In this paper, an early intervention solution for collegiate faculty called Course Signals is discussed. Course Signals was developed to allow instructors the opportunity to employ the power of learner analytics to provide real-time feedback to a student. Course Signals relies not only on grades to predict students' performance, but also demographic characteristics, past academic history, and students' effort as measured by interaction with Blackboard Vista, Purdue's learning management system. The outcome is delivered to the students via a personalized email from the faculty member to each student, as well as a specific color on a stoplight -traffic signal -to indicate how each student is doing. The system itself is explained in detail, along with retention and performance outcomes realized since its implementation. In addition, faculty and student perceptions will be shared.

Little is known about the processes institutions use when discerning their readiness to implement learning analytics. This study aims to address this gap in the literature by using survey data from the beta version of the Learning Analytics Readiness Instrument (LARI) [1]. Twenty-four institutions were surveyed and 560 respondents participated. Five distinct factors were identified from a factor analysis of the results: Culture; Data Management Expertise; Data Analysis Expertise; Communication and Policy Application; and, Training. Data were analyzed using both the role of those completing the survey and the Carnegie classification of the institutions as lenses. Generally, information technology professionals and institutions classified as Research Universities-Very High research activity had significantly different scores on the identified factors. Working within a framework of organizational learning, this paper details the concept of readiness as a reflective process, as well as how the implementation and application of analytics should be done so with ethical considerations in mind. Limitations of the study, as well as next steps for research in this area, are also discussed.

How Purdue University is changing the academic behavior of struggling students.

While the landscape of learning analytics is relatively well defined, the extent to which institutions are ready to embark on an analytics implementation is less known. Further, while work has been done on measuring the maturity of an institution's implementation, this work fails to investigate how an institution that has not implemented analytics to date might become mature over time. To that end, the authors developed and piloted a survey, the Learning Analytics Readiness Instrument (LARI), in an attempt to help institutions successfully prepare themselves for a successfully analytics implementation. The LARI is comprised of 90 items encompassing five factors related to a learning analytics implementation: (1) Ability, (2) Data, (3) Culture and Process, (4) Governance and Infrastructure, and, (5) Overall Readiness Perception. Each of the five factors has a high internal consistency, as does the overall tool. This paper discusses the need for a survey such as the LARI, the tool's psychometric properties, the authors' broad interpretations of the findings, and next steps for the LARI and the research in this field.

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