Thank you for participating in our activity this week. We hope that you now have a stronger understanding of social analytics and how they are used in education. Of course, since our project was about social analytics, we have been tracking our website over the past week (Nov-21st – 27th), and thanks to Google Analytics, […]
Continue reading Week 12 Analytics Roundup – You’ve been tracked! Posted in: Uncategorized, Week 12: Social Analytics
My apologies for not participating in this week’s discussion. I have been battling a nasty cold and too many final projects. I do have to say kudos to the Social Analytics group for their presentation this week. They have certainly enlightened me about a few things about this topic. I found the information about Klout […]
Continue reading Analytics Post Posted in: Week 12: Social Analytics
Thanks for your post, Juliana, and no worries – it’s been a hectic week for all of us!
I think that by pairing the Klout example with your own admission of ‘being that student’ demonstrates how cautious we educators need to be with using Analytics too closely as a gauge of behaviour and engagement. In fact, I think it’s quite a brilliant pairing. Engagement, like influence, are intangible qualities – i think we must be aware of the limitations of statistical programs in quantitatively measuring something that is qualitative.
Hello, I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to contribute discussion posts for analytics (although I did get my survey in!). I appreciate the time and effort the group put into their presentation and I found their website to be very interesting and informative. FWIW, I recently came across a new LMS called LoudCloud. It is […]
Continue reading Analystics Post Posted in: Week 12: Social Analytics
Doug,
The name LoudCloud sounds interesting. I wonder why they named it LOUD. đ
I just checked out the website (http://www.loudcloudsystems.com/index.html) and they explained about interesting product features and analytics well. It seems like they are targeting universities. I especially like the idea of having LoudBooks⢠e-reader platform for collaboration.
Deb
No Worries, Doug – it’s been a hectic week for all of us! – and thanks for the heads up on LoudCloud. My hunch has long been that the market for LMS’ is quite conservative – at least within publicly funded education, though I could be wrong. I wonder how an upstart such as LoudCloud can gain traction within the market. Looking at Moodle’s history might be instructive in this regard.
Ghostery Survey Summary Thank you for your participation in the Ghostery activity. Here are the results! Diversity of Web Analytic Tools: From the 12 participants, 29 different tools were identified in addition to the 8 mentioned in the survey Type of websites with the most Analytic Tools: Participantsâ expectation before installing Ghostery Most analytic tools […]
Continue reading Ghostery Survey Summary Thank you for yo… Posted in: Week 12: Social Analytics
In a “tracking our own course” sense… only nine of us completed the survey? I wonder if there was something wrong with the survey, as I completed the survey on Monday night, I think (after visiting all my usual sites), and I think I voted for the 6-10 tools range. Curious.
Was just checking out with my Black Friday order on LandsEnd site, and I got a new record of ghostery stalkers: 15 popped up in the window at once! Since I was buying a pair of purple boots, I should start getting some interesting purplelicious targeted advertising soon… Emily
Continue reading New ghostery record… Posted in: Week 12: Social Analytics
Hi Emily,
It is wonderful be informed. I must admit that this course certainly informative. I guess being exposed to social analytics we can now be aware of our virtual environments. The information that is provided from the analysis can certainly be help to us. It wonderful to play with your new tool âghosteryâ.
Well Emily – hope they are no purple ‘Barney’ type dinosaur advertisements in your inbox any time soon!
This is my first exposure to learning analytics. I found the learning analytics to be very useful for educational and social purposes. Learning analytics can help the learners to understand his or her behaviour and contexts so that changes can be made to optimize learning. Also they could help lecturers to see when particular students […]
Continue reading Activity # 2 Posted in: Week 12: Social Analytics
Conroy,
Very useful indeed. More like an online policing app. The one I am currently using is called “who’s online”. It provides me with great data about my students’ visits to the site and how long they stay on. Yesterday I was able to point out those in class who are not visiting the sit often enough.
