Digital Education Synergies or conflicts? Relationship between learning analytics and student support in UK HEIs Samantha Ahern s.ahern@ucl.ac.uk @2standandstare

Overview Why learning analytics and wellbeing? The national picture: learning analytics The national picture: student wellbeing and mental health Overview of project & current findings Questions?

#stepchange “Institutions are encouraged to align learning analytics to the mental health agenda to identify change in students’ behaviours and to address risks and target support.”

The data Image from a presentation by the University of Exeter Green = currently in use Yellow = would like to use Red = not interested in using All this data is behavioural -> changes in behaviour can signify a change is student wellbeing Image source: https://analytics.jiscinvolve.org/wp/files/2017/02/2017-02-22-Jisc-LAN-Boulton-et-al.pdf

Learning Analytics Jisc LARG Student-facing learning analytics solutions Student well-being and mental health Learning analytics for curriculum enhancement Developing the evidence base to support better understanding of the impact of learning analytics Northumbria University – early intervention scheme Source: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-and-events/press-and-media/innovation-partnership-and-data-can-help-improve-student-mental-health-in-new-14m-drive/ Northumbria University: By mining new data sources, such as social media, researchers at Northumbria are developing an Early Alert Tool designed to identify students in crisis and deliver the help they need. Only one in three people who die by suicide are known to mental health services in the UK, emphasising the importance of spotting early warning signs. The university already analyses student data to flag potential mental health issues, such as patterns in grades, lecture attendance records, library usage, and how often students log on to virtual learning environments. This funding will allow researchers to develop and test additional data points to help students in difficulty more effectively.

National: Student Wellbeing & Mental Health Office for Students Challenge Competitions University Mental Health Charter Student Minds SMaRteN Universities UK Minding Our Future, Suicide-safer Universities Definition - Critical Compassionate Pedagogy (Hao, 2011)

Local: Student Health and Wellbeing Objective 1: Establish a whole-university approach to student health and wellbeing Action D: Make key concepts related to disability awareness, inclusive learning, health and wellbeing an integral part of relevant professional services staff and Personal Tutor training. Incorporate these concepts into curriculum development, design and governance.

Project: Synergies or Conflicts The project will identify the current nature and purpose of student support and learning analytics implementations, and identify any synergies or conflicts between these two systems. It aims to identifying how these can be aligned to better support student wellbeing and mental health, as recommended in the UUK #StepChange report. writing down responses or ideas..

About Student support & wellbeing policies analysed Institution Type and Focus Pre 92 Post 92 Alternative Provider Teaching Intensive 4 1 Research Intensive Neither 7 HEIs recruited Combination of providers 4 had learning analytics policies Student support & wellbeing policies analysed Identification of purpose of learning analytics program – in progress Survey to identify data usage and sharing – in progress

Findings to date Analysis of student support policies identified that at least one policy from each of the participating institutions included the term ‘monitoring’ and for 6 of the institutions at least one policy contained the term ‘data’. However, it is not clear from these policies what the data is or how it is used. At least one policy from two of the participating institutions contained the term ‘analytics’, and 1 policy from 1 institution contained the term ‘dashboard’. 6 responses to online survey, online 3 are fully complete and useful for analysis.

Thank you