Earlier this month, more than 100 students, researchers, and instructors gathered for UBC’s Learning Analytics Hackathon hosted by the UBC Learning Analytics project and LAVA (Learning Analytics, Visual Analytics). The event gave participants the chance to deep dive into the world of learning analytics – a field that explores how educational data can support teaching and learning.
Those who attended were able to work with open learning data from Harvard and the Open University (UK), which showed how real students interacted with online course content – including how often they logged in, what resources they accessed and their grades. To protect students’ privacy, none of the datasets included information that could identify individuals.
The Learning Analytics Project is part of the Learning Technology Hub, a collaboration between the UBC Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology and UBC IT. The project aims to explore what instructors and students can learn from course data and the best ways to display information through several ongoing pilot projects.
One of the tools that will be piloted at UBC includes a dashboard that lets students compare their activity in an online course with (anonymized) students who performed well in previous semesters.
For more information about the event, visit the UBC Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology website.
(Photo by Abigail Saxton)
