Beyond the Technology

Universities UK (UUK), in partnership with Civitas Learning and Jisc, recently released a report on learning analytics in UK higher education (HE), which recognises it as being a powerful set of tools for helping institutions to support learner retention and progression.

Jisc's Niall Sclater takes a closer look at the report, discussing the potential of learning analytics, blockers and challenges, and gives advice on how to move forward and make the most of the opportunities.

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You can also visit Jisc's learning analytics project page for more information on our pilot.

Earlier this year we spoke to Dr Nick Moore, director of IT services at the University of Gloucestershire, about the university’s interest in learning analytics and involvement in Jisc’s effective learning analytics pilot. Now a couple of months into deployment, we pick up conversations with Nick to find out how far they’ve come in the on-boarding process, experiences in terms of challenges and opportunities, and what comes next.

In this podcast James Clay and Andy McGregor discuss the concept of the intelligent campus. There has been plenty of hype over artificial intelligence and the internet of things - we believe it may be time to put aside the cynicism that this kind of hype generates and look seriously at how we can take advantage of these emerging technologies to improve the student experience, research and the management of our campuses.

Find out more at https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/get-involved/what-does-the-imminent-arrival-of-the-intelligent-campus-mean-for-universities-and-colleges

Earlier this year the University of Glasgow, School of Mathematics and Statistics won The Herald Higher Education Awards category for Innovation Technology Excellence. These awards celebrate the best and brightest in higher education in Scotland, with the school commended for its innovative digital approach to providing students with continuous feedback. We speak to the university's Professor Tara Brendle, Professor Ian Strachen and Dr Andrew Wilson to find out more.

Like this podcast? Subscribe to the Jisc podcast via iTunes or add the RSS feed to your favourite podcast app. You can also visit the Jisc website for more information.

One of the ways that Jisc supports its members is by offering training and consultancy that empowers them to embed best practice across their organisation. Aberystwyth University is an example of an organisation that has recieved our advice and guidance, and been able to disseminate their learnings further, to excellent effect. 

Following a 'train the trainer' session on digital storytelling with subject specialist, Chris Thomson, the university's e-learning group has delivered its own session for teaching staff. This has inspired attendees to develop innovative teaching activities using digital storytelling, with the help of CADARN Learning Portal, which provided the WeVideo platform for video editing. We hear from Mary Jacobs, e-learning advisor, and Stephen Chapman, teaching fellow and researcher about how they've embraced digital storytelling whole-heartedly.

For more information you can visit the university's guide on digital storytelling.

Like this podcast? You can subscribe via iTunes or add the RSS feed to your favourite podcast app. Visit the Jisc website for more stories.

We hear from winners past and present at the design sprint, and Justin Haylock tells us about this year's winning ideas, and what the teams have been up to as part of the four day rapid-prototyping process (including playing with lego). 

Jisc’s effective learning analytics project aims to help colleges and universities better analyse and understand their data, and use this to improve retention and attainment. This includes building a national learning analytics service for the sector, and a student app that puts the power in their hands by tracking their learning activity and allowing them to maximise their learning potential.

University of Gloucestershire are one of the institutions to pilot the student app. We speak to Dr Nick Moore, director of IT services for the university, about the interest in learning analytics and why they're working with Jisc.

For more podcasts from Jisc, subscribe via iTunes, or add the RSS stream to your favourite podcast app. Visit the Jisc website for more information.