Everton
I chose to explore Springer Realtime for this activity. I started searching by typing in ‘Mathematics’ and received over 269 publications. The title such as A History of Chinese Mathematics or Ancient Indian Leaps into Mathematics sound very interesting and could be useful for a project or Math fair for my students. However, most of the […]
Continue reading Activity 2: Math Makes Sense with Technology! Posted in: Week 12: Social Analytics
Hi Deb,
As a mathematics teacher myself I found your post to be very useful and suitable to improve the teaching of mathematics Jamaica. I had also used Springer Realtime to search for literatures on mathematics and Physics. But I did not think of type in mathematics education. I have been using simulations provided by Phet.com and Walter-Fendt.com as a way to create interest among my students. Therefore I will explore Mathematics Education and Technology-Rethinking publication as soon I have completed my assignments for this course.
I like the idea of using simulations provided by Phet.com and Walter-Fendt.com. To tell you the truth, I haven’t heard about those websites so I’ll explore them. I’m sure I can find interesting things for my students as well. Thank you for the websites and ideas!
Deb
I viewed a few ventures from your presentation, and they all seem to do a good job of presenting the data of web activity and others have talked about a few ways to use this in a learning environment. Â One thing I would want to be included in a venture that could be used in […]
Continue reading Activity 3: Investing in the Venture Posted in: Week 12: Social Analytics
bcourey,
I like that idea. We need to make them aware that being able to analyze data from different formats is key to comprehension. Therefore, we need to engage them in activities where they can make sense of learning analytics activities. As a result, they will realize that these stats are not merely attachment to content; but carry vital meaning that will not be able to explained fully qualitatively.
Everton
Brenda,
I like your idea. If I see social analytics in a student’s point of view, it doesn’t seem that useful as an educational tool because I probably wouldn’t understand what those data (e.g. graphs, tables, and diagrams) represent. However, by adding the analysis of the data, I’d be able to understand the importance of social analytics and use it more often to monitor my interaction with others.
Deb
Hi Brenda,
I agree with your views, Statistics is needed many aspects of our lives. We use the concepts in all aspect of daily lives such as research studies, experiments, social encounters and medical history. Hence I feel that a venture that would help students analyze the data would be a good one. SPSS is a software that is often used for statistical reports but it does not help students to analyze data.
Hi Brenda (and all),
I like your idea because it is engaging students in learning about the analysis side. On a product development note, though, it might be an idea to create a product that provides for the data production on student engagement (assuming in some online environment), but also provides prompts that provide possible explanations for the results and what to do with them. In other words, a service that provides some analysis for you. Based on my own learning about social analytics, the issue surrounding the ‘common person’ trying to make use of it is the fact that most people are not good at analyzing statistics. I remember being in my undergrad stats class surrounded by people talking about how this was their 3rd or 4th time through – obviously its not everyone’s strength. I think a great venture idea would be to create a service that provides the data, and provides some analysis and recommendations based on it. Is it out there already?
Emily
I find the connection of learning analytics and assessment and feedback interesting. Speaking from a student’s viewpoint where assessment and feedback form the base on which I learn, the application of social analytics would provide me with up-to-date information about my progress. Naturally, visuals have become a an integral part of what we do and […]
Continue reading A2 Posted in: Week 12: Social Analytics
Everton,
I must admit that this is the first time I have been exposed to social analytic and I do think it has a place in education. These tools provide valuable insight into the factors that influence learners’ success. I love the fact that these tools can be used for assessments as you mention. For example as a teacher you are able to track students performance when they use CMS of LMS. You can track the amount of logins, the resources there usage. Very cool!
Keisha
Hi Everton,
Thank you for your comments. Good food for thought for activities 3 and 4 for this week. I also agree that visuals are essential in any presentation and play a significant part in the presentation of statistics gathered in learning analytics. This is one of the attributes of Many Eyes that I enjoyed, the ability to create visuals of data. So not only do we see the information but we can vary the presentation mode: graphically, pictorially, and text. It is oriented to Multiple Intelligences. I wonder at audio and other forms of presentation. An area for further development?
