The use of data analytics in schools and educational institutions provide immense support to its key players. It visualises a detailed description as to where a student performs better and worse. Also, it acts as an effective tool for lecturers and instructors to improve their work. It also delivers institutional administrators and its management with the right metrics to evaluate their performance without having to worry about technical intricacies. However, a great deal of analytics services can only be made effective by the right choice of platform suited for institutional needs.
As educational institutions generate large amounts of data, Learning management Analytics can bring significant improvement to its functions. Services and facilities offered to students can deliver insights regarding the performance of the institution. As students engage in their activities, the learning analytics system collects and organises data regarding various parameters such as; their behaviour towards peers and the way they navigate through the digital space. It records information like date, time, and even the time spent on reading articles on electronic medium, among other digital footprints. It also analyses a students’ overall completion rate of a course, chances to succeed in a course, and map the strength of students’ interaction with their peers and instructors using social network analysis
Traditionally, it was difficult for Learning Management Systems (LMS) to export data for analysis. But nowadays, data extraction tools integrated within the platform which makes it possible to draw more valuable insights from available data. While there are systems that allow students to monitor their own progress using dashboards, LMS with learning analytics enable instructors to decide whether to intervene in a student’s education by analysing dashboards which are created using various visualisation techniques. Similarly, advanced systems use algorithms to automatically intervene by sending status updates to students and instructors on a requirement basis.
Applications of learning analytics are not just limited to students and instructors, it is also used by researchers and other administrators to access data across the institution. The dashboards allow them to compare student activities and learning metrics within and between course departments.
Analytics systems can reach out to the entire operations of an institution to make it more efficient at analysing student data from all verticals. More importantly, it ensures efficiency and effectiveness in functions of all the members involved in an education system.With the help of reports visualised in the form of dashboards, instructors and students can make sure that they are on the right track to achieve their goals. It also ensures institutional administrators that their interests are aligned with stakeholders and also meet government requirements at the same time.
