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Lorenzo Vigentini
The University of New South Wales
@l_vigentini

Elsuida Kondo
The University of Melbourne
@ElsuidaKondo

Kevin Samnick
The University of Sydney
@Kevin_Samnick

Danny Liu
The University of Sydney
@dannydotliu

Deb King
The University of Melbourne
@fyimaths

Adam Bridgeman
The University of Sydney
@adambridgeman

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Monday 4 December, 11am – 11.30am
Stream 5
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Abstract

The changing landscape of higher education is putting increasing strain on educators, leading to a diminishing ability to provide pedagogical and pastoral support to ballooning and diversifying cohorts. Learning analytics promises solutions to these challenges for educators, including by personalising learning support and experiences, streamlining data capture and analyses, and providing teachers with new, efficient teaching approaches. However, reports of these impacts, or widespread adoption of learning analytics, or even examples of cross-institutional collaboration are sparse. We argue that this may be because of a lack of educator-driven learning analytics tools that meet their felt needs, and present case studies from three Australian universities that have collaborated to implement such a tool. This tool, the Student Relationship Engagement System (SRES), empowers educators to collect, collate, analyse, and use student engagement and success data that they consider meaningful for their particular contexts. Developed by unfunded educators and widely adopted through collegiate recommendations, the SRES enables personalisation and targeting of student learning and support using relevant data, fostering positive student-teacher relationships and enhancing student engagement. Using the three case studies as a backdrop, we present a revised learning analytics adoption framework focussing on strategy, structure, support, and impact, and use this framework to systematically evaluate the adoption and implementation of the SRES at the three institutions to derive ‘recipes’ for adopting an educator-focused learning analytics platform. We also discuss three core themes emerging from the case studies, around the needs of academics, the role of academic and educational developers, and flexible and agile information technology practices.

About the authors

Lorenzo Vigentini

Lorenzo is the Academic Lead Educational Analytics in the portfolio of the Pro-Vice Chancellor Education at UNSW Sydney. Lorenzo’s background is in Psychology, Learning and Teaching in the Higher Education sector and have a lot of experience in IT/e-learning development. His expertise is into quantitative and qualitative investigations of learning processes at the crossing between cognitive psychology, differential psychology, education and human-computer interaction. His main interest is about technology, its use, its evolution, its interaction with learning and the interface between human and machines (also physical using computer vision, brain activity monitoring, the ‘quantitative self’ and IoT).

Elsuida Kondo

Elsuida is the Developer of Learning and Teaching for the Faculty of Science at the University of Melbourne. Elsuida’s background is in analytical chemistry, mathematical modelling, and Learning and Teaching development. In her current role her main interest is in learning analytics evaluation, student engagement and interactive learning development.

Kevin Samnick

Kevin is a dedicated and lifelong proponent of the value of learning. He has a background in pharmaceutical research, STEM education, and educational technology. His approach to education is fuelled by practical and tangible connections to holistic outcomes for learners and educators in their lives both in the classroom and beyond. Kevin has worked in pharmaceutical research in industry and in a University context supporting research in cancer, tuberculosis, and pulmonary drug delivery. Later he taught science, chemistry, and biology in secondary schools before moving into elearning support in the tertiary environment. Currently he is part of a team managing the migration to a new learning management system at the University of Sydney.

Danny Liu

Danny is a molecular biologist by training, programmer by night, researcher and academic developer by day, and educator at heart. A multiple national teaching award winner, he works at the confluence of learning analytics, student engagement, educational technology, and professional development and leadership to enhance the student experience.

Deb King

Deb has a PhD in mathematics and has worked at The University of Melbourne since 2002. She is the Associate Dean (Undergraduate Programs) in the Faculty of Science and Director of Teaching in the School of Mathematics at the University of Melbourne.
She leads the FYiMaths network, a national initiative to support professional development of tertiary mathematics educators and encourage innovation in education. She has been awarded institutional and national teaching awards, and has led two national mathematics education projects; Mathsassess, investigating assessment practices in tertiary mathematics and FYiMaths.

Adam Bridgeman

Adam is Director of Educational Innovation at the University of Sydney and holds a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from University of Cambridge. He was awarded the RSC Higher Education Teaching Award in the UK in 2004. In 2006, Adam moved to the University of Sydney as Director of First Year Studies in the School of Chemistry. He became Associate Dean of Learning and Teaching in 2012 for the Faculty of Science. As well as receiving institutional and national awards for teaching in Australia, he became an Australian National Teaching Fellow in 2015. In November of 2015, he finally escaped Chemistry to take up this new role in the DVC Education Portfolio at Sydney. In this role, he is tasked with invigorating and changing the learning and teaching culture through a focus on blended, collaborative and interactive learning styles.