Dr Ed de Quincey and Dr Martyn Parker from the School of Computing and Mathematics have been awarded a grant of £19,980 from the Jisc Learning Analytics Research Group to embed Learning Analytics into programme review and curriculum design at Keele University.

The project will look at aggregating learning data from a variety of sources, including student feedback, KLE usage, and attendance, and look at how they can be integrated into the annual module and programme review process.

The research will follow a user-centred design approach, working with academics to find out what questions they want to ask of the data, and how best to support reflection with analytics so that it can be used to inform learning design, longitudinal evaluation and improve the student experience.

The aim will be to create user-centred and data-informed ‘health reports’​ that aggregate information from a variety of sources such as attendance, mark distribution, student feedback, KLE usage, historical performance, library usage and module comparison.

Dr Ed de Quincey, Senior Lecturer in the School of Computing and Mathematics at Keele University commented:

“The project aims to support academics by giving them access to a more detailed view of their teaching, in an effective format that they have co-designed. In the classroom, we have the benefit of being able to judge how students are reacting to our teaching methods. Outside of the classroom though it is very difficult to gauge how delivery over an entire module and degree programme has gone. We therefore hope that this research will identify other ways of measuring the impact of what we are doing and improve our ability to reflect on our curriculum design, ultimately improving the learning experience of our students.”

Jisc’s latest funding call was specifically to support projects to develop learning analytics research, aimed at building the evidence base for learning analytics and delivering direct benefits for students and their institutions.

Dr Ed de Quincey presented an outline of the proposal at the 2nd Jisc Learning Analytics Research Group that was held at Keele Hall and attended by academics and practitioners from all over the country.