W10: Learning Analytics Launchpad

Thanks for an interesting look at learning analytics. I appreciated your class dojo activity, although I have used it I didn't use it to it's full potential. It has made me rethink how I might use it in the classroom. I have a smart board and I use it however I think an app like class dojo is a perfect thing to keep up on the screen for students to help themselves self monitor. I noticed that some of our classmates felt that the tool could be used unfairly in classrooms but I like the openended-ness of the app. It is an easy way to do anecdotal records so that students are always in the loop. Overall, your week was great. I learned about my own biases about learning analytics. I am always worried that when we focus on data we forget about the student but I think there is a give and take. We need learning analytics to support our teaching, not detract from it.

I have worked in the area of visual learning for 15 years and want to commend you not only for the quality of material and instruction but the design and appearance of your OER. Your site was well designed from a visual perspective. Each page was design to highlight the key information and there were no unnecessary links or images. The use of colour was effectively used to highlight key terms, activities or links. I also commend you on considering the tricky question of dealing with navigation buttons and creating the double tabs so people didn’t miss information. As others have mentioned your inclusion of a checklist was welcome. It allows those who like to get the big picture a chance to envision the week and for those who dive in, an opportunity to check that they’ve completed all the tasks. Another design aspect that I particularly liked was highlighting the videos by listing the key points. This helped focus the viewing and gave a purpose to the task. Your instructional design was engaging and balanced. There was a very nice logical progression and a very clear focus. I like the inclusion of the hands on opportunity to explore ClassDojo. It took the theory and made it practical. It also helped highlight the need to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of any product you might purchase in the LA area. Finally, I also liked the inclusion of a survey with the comment section after it. It make it more than the typical multiple choice question and had me thinking rather than just checking off any answer. Thanks for an enjoyable and informative week.

The Learning Analytics team did a great job of presenting and facilitating the week. The content effectively guided individuals through the learning process by slowly building on previous knowledge. The video provided a helpful overview before launching into further information and activities. Through the activities, I appreciated how choices in further activities could be guided by my initial problem or question from Activity 1. This provided a connection and further purpose. In activity 3, the use of Class Dojo permitted users to see first hand how data analytics could be applied and integrated into the classroom. The discussion about the program was one of the most valuable parts of this activity as many comments shared additional ways to use Class Dojo in the classroom. The checklist feature was a helpful tool to allow quick access to revisit the activities rather than having to relocate the activity through the drop down tabs. Overall this was a great week, thanks!

Congratulations Week 10 on your very well organized LA OER. The website was set up very well and easy to navigate from and to your engaging and interesting activities. You provided us with your view on LA that looked as quite good reality scan. Generally it was good learning experience for novices and us who follow analytics since its inception. The three things that could have been better are: 1.Your used the term misrepresentation (instead of misuse) that is not proper and refers to erroneous analysis and presentation of data, while misuse is a more serious problem from the privacy and ethical aspect, therefore it may have caused certain confusion. 2.Your choice of Classdojo as a demonstration of basic LA tool was not challenging for us who are not elementary teachers, but have lots of experience working long time in complex higher education environments. 2. Groups are expected to be more responsive on colleague's positive intent for deeper learning, analysis and topic dissemination. We all know that it is demanding and overwhelming, so for the sake of the whole class deeper learning, I intentionally fired up a few questions about the real application of LA at UBC, but your group defensively bordered yourself in your chosen research topic boundaries and weren't ready at all for that additional discussion, therefore the whole class missed the opportunity to disseminate and further build knowledge on that important topic and its practical implementation issues in real environments. Regards, Milorad.

Hi week 10, I think your group did a great job. The website was easy to follow and the activities were engaging. The content was delivered in a way that covered the basics but provided enough detail and insight to understand analytics. The discussions and conversations were well-monitored by your members and led to deeper discussions. I also appreciated the resources shared. Well done!

Great work week 10. Nice format and layout, your activities were sequenced nicely. I first thought that I was going to have difficulties and would need more of an explanation of learning analytics than the first pages of your OER provided but it turned out that the mix of intro videos, opening activities and class comments blended nicely to quickly produce a well rounded presentation. Your OER has helped me look at all of the tech ventures we've discussed from a new perspective and consider the potentially valuable data that could be collected from the wide variety of tools used in learning environments.

Week 10 - great job on learning analytics, I felt like this was perfect timing for me, as I have been wanting to learn more about what the capabilities of analytics are, and what as an educator you can look for through these tools. I really appreciated the organization of your website, the ease of navigation and checklist. I also realized afterwards that the use a consistent tool for participation was key (ie. activities through comments) because there was no confusion, everyone could participate without major barriers and I knew what to expect. Your content and activities were great, I felt like I learned something new, and was able to actively incorporate the information into my own circumstances. Great job!

Great job Week 10! I think you did a solid job covering the basics of a wide ranging field. Your information was well presented and the activities were well thought out. As many other people have already pointed out the Checklist was a nice touch. One thing I would suggest is on your team member page (and this is just a personal preference) is to include a short bio so people viewing the site outside of the program have an idea of your expertise. Thanks for an interesting week!

Nice introductory video. I particularly liked how they framed the value of analytics with the question; “How do you know what you know?” Your OER presented the importance and usefulness of analytics in a clear, well thought out and developed platform. The WordPress is nice and clean. I like the Suits them and have used it myself in the past. I am a huge fan of the ‘checklist’ so thank you for including that as it helps students remain organized and focused on the tasks they need to complete. If I have to provide some constructive feedback it would be to point out that your OER states that you are focused on K-12 analytics but the resources for Activity #2 are largely post-secondary however, you did expose us to a variety of analytics tools which is beneficial to the diversity of our cohort. Immersing us in analytics with the use of Class DoJo was great idea and good exposure to a simple tool that can be used to affect change in the classroom in real time. The Poll Daddy vote embedded in your page was another good example of analytics at work, and I look forward to seeing your Google Analytics at the end of the week. Overall this was a nicely paced and organized OER that adds value to the topic of Analytics. Nice touch adding a list of universities offering a degree in Data Analytics!

Great OER, week 10! Your activities are very well designed and constructed. Having my own question for an approach to the topic in the first assignment, I could read and participate in the following resources with a view that is applicable to the real situations. The two categories of learning analytics application are both emerging. The most difficult part is creating forecasts in our OERs, and your focus on challenges of learning analytics is very thought provoking. The choice of resources and presentation are both easy to follow and I learned the given topic with the condensed resources and activities. Thank you for the wonderful resources.