Much has been written about how data and analytics can unearth new questions and innovative solutions. Data-driven decision models are heralded as part of digital transformation initiatives. Clickstream data can be mined for valuable insights! But what does it *actually* mean for teaching and learning?

This session won’t discuss the hype surrounding data and analytics initiatives. It won’t be academic or research-driven. What it will provide is a practical introduction to learning event standards (eg. xAPI, Caliper), learning record stores, and the work underway at UBC to build data infrastructure for learning data. We’ll cover:

  • Who needs learning events? Who is a learning event about?
  • What is a learning event?
  • When does a learning event occur?
  • Where do learning events occur and where do they go?
  • Why?

It’s a whirlwind journey through the challenges and opportunities where the learning analytics rubber meets the road. We’ll cover how a learning tool is instrumented to emit events and its journey to a storage location where it can be used to support evidence-informed teaching and learning.

Speaker

Jeff Longland
Solutions Architect, Learning Applications | The University of British Columbia

I'm a solutions architect at UBC's Learning Technology Hub and acting senior manager at UBC IT. For someone whose work is largely technical, I'd describe myself as a cynical optimist about the role of technology in teaching and learning. Everywhere that I see potential improvements, I also see potential harm. It creates a tension in my work that I thrive on. I also enjoy variety in my work and have found that in spades working in the Learning Technology Hub's learning analytics team over the last 5 years.