Institutional Learning Analytics: How Can Academic Libraries Connect?

Abstract

Throughout academia, institutions are exploring the use of learning analytics in order to improve student outcomes, increase institutional efficiencies, and develop competitive advantage. To this end, institutions have embraced the collection, analysis, and use of data to inform decisions and take actions. They have pursued learning analytics systems and experimented with the descriptive reporting, potential interventions, and predictive results that these systems yield. They’ve also initiated efforts to leverage interoperability standards to enable disparate learning systems to contribute to central learner records stores that can be queried to investigate connections between learner behaviors and student success outcomes. While academic librarians have initiated library value studies, including correlation research, most have not yet investigated the potential of the learning analytics and interoperability approaches initiated by their overarching institutions. This presentation will provide a brief summary of the general definitions, concepts, and perspectives integral to institutional learning analytics initiatives, as well as a synopsis of current learning analytics efforts at the institutional level, then turn to a discussion of ways in which academic libraries might connect with and contribute to institutional learning analytics efforts.

This session was presented at the CNI Fall 2016 Project Briefings.