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Kathryn Evans

EMA

Tuesday, 16 Aug 2016, 13:15
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Well the end is in sight and I'm looking to start the EMA.  Of course when I say start I mean read, think, bookmark - as ever I'll probably write it the weekend before its due in!  But off to a flying start with a mind map to give me pause for thought.


EMA Mindmap

So - first thoughts.  Well the idea of Open Education has long intrigued me but I never seem to finish a single MOOC, this would be a good chance to really get my head around one but have I got time?  I should be finishing an Adobe Train the Trainer online course around this time which I guess is a MOOC but I haven't got past the first week yet so choosing Open Education would be a great way to do both.

Learning Design - I love learning design, or so I thought until I did the group project.  Was it just group work that put me off?  Or was it the depth of material required?  Or that our group wasn't very large and we struggled to communicate?  I need to think carefully here if I'm going to look at Learning Design.

Learning Analytics - well I hated these and never got my head round them until the 11th hour when Steve gave me a suggestion for the TMA.  Not only did they click, I realised I'd used them before, came up with a business idea which I'd like to pursue (not sure I ever will though - I have a lot of ideas and little time!). I enjoyed the TMA, even the analytics in the end so its a contender.

I guess writing the post has had me narrow it down to Open Education or Learning Analytics.  What a surprise - if you'd asked me at the beginning of the unit I would have said Learning Design!

Off to do some more thinking and attend a webinar on safeguarding.  whoop de do.

Tags: ema, open education, learning analytics, learning design
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Kathryn Evans

Social Learning Analytics

Friday, 15 Jul 2016, 13:49
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Edited by Kathryn Evans, Friday, 15 Jul 2016, 14:23

I've jumped ahead a little so I can interact with the group - I've been a little unwell the past week and this has meant I fell asleep every time I tried to either read or listen to (I have software which converts!) any papers.  But I was keen on this project as I love the chance to be creative.  So after receiving an injection of energy (literally - I have a B12 deficiency) I took myself off to the Ideas hub in Chelmsford to work through it.  Not only is this a creative space but currently there is a schools arts festival on and I have been enjoying the music played by local kids whilst I worked.

Anyway - heres a powtoon of the important points as I see them.  Context?  Encouraging parents in the home schooling networks to look towards SLA to encourage learning.




Tags: sla, learning analytics
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Kathryn Evans

National Concerns about Education

Friday, 8 Jul 2016, 12:57
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Before starting this I know my personal concerns are going to affect my judgement.  I believe that our education system is fundamentally flawed and that we are no longer serving the best interests of our children.  I know this will colour my thoughts on this issue so excuse me if I rant a little!

Looking at Educase review it talks about how more people from a diverse background are gaining degrees in HE.  What it doesn't tell you is where those degrees lead to?  All of the Chinese and Indian graduates - are there jobs for them?  Do they gain a degree then work in a call centre/factory etc?  

The action analytics seems to point towards using analytics to improve opportunities for learning across all groups rather than looking at the old model of HE providing learning to spend its funds.  I see it advocates using analytics to provide further opportunities to improve the uptake of education across poorer groups of society and spur students on into achieving higher levels of qualifications.

Part 2

As for the PISA results - I keep getting errors trying to access them but I have looked at other work on the forum and noted that in comparison with near neighbors/similar systems the UK is fairly on a par with both those and the averages.  Having seen education systems in countries like China and India there is no real like for like comparison.  I will come back to this section.



Tags: learning analytics, pisa
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Kathryn Evans

Defining Learning Analytics

Wednesday, 6 Jul 2016, 14:05
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Wow its good to be back to blogging and off that bloody group project.  As ever I gave myself a week off after the TMA (which I didn't start until the Group project deadline had passed) so here I am playing catch up.  I'm also behind on my Adobe Train the Trainer MOOC - giving up teaching was supposed to help sort this out!  Oh well on with the task.

Wikipedia (2016) "Learning analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs" 

The words that jump out at me are contexts, and environments - interesting as they seem to focus on the learners as people not statistics.  Reading on I was pleased to note this theme continued and that there were definitions which showed analytics being useful in planning support and intervention.  In fact it wasn't until the context that I felt that sinking feeling as the word accountability cropped up.  

Dipping into the history I see that the current definition is less personal, which is a worrying trend.  Maybe I was being optimistic (as ever) when I picked up the context and environments as my main points.

Siemans & Long (2011) interested me with the idea that learning analytics are transformative.  

"analytics provides a new model for college and university leaders to improve teaching, learning, organizational efficiency, and decision making and, as a consequence, serve as a foundation for systemic change. "

The idea that the analytics can shape higher education by penetrating the fog and shaping the planning of activities intrigues me, personal experience shows that to use analytics to shape learning requires constant data collection and analysis throughout the course in order to personalise the learning experience.

I couldn't find the second paper.  Maybe I'm being dense.

My reading did help to shape my thoughts towards my definition.

Learning Analytics - A model for improving personalisation of learning through understanding the contexts, experiences and environments which are shaping individuals learning experiences.


Siemans, and Long, (2016). [online] Available at: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm1151.pdf [Accessed 6 Jul. 2016].

Wikipedia. (2016). Learning analytics. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Learning_analytics&action=history [Accessed 6 Jul. 2016].

Tags: learning, learning analytics
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