This week, Tribal held its annual SITS:Vision conference at Celtic Manor in Wales – a meet up of users of the SITS:Vision student management system from across the world. I had the pleasure of attending the conference and was asked to speak about Learning Analytics and the research project I am undertaking with the University of Wolverhampton.

The conference was a great success and it was great to meet so many enthusiastic users from across the higher education sector. There were a large number of breakout sessions covering many different areas of SITS:Vision this year and I think everyone will agree that all the sessions were both interesting and informative, but also contained lots of practical advice that users of SITS:Vision can take and apply themselves at their own institutions.

By pure coincidence, the Team GB Olympic cycling team were also at Celtic Manor whilst we were there which added to the excitement of the event! I’ve seen a few pictures of attendees with Chris Hoy circulating on Twitter following the conference!

Learning Analytics Breakout Session

Here are the slides I presented with Paul Travill from the University of Wolverhampton in my breakout session entitled “Learning Analytics – Improving Student Retention”.

In the session, I talked about what Learning Analytics and Big Data are, and why they are important for higher education. Paul and I also talked about the Learning Analytics research project we are both working on, some of the findings and challenges we have encountered.

The session seemed to be well received and although it was standing room only and we were competing with the combined effects of extreme heat in the room and being the first session following a large lunch, it seemed to generate a lot of interest!