I have just completed my first ever report analysing the usage data from our learning environment, and trying to continue the trend of finding an appropriate image to accompany my blog post I found this on Flickr, courtesy or Kevin Lim.
I was contemplating whether I could justifiably use this as my subtitle but I thought I could be charged under the
Trade Descriptions Act which was passed 44 years ago in 1968. However, the mere fact that I am not charging people to read this blog, being an OER kinda person and also the CC license precludes this too I think I am safe. I am not sure that opening the can of worms that is learner analytics causes more or less confusion. My analysis of quantitative data now opens the door to qualitative analysis, as I have detailed data on courses within our VLE, and my analysis suggests particular qualitative areas to focus e.g. why despite there being so much content in that learning room does it not meet the minimum standard? why does the amount of topics in a discussion not necessarily correlate with the amount of posts? why is there high use of the dropbox but low levels of feedback? However, my challenge, should I choose to accept it, is to think of ways to negotiate that qualitative room, I already have some recommendations, which I currently presenting to colleagues. In a strange way I have enjoyed doing the report although I know it will possibly raise more questions that it has answered, and despite the fact I was qualitative sociologist by nature that a quantitative, I do quite like stats and order that is possibly my librarian roots showing through.
