Learning Analytics @ CSU

Our institutional Learning Analytics system tracks student and teacher activity in all Interact2 Subject Sites.  The analytics captured fall into 3 categories:

1. Accesses – when Subject Sites are accessed, by whom and for how long.  These analytics allow us to see things like who has or hasn't accessed a site, time of last access and duration of accesses by different participants in the site
2. Interactions – what is "clicked on" within the Subject Site, by whom, when, and duration of interaction.  These analytics allow us to see things like who has or hasn't interacted with what content (e.g. files, links, pages) or tools (e.g. forums, groups, tests) within the Subject Site, how long they have spent in that content/tool, and individual participants' overall activity levels with the Site
3. Submissions – what is posted/submitted to the Subject Site (including posts to forums, journals and blogs).  These analytics allow us to see when submissions are made using tools like forums and journals, and who made them

The analytics above may be combined (e.g. looking at a combination of data about accesses and interactions) in order to enable the University to identify students who may be in need of support.

Automated reports on analytics from within Subject Sites are provided to Subject Co-ordinators. More detailed mining of data from Subject Sites may also be performed by Adaptive Learning and Teaching Services on behalf of the University.

Tests and quizzes within Subject Sites also capture analytics, such as accesses, attempts, duration and achievement (scores), which can allow us to see things like how an individual student progressed through a test/quiz and/or how students performed on and engaged with a particular question.

The Online Meeting system captures participant data and provides reports on i) who attended particular meetings, ii) log-in and log-out times for meetings, and iii) user responses to any questions/quizzes used in the meeting.

The CSU Replay system captures data on student usage of recorded sessions. These analytics allow us to see which students have viewed a recording, how much of the recorded they viewed and when.

In addition to storing students' responses to questions, the Subject Experience Survey system will capture meta-data on student access to and completion of their surveys, such as log-in/out and survey submission times. No identifying information is reported to teaching staff. Identified analytics/meta-data are only used for the purposes of a) communication regarding the survey (i.e. recognising if a student has completed their survey and removing them from the recipient list for reminder emails), and b) user support (i.e. to diagnose any systems issues that users may be experiencing).

The ePortfolio system captures meta-data about user activity, such as the timing of user activity and submissions. At present, this meta-data is only retained and used to support system administration and is not reported for any purposes related to learning and teaching.

RealizeIT is the adaptive learning system adopted by CSU. It is only utilised in a small number of courses to provide interactive online tutorials and lessons that are responsive to a student's achievement. RealizeIT captures and reports on analytics relating to accesses, attempts, activity, progress, duration and achievement. This enables us to see things like who has and hasn't commenced specific lessons/tutorials, how students are progressing through those lessons, if/where students are "getting stuck" and how they are performing on the tests/quizzes therein.