A word to facilitators

The Stepping Stones curriculum is a cross-institutional effort out of the Unizin Consortium to prepare faculty to use learning analytics data ethically, effectively, and equitably. These resources are intended for use by facilitators who will use their workshop planning and facilitation skills to create and deliver the learning experience for their instructors. 

About the Unizin Consortium


 

Unizin is a member-based nonprofit 501(c)3 that enables higher education to meet the moment of digital transformation by developing and delivering solutions that address the pressing and complex challenges of data, analytics, and digital content.

Our consortium model and partnerships enable Unizin to build technology solutions, establish relationships, and pursue research that no single institution could achieve cost-effectively on its own.

Learn more about the Unizin Consortium Links to an external site.

Here are some things to keep in mind when using and adapting Stepping Stones resources:

Institutional culture

Our institutions have unique cultures, infrastructure, and policies. Materials should be adapted to help your faculty find local support and resources. On pages where we recommend adding links to your institution's resources, the following banner has been inserted to alert you that there are placeholders on the page for you to update (or remove if they aren't applicable).

FACILITATORS

The content below contains a highlighted and bracketed placeholder for you to insert the information relevant to your institution. Don't forget to update it and remove this box before publishing the page.

Learning analytics vs. instructional design

We’ve attempted to scope this project to practices around data.  As such, these materials augment rather than replicate instructional/course design practices. 

Form and function

Our materials have been generated to accommodate a variety of audiences, goals, modalities, workshop structures, and outcomes. Once you’ve reviewed these resources, we encourage you to establish your workshop goals, then organize and adapt these resources in support of your goals. Most resources are delivered as Canvas Pages; you might use the content to create Discussions, Quizzes, Assignments or synchronous activities depending on your needs.

License

You may use, add, edit, and remove any content as long as you apply the following Creative Commons license, attributing the original materials to their creators:

Stepping Stones: A faculty development curriculum for learning analytics use by the Unizin Consortium Teaching & Learning Advisory Group Faculty Development subcommittee is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

For help importing an editable copy of these resources into your institution's Canvas space, visit How do I import and view a Commons resource in Canvas? Links to an external site.

Adaptation examples

Some examples of how you might use or adapt the materials include:

  • For each module's "Guiding questions," you might:
    • include a discussion thread or survey for faculty to respond to before a workshop where the materials will be discussed
    • have faculty engage in a think-pair-share activity during a workshop session
    • use the question prompts to support a group discussion
  • For the modules themselves, you might:
    • use only modules that address your workshop goals
    • remove pages or paragraphs that are out of the scope of the workshop you're planning
    • update objectives and activities to better fit your specific workshop needs
  • For the associated presentation slides, you may add additional presenter notes or apply your institution's branding/them

A final note

This is a beginning. Our hope is that you will adapt and use these resources, then report what you learned and tell us about the improvements you made. We hope you’ll share your examples, insights, workshop designs and even Canvas sites that you’ve developed using these materials. In this way, we have the potential to grow our library of resources and refine our practices over time.

Thank you,

The Unizin Teaching & Learning Faculty Development Subcommittee
October 2022