What one of the key things is for the institution, what their intent is.
So the local conditions are going to very much affect their approach to this.
It's very hard for us to talk about what a budget might be without understanding from
an institution what resources they have, what work they're already engaged in, how freely
available the data is from the different systems; that's the kind of technical area.
Beyond that what human processes…
Is there a personal tutoring system in place?
Is there time allocated to staff to deliver that to students?
Whatever resources are there, it's very hard to put a price or even an approach that
fits everybody.
What we'll often try and do is identify the more immediate next steps with an institution
and then sort of build from there with them.
To say okay, so if your next step is this, what do you think would have to come after?
And perhaps come after that.
So it's more of an idea of a set of things that need to be considered more so than timelines
in which they need to be done.
It's very difficult to put timelines associated with things, when depending on data quality,
when things can be run through a model, when you'll have more information, depending
on when a governance committee meets, maybe, you know, dictate when a process can be changed.
So timelines are much more difficult, as is budget, but identifying steps or things that
need to be done is a little bit more of the focus that we take.
And that can be quite a challenge.
There is an institutional timeline that's fixed, so as Lindsay mentions, committees
meeting, but even budget setting often has to be done at quite an unhelpful time of year
to be able to deliver things.
So having an idea of those stages.
So for September next year we want to be able to do this and then working back from that
for what needs to be in place for that to happen.
Risk management is a very important thing to consider when doing learning analytics.
Agile methodology does allow for the quick addressing and absorption of risks, so if
an initiative has gone in a different direction than perhaps the institution is comfortable
with it's much easier to course-correct than something that's been planned out for
the last year.
However, being able to do that needs to be governed; it needs to be part of the governance
process.
It's very easy for an institution to just justify any change as being well, we'll
just try it, if we fail that's okay, try it, and fail.
There is that mentality with Agile but it needs to be a controlled set of chances; a
controlled failure.
That there is a level of accountability, that there is an overall understanding of why certain
paths have been taken, chances are being taken, why certain risks have arisen.
It needs to be part of that overall governance structure in order for it to be effective.
I think the governance piece as well, I use a term perpetual beta, which it just tries
to capture that this thing is never finished, we're always adding to it.
And I think that's particularly helpful with some of that confidence with staff, that
what you have isn't a finished product, there's more to come, we want to hear from
you about what more you would like and those pieces will come.
So people see that the beta continually changes, continually develops, continually supports
that goal of supporting student retention and success.
The project management structure methodologies that are necessary in order to really be able
to have effective learning analytics, change any element of learning analytics, comes down
to having senior leadership buy-in and having a strong governance structure.
If you don't have both of those things it will fall apart, absolutely, there's no
question about that.
So having that leadership buy-in and understanding that things will change on a regular basis
and that they need to be able to perpetuate the message of "change is okay, change is
coming, it's alright that we're operating in a different manner in which we have before,
it might be scary, it might be new, but it's okay".
Perpetuating that message is really important and that's supported throughout different
layers within the institution.
In many ways it's no different to any other organisational change process.
We believe that it isn't just about learning analytics, it needs to be embedded in a larger
change programme: student success, student retention; these are big issues for universities.
You know, it's not just about learning analytics, it's about changing the culture of the organisation,
you know, it needs that level of investment from senior management.
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