Using Learning Analytics in Personalized Learning Ryan S. Baker University of Pennsylvania

What are we talking about when we talk about personalized learning? Same words, so many different meanings

Analogy: False cognates in language

Analogy: False cognates in language Embaraçada in Portguese: Embarrassed

Analogy: False cognates in language Embaraçada in Portguese: Embarrassed Embarazada in Spanish: Pregnant

What is personalized learning? Multi-dimensional as Gregg pointed out earlier

What is personalized learning? Personalizing learning to student interests Gregg’s term: relevance Personalizing learning to student knowledge Gregg’s term: proficiency

What is personalized learning? A lot of schools using computer systems that personalize learning based on knowledge Today I will discuss these systems and the opportunities and challenges they create for teachers and schools

We want every student to succeed How can we help struggling students?

How can we help struggling students? Consider a classroom learning about algebraic equations

How can we help struggling students? In a class of 24 students working with problems like X + 2X = 12 3X + 2X = 20

How can we help struggling students? Perhaps five students will have the common difficulty in understanding that X = 1X

How can we help struggling students? Perhaps five students will have the common difficulty in understanding that X = 1X And therefore will have trouble realizing that X + 2X = 3X

It’s not very efficient For the teacher to talk to the entire class about a difficulty that less than 20% of them might have.

It’s not very efficient For the teacher to talk to the entire class about a difficulty that less than 20% of them might have. And what if – by chance – none of the students have that difficulty this year?

But… Ignoring a potential student difficulty isn’t a very good solution either

One option The teacher could wait until homework or the test to find out, and then give feedback

One option The teacher could wait until homework or the test to find out, and then give feedback But that’s a long time for the student to wait…

Personalized Learning Systems Can Help

These systems offer Immediate feedback and support to student Focus student on material the student will most benefit from learning now Is this in contradiction to CIL’s definition of personalized learning, where students have more control over learning pathways? Information that teachers can use Based on the information automatically collected as the student works in the system

Information Distilled Through Learning Analytics/Educational Data Mining (Baker & Siemens, 2014) Distillation of models that can infer student knowledge, cognition, engagement from their behavior within personalized learning system These models can predict variables associated with long-term student achievement (San Pedro et al., 2013, 2015) Communication of that information to teachers and other school personnel

New teaching practices enabled

Proactive Remediation (Miller et al., 2015) Teacher gets up-to-the-minute data from learning system Teacher determines that several students have made the same mistake Teacher immediately discusses the problem with these students While rest of class continues ongoing activity

Adapting Non-Computerized Activities (Feng & Heffernan, 2006) Review which problems students had difficulty with during homework Discuss these problems in class Nice video example of this by Kim Kelly, a math teacher in Leominster, Massachusetts https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Jb6Szy4fZ2w

Identifying Missing Prerequisites (Canfield, 2001) At the beginning of the school year, learning system quickly evaluates students using brief computer-adaptive test Teacher is notified if students are missing prerequisite skills they should already know Giving teacher an opportunity to prevent student from falling behind right at the start of the year

Better Results Obtained in Stringent Studies Cognitive Tutor Algebra (Pane et al., 2015) ASSISTments (Roschelle et al., 2016) ALEKS (Hu et al., 2012; Craig et al., 2013) Redbird (Suppes et al., 2013, 2014)

Why These Systems Work

Much More Information Available A teacher might see a student make a single error in a whole-class activity A computer program will see the student’s answers and pattern of hint requests on several problems

More Timely Information A teacher isn’t able to grade homework until the following day (or longer) A computer program can grade the student in real-time

Less Work for the Teacher A teacher grading dozens of homework assignments doesn’t have the time to study each student’s homework assignment for patterns of errors A computer program can automatically search for patterns of errors identified by experts

Students Can Make Progress Even When Teacher is Helping Someone Else With on-demand help and instant feedback from the learning system

So… The teacher can focus time and effort where it matters most Not on grading But on working with a struggling student or group of students to understand why they are struggling Helping every student to succeed!

EdX MOOC “Big Data and Education” Next iteration starts June 19 Learn More twitter.com/BakerEDMLab Baker EDM Lab Penn Center for Learning Analytics EdX MOOC “Big Data and Education” Next iteration starts June 19 All lab publications available online – Google “Ryan Baker”