Applied Academic Analytics (10 pts)

This assignment extends our consideration of academic analytics into a perspective associated with EDUCAUSE.  EDUCAUSE primarily serves Information Technology professionals in higher education.  In contrast to the Institutional Analysis perspective, this perspective started from a focus on data. This seems to overlap more with other work in Learning and Learner Analytics.

Upon completion, you should be able to 

• Articulate and discuss six types of action analytics analytics and their relevance to you and other educational professionals.
• Describe a relevant example of performance analyticss
• Articulate and discuss the notion of academic analytics as it relates to you and other educational professionals

ENGAGE WITH THE READING  (REQUIRED, BY DUE DATE)

1.  Access and read/review the paper.  Click here to access Norris, Bear, Leonard, Pugliese,&  Lefrere;(2008) Download Norris, Bear, Leonard, Pugliese,&  Lefrere;(2008)
      Links to an external site. Try to read the paper straight through.  If you have trouble following it then just skim it and come back to the assignment. You may also wish to reference Cambell, DeBlois, & Oblinger, (2007) Links to an external site. for more detailed information on these topics
2.  Describe the Primary Actions for Academic Analytics and rank relevance. Norris et al. briefly describe 6 general categories of action oriented analytics:  Focus on analytics of processes, solutions, & behaviors, Incorporate workforce factors, Use open architecture analytics, Use multiple institutional and departmental levels in a solution, Develop new practices, and Develop an organizational capacity and culture of evidence-based analytics. Describe each one as it might be relevant to you and the description in order of perceived relevance (most-relevant to least-relevant) and justify. At minimum explain why the first appears most relevant and the last appears least relevant. 
3. Summarize a relevant Example of Performance Analytics.  Review the five Examples of Performance Analytics and write a summary of the one that appears most relevant to you and explain why it is relevant. Try to work in the "new practices" on page 44.
4. Describe Action Analytics
5. Summarize four aspects of Institutional Capacity, Culture, and Behavior. Figure 2 adapts Graves (2005) discussion of institutional capacity, culture, and behavior in terms of Technology, Innovation, Information, and Analytics.  Briefly describe each as they are relevant to you and rank in order of relevance on some meaningful dimension (this could be importance, centrality, difficulty etc.) and indicate what dimension you used to order them. If you can't order them after looking at peer examples just say say so.
6.  Complete the survey for this assignment.  There is a brief multiple choice survey used to provide participatory analytics.  It is not optional and it is located here.  If you change your ranking please retake the survey. If you disagree with any of the specific recommended actions, please say so and justify your claims.
7.  Save.

LOCATE AND SHARE EXTERNAL RESOURCES, PUBLISH, AND SUBMIT (REQUIRED FOR BADGES AND CREDIT, BY THE DUE DATE)

This is a new activity that you will do every week going forward. It is optional for the non-credential students.

1. Search the Internet for relevant resources.  Use Google Scholar and the links on the Resources Classwiki and begin searching for external resources that are relevant to your EDS Challenge and your professional roles and goals.  These can be articles, podcasts, websites, slideshares, etc. Spend enough time to find ones that are relevant and then engage with them.  If you find useful directories to multiple resources, please insert them at the top of the classwiki.

2.  List and annotate least three relevant external resources.  Insert an appropriate header.  Insert the URLs for at least three external resource that are particularly relevant to your challenge, roles, and goals. Add an annotation indicating how the article is relevant to you and more generally.  List them in order of relevance and make it clear why the first one is most relevant. If you plan to write the optional literature review paper, write these as paragraphs closer to how they might appear in a literature review paper.
3.  Share your most relevant resource.  Copy and past your most relevant resource and annotation with the class and paste it under the appropriate header for this week on the classwiki.
4.  Refine your EDS Challenge.  You should be able to further refine your EDS challenge using insights gained from interacting with the paper.
5.  Save, publish, and submit (by the due date).  

INTERACT WITH PEERS (REQUIRED, BEFORE AND AFTER THE DUE DATE)

This is the same as in the previous assignment except that a peer promotion element was added.

1. Consider posting a question to the instructor and your peers.  Try to come up with a question that this assignment raised for you.  Post it as a comment to your wikifolio. It is best to write the question in a way that leads others to read your wikifolio.
2.  Read and discuss peer wikifolios.  Examine and comment on at least four of your peers.  Be sure to read their introductions on their homepage before reading their wikifolios. Post questions, get discussion going, etc.
3.  Respond to comments and questions.  Be sure to go back to your own wikifolio and respond to comments and questions.
4. Like at least five peer comments.

REFLECT ON YOUR ENGAGEMENT (OPTIONAL, WITHIN ONE WEEK OF THE DUE DATE)

1.  Critical engagement: How suitable was your EDS challenge and professional context for learning the big ideas this week?  Did your classmates have a challenge and a context that were more directly relevant?    You are not being asked to criticize your understanding or your work; rather you are critiquing the suitability of your professional context for learning to use the knowledge of EDS that we were introduced to this week.
2.  Collaborative engagement.  Review the comments from your classmates and reflect on any insights that emerged in the discussions, anything particularly useful or interesting.  Single out the peers that have been particularly helpful in your thinking, both in their comments and from reading their wikifolios.  Your goal each week should be to get recognized in the reflection on collaborative engagement by your peers.
3. Consequential engagement.  What are the consequences of what you learned this week for your professional role and for educational professionals in general. What are the broader consequences of these ideas?  Try to be specific in your examples but general in your thinking.