Finnie, R. and Usher, A. (2009) Making university education a quality product Globe and Mail, September 9

Briggs, L. (2009) Dashboards deliver data visually at ASU Campus Technology, September 3

Neither of these articles is specifically about e-learning. I’m the one drawing the connection. However, both articles are discussing how better use of existing data could improve decision-making in universities and colleges.

Finnie and Usher are arguing that ‘while a great deal is understood about what makes for a higher quality education, there is still much we do not know.‘ They go on to argue that: ‘what’s needed is not some new set of numerical targets….but rather a concerted attempt to exploit the massive potential of the data already at our disposal to better measure, understand and improve quality.’ They argue that by analysing data such as class size, experience/category of professors teaching, pedagogical approach, student demographics, etc., and linking it to student performance in terms of grades, completion rates and satisfaction, we would have a much better understanding of the key factors that influence a ‘quality’ education. (Anyone heard of factor analysis and its problems?). It does not seem to be a big step to include an analysis of different approaches to the use of technology for teaching within this soup of factors.

The difference though between what Finnie and Usher are proposing, and the work at ASU, is that Finnie and Usher are arguing for a large nationally funded research program to do this work. However, Arizona State University is already doing related data analysis for internal decision-making through the use of business intelligence software, using ‘dashboards–succinct graphical summaries of information that are commonly used in business to present data to executives and managers – as a way of presenting information. John Rome, associate vice president, University Technology Office at ASU, sees

‘dashboards as just another tool in the university’s business intelligent (BI) arsenal–a tool that can bring BI to casual users, allowing them intuitive and easy access to detailed data. Dashboards typically present a fairly high-level summary of a specific category of data, then allow the user to click on various areas to drill down into details. “You shouldn’t have to be a rocket scientist to use BI,” Rome said.’

The use of adapted or off-the-shelf business intelligence software that drills down and cross-analyses data from existing data banks seems a much more immediate and productive way to investigate those factors that affect quality than a large national research project that will take many years to produce results which then have to be applied to more specific cases. In particular, we should be looking at identifying or developing business intelligence tools that can link data about different uses of technology to learner performance, with factors such as student demographics also being taken into account. (That assumes of course that institutions are systematically collecting data about how teaching is being delivered, which many are not). However, the two approaches are not mutually exclusive – a national research program could build on internal applications of business intelligence and vice versa.

Declaration of interest

My son works as a knowledge architect on business solutions for the Oracle Corporation, one of the biggest developers of business intelligence software.

3 COMMENTS

  1. *Please* send your comments as a response to the Globe!

    Based on what I have read of their work to date, Finnie and Usher are unaware of the significant body of ‘student learning research’ on educational quality (eg Biggs, Harvey & Knight, Entwhistle, Vermundt – and, of course, Bates!). Canadian resources for higher education are scarce – and even scarcer for research on teaching and learning in higher education. The kind of study proposed by Finnie and Usher will result in no more than retrospective correlations between measures which may not be sensitive to the qualitative changes in learning and teaching practices associated with educational quality in student learning research. Surely we will have more impact on the quality of higher education by using our resources to apply and extend a well-established body of research than by waiting for yet more research. And given that student learning research has been developing for almost 40 years, a very useful focus for future research would be to find out how to get universities to adopt evidence-informed educational policies and practices:-)

  2. Great comments, Ros.

    My concern is to get better data into the hands of the people who actually make decisions about e-learning, particularly heads of department, faculty, and deans. They are more likely to act on the data if it is based on their own institution than on research reports based on data collected outside the institution (The ‘We’re different’ syndrome.)

    At the same time, I agree that we also have to find ways to get the 40 years of research on learning into educational practice, and that’s a tough challenge given the voluntary nature of professional development in universities.

  3. […] Scenarios for Open Source, Open Content and Social Software. May 5th, 2008 by Graham Attwell …Using business intelligence software to improve the …… institutional performance, planning, policies and management – institutional, quality and […]

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here