A new report on the implications of digital learning analyses the outcomes of four research projects carried out over a period of three years and provides insights into improvements for research, teaching and learning at Australian and Malaysian universities.
The project was a joint Innovative Research Universities (of which Flinders is a member) and Malaysia Research University Network collaboration, and covered the sub-projects: Digital Readiness, Effective Teaching, Learning Analytics and Learning Spaces. The outcomes are summarised in the report, The Implications of Digital Learning.
Professor Deborah West, Dr Ann Luzeckyi and Dr Richard Price were involved in the learning analytics project, which is detailed in a separate report ‘The Use of Learning Analytics to Support Improvements in Teaching Practice’.
Their project involved identifying an understanding of the current ‘state of play’ of learning analytics in Australia and Malaysia, and how these could be better used to support and enhance teaching practice. It resulted in a number of significant findings, together with a range of actions and considerations including:
- The importance of determining the readiness of an institution to gather, process and apply data from a range of sources and to include teaching staff in discussions and decision-making.
- The need for clear plans for learning analytics, taking into account institutional readiness and other relevant contexts, which should be communicated to staff in a timely manner.
- To improve the use of reports, value proposition for users needs to be clear, the reports need to be easily accessible and professional development should be provided.