1. Classroom Walls That Talk
Using Learning Analytics to Raise Awareness of Underperforming Students
ELI Annual Meeting
February 14, 2012

2. Overview Problem A Solution—not THE Solution Implications Next Steps
More Information
Q & A
John
While the demo consists of static screen shots, if there’s time at the end, we can go to the live site to view the public reports and myUMBC portal tools.

3. About UMBC
Founded in 1966
“Research extensive university” Carnegie classification
Fall 2010 Stats
12,870 Students
9,947 undergrad, 2,923grad
730 Faculty
480 FT, 250 PT
Selected Brags
#1 “Up and Coming National University” U.S. News America’s Best Colleges 2011, 2010 & 2009
1st in undergrad chemistry degrees
awarded to African Americans
One of 50 Best Colleges for Women
7-time National College Chess
Champions
John

4. PROBLEM HOW DO YOU ANSWER?
“So, is Blackboard making a difference?”
Former UMBC Provost Art Johnson in 2003
PROBLEM HOW DO YOU ANSWER?
John

9. Bb Activity by Grade Distribution

10. Bb Activity of D & F students
Students earning a D or F tend to use Bb 39 percent less than students earning higher grades.
SP courses | 43 percent less
FA courses | 33 percent less
SP courses | 47 percent less
FA courses | 37 percent less
SP courses | 47 percent less
FA courses | 40 percent less
SU courses | 33 percent less
SP courses | 32 percent less
FA courses | 36 percent less
Does the pattern hold true during the semester?
What if students knew this information sooner?
NOTE: Analysis using iStrategy since Spring 2010.
We did not have access to “official” grades in SIS, so we studied “unofficial” grades in the CMS.

11. Bb Activity by Grade Distribution

12. Avg. Bb Hits Per User (SP2011)

13. CMA Avg. Hits by GPA (SP2011)
Can the No GPA users be predicted based on their activity?
29 1.xx gpa users 10+ times (green bar) xx gpa users = 10+ times (purple bar)

14. CMA Users by GPA (SP2011) 3,373 Users > 3 users = 58 percent
NG users = 1 percent

15. Tim Hardy & ECON 122
One of six faculty funded by the Provost’s FA2009 pilot to deliver a 50/50 hybrid course.
·    Joined the SU2009 cohort of the Alternate Delivery Program (ADP)
·    Attended the January 2009 Hybrid Course Redesign Workshop.
·    His UMBC Blackboard ranking for student-only activity has increased dramatically:
FA2010 (1st overall, 2,970 average hits per student) * See note below *
SP2010 (1st overall, 1,345 average hits per student)
FA2009 (1st overall, 1,666 average hits per student)
SU2009 (4th overall, 842 average hits per student)
SP2009 (36th overall, 366 average hits per student)
FA2008 (532nd overall, 78 average hits per student)
SU2008 (38th overall, 334 average hits per student)
SP2008 (76th overall, 494 average hits per student)
FA2007 (151st overall, 326 average hits per student)
Note: His ECAC329 “Cost Accounting” course registered 5,536 avg. hits per student, 1st among all UMBC Bb courses (not just undergrad) for FA2010.
SP2011 (53.7%)
FA2010 (49.4%)
SP2010 (47.7%)
FA2009 (46%)

16. Proposed CMA Changes Display activity ranking of student’s Bb course
Opt-in alert when student’s Bb activity falls below peers earning desired GPA or grade.
Sharing monitoring rights with someone else.
Better graphical display of overall Bb activity compared to peers .

17. Personal Analytics in Action

18. How Might We Learn From Others?
From Unconscious Incompetence in Problem Solving to Unconscious Competence
James L. Adams
The Care and Feeding of Ideas:
A Guide to Encouraging Creativity

19. Social cognitive theory - Bandura
Self-efficacy: a belief in one’s ability to complete a task or achieve a goal.

20. Self-regulated learning: Zimmerman
Observational: students learn to distinguish the major features of a model's skill or strategy.
Emulative: a learner's performance enactive approximates the general form of a model's skill or strategy.
Self-control: students can perform a skill or strategy based on mental representations of a model's performance.
Self-regulation: learners can adapt their skills and strategies systematically as personal and contextual conditions change.

22. Thanks fritz@umbc.edu www.umbc.edu/blackboard/reports
Questions? Comments?
Thanks