At the recent quarterly UTS Learning Design Meetup we shared reflections and examples of learning analytics impact from three practitioners: Kirsty Kitto (Associate Professor Connected Intelligence Centre, UTS), Danny Liu (Associate Professor (Education-Focused), University of Sydney) and Donna Rooney (Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, UTS).
In this first re-cap, we share highlights from our first speaker Danny Liu, who demonstrated the use of The Student Relationship Engagement System (SRES) in Canvas and the possibilities and potential of using data in a different way than traditional methods.
How can we start capturing the human elements of teaching, beyond what’s available in the LMS? What kinds of data do we want to start thinking about, which are meaningful to us pedagogically, and humanly as well?
Danny Liu
As Danny mentions in the video excerpt below, academics can use SRES to connect to their Canvas courses and select specific data they want to sync to the system’s database. SRES helps academics capture real human activity and meaningful data beyond what Canvas provides. He gave examples of how students can engage with the system, such as recording audio clips, reflecting on assignments, and providing feedback. This human data, along with Canvas data, allows teachers to have a collective understanding of student progress and interactions.
Among the benefits, Danny highlighted that the system enables teachers to:
- Create customised emails, targeted feedback, and personalised dashboards for students;
- Send different messages based on student preferences and assignment status;
- Provide feedback aligned with students’ specific requests, enhancing the pedagogy and learning design of their units.
It was great to hear from Danny highlighting the value of incorporating human data into the learning analytics process and emphasising the need for a system like SRES to capture and utilise this data effectively to support the student learning experience.
Three takeaways: human data, personalisation and system integration
For me, there were three takeaways from Danny’s presentation. Firstly, the significance of capturing human data. As humans are complex creatures, students’ behaviours as they interact with digital systems can’t be simply understood by analysing the number of clicks they make. Instead, by incorporating student reflections, preferences, and interactions into the system, a more comprehensive understanding of student engagement and progress can be achieved.
Secondly, the value of customisation and personalisation in learning analytics. Academics can tailor emails, feedback, and dashboards to meet the specific needs and preferences of individual students. This level of customisation enhances student engagement, supports targeted feedback, and creates a more personalised learning environment.
Finally, the importance of integration between digital systems in education. From a technical perspective, systems integration enhances data aggregation, interoperability and analytics capabilities; from a human perspective, that system integration helps to promote effective communication and interaction among teachers and students, foster engagement and enhance the learning experience.
Further reading and resources
Stay connected with the UTS Connected Intelligence Centre (CIC) to see their latest work on data science and human-centred design, including learning analytics. Explore more UTS blogs and resources on using learning analytics:
- L.A. Confidential: can we make better use of learning analytics?
- From data dump to ethical engagement: where next for learning analytics
- Analyse this: improving student engagement with New Analytics in Canvas
Delve into some longer articles, journals and podcasts on Learning Analytics:
- IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies
- Journal of Learning Analytics
- SoLAR Spotlight: Conversations on Learning Analytics
We look forward to sharing more from the Meetup soon! To attend future Meetups, contact Mais Fatayer and join the conversation in the Learning Design Meetup Teams channel.