Reflections on Goldstein, P. J. (2005) Academic Analytics: Uses of Management Information and Technology in Higher Education
by Christopher Teplovs -
Number of replies: 1
I found this article a bit dreary, but only because I dislike the focus on management (at the expense of focusing on learning). This is kind of a sore spot for me: I see a lot of financial resources going into learning management and not that much going into learning. Should we embrace this application of "learning" analytics, or should we actively push back against it in favour of focusing on a more traditional interpretation of "learning"?
In reply to Christopher Teplovs
Re: Reflections on Goldstein, P. J. (2005) Academic Analytics: Uses of Management Information and Technology in Higher Education
Having seen both sides of the coin - the learning and the management side of things, I found the ECAR article interesting. At the same time, I think, rightly as you said, that we shouldn't exclusively focus on management.
The ECAR article was written, it seems to me, by managers for managers. Sometimes those managers have come from a teaching background and know what teachers/instructors/faculty (hereafter "teachers") might want to know, but CIOs don't often come from academic backgrounds (at least in my experience). The data that is pulled and analyzed isn't always the same data and where you come from and what you use it for will influence your conclusions.
Now as far as focusing on the learning, in my experience not all faculty view more learner information as a good thing (as a matter of fact most seem to even view meaningful technology enhancement of their courses as additional work that they don't want to undertake). Part of it is really a culture change issue for existing faculty. The management side (affectionately known as the bean counters) have used data and analytics of various sorts for much longer for their business decisions, so it doesn't really surprise me that we see more info geared towards that side of the house.
The ECAR article was written, it seems to me, by managers for managers. Sometimes those managers have come from a teaching background and know what teachers/instructors/faculty (hereafter "teachers") might want to know, but CIOs don't often come from academic backgrounds (at least in my experience). The data that is pulled and analyzed isn't always the same data and where you come from and what you use it for will influence your conclusions.
Now as far as focusing on the learning, in my experience not all faculty view more learner information as a good thing (as a matter of fact most seem to even view meaningful technology enhancement of their courses as additional work that they don't want to undertake). Part of it is really a culture change issue for existing faculty. The management side (affectionately known as the bean counters) have used data and analytics of various sorts for much longer for their business decisions, so it doesn't really surprise me that we see more info geared towards that side of the house.