There is a question: how to track student's data when they're outside of LMS?
We can track all the data, while they using internet access provided by the institution. And it is possible to ask students to use institutional proxy server, while surfing the internet via their own notebooks (netbooks) outside of the institution.
Is it a good or a bad solution? Any more ideas?
Ivan Travkin wrote,
I suppose one could use aggregators - something like my lifestream for each one, which could then use a differential tag per std and piped into the institution. Not sure how you could then pipe this data into an analytic tool.
how to track student's data when they're outside of LMS?
I suppose one could use aggregators - something like my lifestream for each one, which could then use a differential tag per std and piped into the institution. Not sure how you could then pipe this data into an analytic tool.
This may work for the tech savvy students, but with a little more than 10 years under my belt in higher education student support (in one capacity or another), I can tell you that most aren't that savvy. The institution would have to be hands-on the student's laptops to set that up (and who knows what sort of resistance you get there).
But we can propose a simple computer program to these students. It will have only two buttons: turn on the proxy, turn off the proxy. All they need to know is that it is possible (if they want) to produce some data for analysis while they learn on the web.
Hello Ivan. Your solution may work in some situations. I am aware of many programmes where, unfortunately, this does not work for a variety of reasons. One reason is that students can be on very limited bandwidth or on good bandwidth 'if only they can keep a connection'. This means they rapidly give up on clunky institutional logins with their multiple layers of privacy and login codes and head for something that works fast - like Skype (if available in their country). Another common reason is that students will use their company wikis - which sys-admins are highly unlikely to allow to be connected to any university site - or they use a Facebook group to which some (many?) universities will not link. The list goes on....! :)