Dr. Linda BaerSenior Program Officer

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

November 15, 2011

Optimizing student success is the “killer app” for analytics in higher education. Intelligent investments in optimizing student success garner wide support and have a strong, justifiable return on investment (ROI). Moreover, improving performance, productivity, and institutional effectiveness are the new gold standards for institutional leadership in the 21st century. Enhanced analytics are critical to both.

Donald Norris, Building Organizational Capacity for Analytics, 11/11/2011

President’s challenge by 2020 to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world

Nearly 2/3 of jobs in the future will require a college education.

Nation has fallen from first to tenth in the world in degree completion.

Business has had to provide training to entry-level workers in order to prepare them for the workforce.

Higher enrollmen

ts

More completio

ns

Deeper learning

outcomes

Rising expectations

Constrained resources

Source: 2011 Community Colleges and the Economy, AACC/Campus Computing Project, April 2011; Community College Student Survey, Pearson Foundation/Harris Interactive, Field dates: September 27th through November 4th, 2011

Limited seat

capacity

Budget cuts

Declining family

ability to pay

90% of community colleges in 2010 and 69% in 2011

Additional 300k to 1 million credentials needed per year

Demands of globalized, information economy

32% of community college students

unable to enroll in classes; CA turning

away up to 250k students per year;

675k total!

58% of community college budgets cut in

2011-2012; 41% of cuts >5%; long-term

competition with healthcare

Student load debt now greater than all

consumer loan debt.450% increase in

tuition over 30 years

4

Academic analytics combines large data sets, statistical techniques and predictive modeling to produce “actionable intelligence.” Campbell, DeBlois, and Oblinger. 2007. EDUCAUSE review July/August.

Action analytics produces actionable intelligence, service-oriented architectures, mash-ups of information/content and services, proven models of course/curriculum reinvention, and changes in faculty practice that improve performance and reduce costs.

Analytics is about pursuing the improvement and optimization of institutional performance along all dimensions. Norris, Donald, Linda Baer, Joan Leonard, Lou Pugliese, Paul Lefrere, “Action Analytics: Measuring

and Improving Performance That Matters,” EDUCAUSE Review, Jan/Feb 2008.

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Learning analytics is the measurement,

collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs

Analytics draws from, and is closely tied to, a series of other fields of study including business intelligence, web analytics, academic analytics, educational data mining, and action analytics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_analytics

Accountability Analytics – external policy makers and publics set standards for accountability and comparability, individual institutions judged according to performance

Performance Measurement and Improvement Analytics – ◦ To meet accountability standards institutions must

embed analytics into their processes and continuously strive to measure and improve performance.

What student outcome data are you using now and in what ways?

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Donald Norris, Building Organizational Capacity for Analytics, 11/11/2011

D Accessible, high quality Data E Enterprise Orientation L Analytical Leadership T Strategic Targets A Analyst

Analytics at Work. Davenport, Harris and Morison.2010

What best characterizes your current use of analytics?

By sharing responsibility for success, we can turn broken dreams and missed opportunities into college graduates and economic success.◦ Students must work hard, make good choices, and stick

with it.◦ Colleges and universities must make graduation, not

head counts, their measure of success. And they must align to the needs of today’s students.

◦ States must knock down obstacles, across entire educational systems, that unnecessarily block paths to college completion – and they must encourage and hold accountable institutions and students for measurable progress. http://www.completecollege.org/alliance_of_states/

Outcome metricsProgress metricsAdult learner metricsNoncredit metrics

Degrees and certificates awarded

Graduation ratesTransfer ratesTime and credits to degree

http://www.nga.org/Files/pdf/1007COMMONCOLLEGEMETRICS.PDF

Enrollment in remedial education Success beyond remediation Success in first-year college courses Credit accumulation Retention rates Course completion

http://www.nga.org/Files/pdf/1007COMMONCOLLEGEMETRICS.PDF

◦Target strategy for adult learners◦Develop segmented services for working adults

◦Monitor progress and interventions◦Strengthen advisory business/industry committees

◦Build more contextual learning◦Internships and Apprenticeships

Counting the Hidden Assets, Business Roundtable, 2009.www.businessroundtable.org

◦Taxonomy of noncredit offerings and outcomes

◦Outcomes and metrics◦General basic academic skills◦General workforce skills◦Sponsor-specific basic skills◦Sponsor-specific workforce development

Counting the Hidden Assets, Business Roundtable, 2009.www.businessroundtable.org

What questions about optimizing student success or increasing performance and productivity are most important to you?

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Analytics is the “universal decoder” for education reform.

Achieving the Dream is a national nonprofit dedicated to helping more community college students succeed, particularly students of color and low-income students.◦ Committed leadership◦ Use of evidence to improve programs and services◦ Broad engagement◦ Systemic institutional improvement◦ Developmental education◦ First year experience◦ Curriculum and instruction◦ Retention and support services◦ Equity

http://www.achievingthedream.org/CAMPUSSTRATEGIES/PROMISINGPRACTICES/default.tp

Building towards college-level skills (basic skills gains, passing precollege writing or math)

First year retention (earning 15 then 30 college level credits)

Completing college-level math (passing math courses required for either technical or academic associate degrees)

Completions (degrees, certificates, apprenticeship training)

Tipping Point, David Prince & Davis Jenkins

http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?uid=600

ENROLLMENT TO COMPLETION

OF GATEKEEPER COURSES

ENROLLMENT TO COMPLETION

OF GATEKEEPER COURSES

COMPLETE COURSE OF STUDY

TO CREDENTIAL WITH LABOR MARKET VALUE

INTEREST TO APPLICATION

Gap between articulated institutional needs and vendors offerings

Analytics capacity compared with emerging expectations – Analytics IQ

Collaboration gap Talent Gap

Donald Norris, Building Organizational Capacity for Analytics, 11/11/2011

If you could tell vendors about what tools or resources you would like to see that would best meet your analytics needs, what would you say?

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Map-in starting point and destination Routes to completion ROI – ROV Time to destination – progress Fuel for the journey Travel time to “norm” for the destination

Highway for optimizing student successMike Mathews

“If educational completion is one of the most prized and valuable destinies for every American student, surely we need to innovate and market a vision that leverages the technologies and analytical tools that will completely eradicate the educational risks of taking wrong-turns, running out of academic gas, miscalculating the distance, under estimating the costs, and the inability to have a ‘norm’ to compare a personalized educational journey against.”  Michael Mathews