Using Learning Analytics for Student Success

blog.blackboard.com/32005/

Richard Burrows
Across Europe and around the world, governments and educational institutions are facing increased pressure to
deliver ever-greater numbers of highly skilled students to meet the needs of an increasingly knowledgebased economy. At the same time, these organisations look to control costs, deliver better value for money
and provide greater transparency about the educational experience they oer to their key constituents:
students, parents, employers and the higher education funding bodies.
Governments and institutions are evaluating how to respond and how they can improve the eectiveness of their
operations, including making better use of data. Other industries, such as retail, manufacturing and healthcare
are successfully using data driven insights to improve eciency and eectiveness and leading educational
institutions are now starting to consider doing the same. They are looking to harness the power of data and
analytics to improve student retention, provide better feedback to learners, enhance the overall quality of
teaching and improve the eectiveness of their operations. In summary, they are looking to increase
student success.
But what do we mean by student success? Student success means dierent things to dierent institutions: for
some it may be ensuring that the student is retained and does not drop out or withdraw, for others it about
ensuring that the student achieves their full potential, and for others it is that they graduate in a timely manner.
I have the chance to talk to clients on a daily basis and discuss with them what it takes to implement a Learning
Analytics solution. Besides having the right platform in place, it is important they have a clear understanding of
what they want to achieve and how the institution and its solution partners can work together and deliver against
that plan.
Every institution has its own approach based on multiple factors, but some topics and goals seem to be
recurring.
Data driven interventions for student success
A key application of Learning Analytics is identifying the students who need additional support to be successful.
While institutions generally seek to provide support for all students, identifying those in the most need is often
dicult they are often not the students who will come forward and ask. By considering a students demographic
prole, academic history, online engagement and early academic performance, Learning Analytics can help
identify the students who are most likely to need support and do so early enough in their studies that
interventions can have maximum benet.
Human relationships are at the centre of education
First and foremost, education is about human relationships. Learning Analytics serves institutions to identify the
students and inform the human interventions that are so important to student success. Learning analytics will not
replace teachers or advisors, rather it allows all those who work with students across the university to have
better informed and more eective interactions.
Supporting change management
Considering all the stakeholders that inuence student success, the major challenge is not the technology itself,
it is about helping sta evolve from the old way of doing things to a new, better informed way. To facilitate this,
institutions need to develop their plans around the use of data and assess their readiness. This goes well beyond
their technical readiness and encompasses strategy, policy, processes, systems and people.
Partnership for success
Institutions need to consider who is best placed to address the individual components that come together to form
a student success solution.

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Technically, Learning Analytics is strictly linked to the math behind it, especially when it comes to using
predictive analytics, since the reliability of the predictions is governed by the quality of the algorithms and the
choice of data used. Our approach, for example, has been to rst carry out fundamental quantitative research,
led by some of the worlds leading data scientists, and then use the ndings of that research to inform product
design and deliver a scalable, easy to use system to deal with the large quantities of data involved.
Student Success will be a fundamental measure in a future characterised by increased competition and greater
accountability. At Blackboard, we have been working hard and making the strategic investments to help
institutions benet from the power of the data and analytics.
Want to learn more about how Blackboard helps drive institutional success with learning analytics? Access the
University of Derby case study

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