context
Let some goofs
(that’s us)
change the LMS…
http://www.adnews.com.au/campaigns/captain-risky-gets-riskier-with-budget-direct
=
Change introduces risk

30. IT Management - Context
http://www.adnews.com.au/campaigns/captain-risky-gets-riskier-with-budget-direct
=
Thus…

31. Contextual Constraints – Risk Aversion
Break through
professionalcommunicationinbusiness.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/communication-barriers.html
Work around
or

32. Let’s get technical
Software Stacks
http://theamericangenius.com/editorials/how-to-tell-between-a-geek-and-a-nerd/
Integration Points
Scalability
Business Continuity

33. EASI/MAV – Foundation Software Stack
PHP 5.4
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mrmiller/15-121/Homework/hw8/hw8.html
Redhat EL 7
PostgreSQL 9.3
Apache 2.4
GIT

34. EASI – PHP Software Libraries/Package Management
Smarty 3.1
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mrmiller/15-121/Homework/hw8/hw8.html
PHP MVC & OOP
Propel 1.7
Composer

35. MAV – PHP Software Libraries/Package Management
Smarty 3.1
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mrmiller/15-121/Homework/hw8/hw8.html
PHP MVC & OOP
Guzzle HTTP Client
AraraProcess

36. EASI – Javascript Frameworks
jQuery-UI
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seattle_library_framework_inside.jpg
jQuery

37. MAV – Javascript Frameworks
Firefox Greasemonkey Add-on
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seattle_library_framework_inside.jpg
jQuery
jQuery-UI

38. EASI – Integration Points
PHP Term Class
https://support.xmatters.com/hc/en-us/articles/202864035-The-Getting-Integrated-Guide-part-1-
LADB
“Hard-coding” gotchas
Moodle course site re-use?

39. LADB – Learning Analytics Database

40. Data Sources & Aggregation

41. Nightly Aggregation Framework - PHP

42. Nightly Aggregation Framework – PHP Class Hierarchy

43. Demarcation of components

44. MAV Aggregation Table
Sample data

45. MAV Aggregation Table
MAV Aggregation Process calls Moodle Event2 API

46. MAV Aggregation
MAV Aggregation Process calls Moodle Event2 API

47. MAV Aggregation Script (PHP)

48. EASI - Hardware
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meeker's_Hardware
Web/DB Frontend Staging Database
2 x CPUs
4GB Ram
100GB HDD
4 x CPUs
8GB Ram
1000GB HDD

49. Backups/Business Continuity
http://www.safetyphoto.co.uk/photo%208/safety%20photo%208.htm
Data Protector – FS Backups
VM Snapshots
Postgresql PG_DUMPs

50. Hosting Challenges
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupperware
Data aggregation @ Netspot or La Trobe?
Does La Trobe transfer nightly
cloud backups locally?

51. Thanks!
https://coub.com/view/4pyf0