Learning Analytics

Learning professionals are increasingly looking to bring learning analytics to the centre of their practice. But to do so effectively they have to be clear-eyed about the challenges of communicating an evidence-based narrative about learning to time-poor executive stakeholders. Effective communication about learning data should start with understanding the organizational context within which those data will be received and acted upon, the wider arena of business analytics.

As an IDer in higher education, I’m often asked how to effectively use course or learner evaluation data. In this article, I’ll explain how to select and design questions in course evaluations, how to analyze the results, and share practices to implement your findings.

Remember when learning data was limited to course registrations, completions, test scores, and survey responses? Those days are gone. Modern learning includes Virtual and Augmented Reality, serious games, knowledge bases, expert networks, adaptive learning, chatbots, intelligent coaches, online communities, performance support, and more. Each of these generates data.