Hi Ed (and all)

That's a very good suggestion. At Plymouth we don't currently have such a system but are in the middle stages of developing one - we will have a 'customer relationship management' (CRM) system that will operate throughout the student lifecycle and it will include the kind of functionality you describe as Learning Analytics.

I think what you say makes good sense re raising the profile of LD work - but the question of 'measurability' of impact remains .... err ...cloudy to say the least ... for me.

Thanks to folks who replied to my original post so far. I agree with Paul (Chin) that, despite the challenges, "if we don't set up our LOs (objectives) in the first place, how can we hope to claim that we've actually achieved (our outcomes) if we can't measure what we set out to do?"

I'm still keen to hear if anyone has recommendations of literature / reports (or to hear  your thoughts) about establishing intended learning outcomes and measuring impact for LD activities., and would be grateful for any leads ...

John


-----Original Message-----
From: Foster, Ed [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 22 May 2014 08:40
To: John Hilsdon
Cc: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: LD 'Learning outcomes' and impact

If you are looking at impact can I suggest that LDers make sure that they are involved in discussions with whoever is developing Learning Analytics at your institution. For our student dashboard we are developing a free text screen for personal tutors, other course leaders, academic librarians and (through an administrator) student mentors to enter notes.

These are intended to be used in discussion between personal tutors and students (they will be visible on the student view).

1) this promotes the work of ld to academics
2) potentially it's searchable and we can look at impact on engagement immediately after the 1-1

Happy to discuss further if none of this makes sense

Ed

Ps someone really smells coconutty on this bus. It's nice

Sent from my phone

On 21 May 2014, at 18:20, "John Hilsdon" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:

Dear all

I thought I would try to capitalise on the momentum developing around the current discussion on feedback and evaluation, and put a question to you all about 'learning outcomes' in Learning Development work, and the problematic issue of their measurement. I know we've talked about the impact of LD on this list before but I think a re-visit may be timely ...

My Dean is very keen that all initiatives undertaken by staff in her domain should be 'measured' for their 'transformational' impact! We are being encouraged both to identify intended learning outcomes, and to develop ways of measuring impact. There is, of course, a range of theoretical and practical questions about the value and possibility of doing this. A major concern about attempts to measure impact/outcome of any initiative is the effect that the measurement has on the activity itself. At the simplest level, the time taken to 'measure' by whatever means, may be time taken away from interaction and productive learning. Hussey and Smith (2002) in 'The trouble with learning  outcomes' (Active Learning in Higher Education Vol 3(3): 220-233) usefully critiqued the approach - they argue that "their alleged explicit clarity, precision and objectivity are largely spurious" and " ... their effects may be undesirable in educational terms". They are not totally dismissive - "There is some obvious use in specifying what aspects of the content of a subject students will be expected to learn and what general kinds of skills and capacities they will be expected to display ..." They conclude that: "...the proper interpretation of these outcomes must emerge from the context and prevailing activities and experiences of the students: they cannot be, in themselves, either clear or precise and do not specify objectively measurable entities" - and " ...do not lend themselves to strict auditing, but they may open the way to a better understanding of the process of education" Could / do LDers adapt such a flexible interpretation of LOs (or ILOs) and their measurement to the work we do with students in individual or group sessions? How would that be possible? If we sought constantly to test students to check their achievement, how on earth could we do it - and what reaction would we get? If we asked students to self-report their 'progress' at every turn how annoying would that be?! How useful? how meaningful? And yet, how do we indicate impact meaningfully to satisfy Deans and others?

I am not saying we cannot or should not be concerned with ILOs and impact - I am very open to the idea that there are useful, significant, student-generated and moderated ways to do it ... but as yet I have not seen or heard about a method to do this in the systematic and comprehensive way my Dean seems to imply we should be doing that would be both practical and would not detract from the learning experience ... any ideas, folks? And is/are there any more recent literature, reports or journal articles you can recommend on the subject?

John

John Hilsdon
Head of Learning Support and Wellbeing
Room 104, 4 Portland Mews
Plymouth University
Drake Circus
Plymouth
PL4 8AA
+44 (0)1752 587750

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