Have you ever thought of how many digital traces you leave during your education? It’s hard to count all of them, but it takes place every time you use online platforms and various learning systems for getting assignments, discussions and so on.
Today we provide education process successfully by means of modern technologies, and these technologies can also be used in order to analyze purpose, processes, practices, strengths and weaknesses of higher education. Based on this we can talk about such thing as learning analytics. In other words, it is offered that by means of a special type of information and research people will be able to better learning and teaching.
You may ask us how it works and what the main principles are. Let’s have a close look at learning analytics and how it helps lecturers and universities in general. Imagine that you are a professor who has to teach some big introductory course to the audience of more than 400 students. Traditionally most universities provide the old-fashioned way when a professor stands in front of students and offer the same course material, ask the same questions and tasks to every student. All those people work at the same pace, but is it the best possible way to evaluate all of them?
According to the words and experience of Timothy McKay, a professor-innovator at the University of Michigan, such teaching and learning is good if you class consists of average students. He has been teaching physics and astronomy for more than 20 years, that’s why this talented man knows what he is talking about. Mr. McKay is a big supporter of learning analytics, and he confirmed a fact that the level of students in the class and their interests greatly varies. This result he got after the data had been analyzed. Differences between students are so broad that it’s not appropriate to deliver the same information to everyone.
Learning analytics and personalization of the learning process, as the next step, are not intended to help only students who are at risk, although we quite forget about it. People who are getting higher education have different background, and they also follow diverse goal. Special attention should also be paid to academically successful students. And it’s a real challenge for the lecturer to teach the group where gifted students sit side by side with ordinary students. Even if you know a lot about students’ interests, background and goals, you need some instrument or technology to communicate with each student of the group and support him or her in the best possible way.
The solution to this complicated task was found at the University of Michigan, and it’s called ECoach. It allows finding common ground with students taking into account detailed information about them. In general a message that lecturer wants to present in the class is changed for various kinds of students, as if they were sitting down in front of a tutor. Someone may have better knowledge in this or that subject, and someone may have never heard about it, but by means of special systems all students are able to apprehend the information.
The great benefit of learning analytics is that assignments students perform (we mean papers, essays, term paper writing and so on) are available in online systems, and it gives an opportunity to monitor the progress of students, improve a quality both of teaching and learning. Step by step more and more institutions adopt such a tool, and it helps to find students in trouble and prevent crucial situations too. Even if the identification of the student in trouble is a matter of a computer, then real actions are done by human. Remember it!