The discovery phase of the learning analytics project provides an opportunity for institutions to access their readiness to implement. The process examines many factors including institutional goals, availability of data, leadership and support, legal and ethical considerations and some technical considerations. The discovery will usually happen before technical implementation is started to assess any remedial action that needs to be addressed, help decide on the most suitable solution and develop an implementation plan, or it can happen in parallel along side technical trials for more advanced institutions. The discovery stage is not a requirement to join an implementation phase
The initial approach we are taking involves consultants undertaking a readiness assessment which involves three days on site to collect data via workshops, focus groups and interviews. The final output will be a report for the institution with suggestions and recommendations.
There are two groups offering the discovery stage consultancy, and although their companies provide software solutions the teams are solution agnostic and will provide an impartial assessment of institutional readiness. Further details of the consultancy offers from each group are provided below.
We are still contacting institutions who have expressed an interest in the phase 1 discovery phase and will schedule visits with everyone. If you have not submitted an expression of interest then you can enter your interest here. However phase 1 discovery is now full, but there will be a phase 2 (Jan – April 2016) and phase 3 (April 2016 onwards).
The discovery stages this year are being used to develop a more scalable process, learning from the needs of institutions and the most useful advice, we plan to produce a toolkit for the final discovery phase which is likely to consist of workshops that can be delivered nationally, resources and self-assessment tools as well as some onsite support where it is most needed.
