On Monday the UK’s first SoLAR (Society for Learning Analytics Research) Flare was held at the OU’s Jennie Lee building, jointly organised by colleagues in KMi and IET, and JISC CETIS. The Flare was an opportunity for a diverse set of stakeholders to meet up, discuss current activity in learning analytics research and practice, probe some areas of interest in breakout sessions, and set the community’s research and deployment priorities for the future.
A variety of stakeholders from researchers, to educators, to vendors were invited, and the day saw a set of ‘lightening’ presentations (2 minutes) on what people are currently doing (see link below), followed by some breakout sessions covering:
- Retention & Success
- Pedagogy and Learning Analytics
- Dashboards
- Data sources
The day finished with some useful discussions regarding priorities moving forwards including:
- Dissemination of case studies
- Creation of an evidence hub
- End user workshops
- Dashboard workshops – particularly a critical eye for end users
- Creation of special interest groups
SoLAR – which the OU and KMi are playing a key role in – looks forward to working to support and develop some of these priorities further.
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