Practical Learning Analytics for Undergraduate Education.
Goals
The mission of the Tools for Evidence-based Action (TEA) [http://t4eba.com/] community is to enhance evidence-based teaching methodology and policy by developing and sharing new technologies and results from evidence-based efforts.
Issues Involved or Addressed
We have developed a visualization system to understand the pathways that students take through a university (Ribbon Tool) and a classroom observation tool (GORP) which can be used for researching teaching methodology and faculty and teaching assistant development and training. Our current projects include Student Pathways in STEM majors, Observation Protocol for Learning Environments (OPLE), Characterizing Instruction, Attrition and Retention in STEM, Pathways to Graduation for underrepresented students, Math and Physical Sciences Attrition, Predicting Course Enrollment, timely graduation probability, and Student Course Progress over Time. These projects offer unique research opportunities for students interested in understanding the influence of socioeconomic factors, teaching methodologies, learning environment etc. in higher education outcomes. Eventually this group may also conduct a comparison of VIP participation to other forms of research involvement to help fine-tune the UC Davis VIP approach.
Methods and Technologies
Academic Majors of Interest
Preferred Interests and Preparation
Students interested in data analysis, algorithm construction, modeling, statistical analysis, and data correlation to socioeconomic factors. Background education, psychology, sociology, economics, and computer science is beneficial.
