Using Analytics at UMBC: Encouraging Student Responsibility and Identifying Effective Course Designs

Higher education invests considerable resources into technology for academic purposes, but understanding whether those instructional technologies improve learning is often a difficult question to answer. Although rates of adoption and other measures can indicate activity, the core issue of learning impact is not as simple to demonstrate. This bulletin describes efforts at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) to understand and apply learner analytics to answer this question. We began by looking for correlations between LMS data and student final grades and then considered what an institution might do with predictive information about the likelihood of academic success. We also wondered whether examining student activity might help identify effective teaching practices and practitioners and thereby influence the design of future courses.

Citation for this Work: Fritz, John. “Using Analytics at UMBC: Encouraging Student Responsibility and Identifying Effective Course Designs” (Research Bulletin). Louisville, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research, April 30, 2013, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.