May I ask you to reiterate your comments on the benefits to students in our post designated for learning analytics and their impact on students.
Kerry-Ann
Sorry Everton,
Links did not copy across.
Blog for post on learning analytivcs for students – https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec522sept11/2011/11/23/activity-3-week-12-analysing-learning-analytics-students/
Multiple Intelligences – http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm
Many Eyes – http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/
Kerry-Ann
Hi Everton,
I couldn’t agree with you more about the privacy aspect of Social Analytics. When I was reading up about it for the project this week I initally had trepidation about the value of analytics, I value my internet privacy very highly. Then when I tried out ghostery I realixed something (horribly negative), we are always being watched. Thus my opinion changed (albiet, reluctantly). If we are always being watched, we might as well take advange of this information. I know it’s kind of a pessimistic view though. đ Although I completely agree that privacy is a massive concern.
Thanks for the post.
Dave.
Dave,
There is really no privacy online. The reality is that we not usually aware of what is happening in the background. Even though I am concern about other situations, instructors do need to have certain critical information about online activities in learning situation. I am seeing where it is actually working on the blog I use for classes.
Everton
Hi Everton,
It is sad that I am exposed to social analytic so late in this MET program. It would have helped me a great deal to analyze my progress. Thus I think your point on the assessment and feedback that social analytics would provide to students summarizes its benefits for learners.
Now that I’ve sobered up a bit from the e-creeping data snatching revealed to me by Ghostery, I am ready to look at some other sites / applications. First of all, I found the sites somewhat Big Brother-ish… this watching of live, raw, unsorted data… it almost felt like I shouldn’t be watching the information […]
Continue reading Activity 2 – Post-Ghostery Site Visits Posted in: Week 12: Social Analytics
Something your post really made me think about is that not all data is equal – there is good and reliable data, and poor data. It’s interesting that what we sometimes find in social analytics is lots of emphasis on the analysis of data – and not so much on the *collection.* I’m reminded of my scientist partner who worries much more about the reliability of the data being collected than on the analysis (as analyses can be done and re-done). And so, I find the visualizations in Many Eyes to be quite compelling, but I don’t find the viewing of the sets so compelling.
Hi mcquaid ,
You have concisely evaluated each site you had visited. It certainly can give a reader a synopsis of each site without visiting them. Your account on how you would use Manyeye in class is quite good I did not think of it that way. But after I read your post and revisited the Manyeye site I realized that it can certainly be used to carry out students votes which could useful in Statistics class on data collection and representations.
Before you publish your posting, please make sure that you select a category (eg. Introductions) as well as assign some meaningful tags (keywords).
bcourey 8:50 am on November 27, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
This is phenomenal!!! I am going to investigate doing this for our board website as we are in the process of changing it dramatically – we will need this type of analytics to review what is viewed most and least. Thanks so much Week 12 team!!
jarvise 9:12 am on November 27, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Awesome wrap-up! This was a challenging topic, and you have done some great work with it.
Thanks,
Emily
Julie S 8:18 pm on November 27, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Wow… amazing and kind of scary the level of information that you can access.
Tamara Wong 7:35 am on November 28, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Great Presentation! The amount of information you can get is pretty cool!! I’m going to talk to our programer and see what he can do about implementing these in our schools website!! Thanks for the great info.
mcquaid 12:03 pm on November 30, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think it’s funny how I can pinpoint myself on this… I was personally responsible for 10.58% of your presentation’s visits! đ
Deb Kim 4:24 pm on November 30, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Wow, this is amazing!
I’m surprised that Internet Explorer is the browser that was used the least. It’s quite exciting to see these results.
Thanks, Week 12 team, for your great effort and work!
Deb
David Jackson 7:24 am on November 5, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Nice job with clear benefits obvious for the budding entrepreneur who is trying to get a handle on the effectiveness of his/her online marketing efforts.