Empowering communities is one of three core pillars of Jisc’s strategy for 2022 to 2025 and it was great to see so many of our communities taking the opportunity to meet in the dedicated area.
This is the first of our reflections on community activity at Digifest 2024 from Rachel Glynn, senior analytics consultant.
A blossoming community
A tree blossomed in the new community hub at this year’s Digifest. It was the perfect setting for our blossoming learning analytics community meet up.
Jisc’s learning analytics community has two roots; one for its learning analytics product community and the other for our analytics network events.
Our community met during the lunchtime slot, we thought the time and space would constrain us, but we didn’t need to worry as the community soon found its swing.
Sharing good practice and experience
The meet up was based on some of the areas our community does well – providing support and sharing good practice.
We shared experiences of implementing learning analytics; how we overcame challenges and how we engaged with staff and students. Data maturity was key to the discussions, particularly around processes and systems. Whilst there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ approach to learning analytics, there are some common lessons learned. We discussed having clear strategic alignment and clarity on how the data would be used.
The meet up was the first time some of our community had met in person and it was great to see such animated discussions. We’re extremely proud of our flourishing community and it was lovely to hear a member say:
“Overall it was just nice to be around the community and share knowledge and frustrations.”
(Jisc learning analytics product community member)
Next network event
We can’t wait for our next meet up at our annual analytics network event in Newcastle on 11 June. We’ll hear from Professor Bart Rientes (Open University) and president of the Society for Learning Analytics Research and Lesley Castens, director of library & academic development, University of Plymouth.
There’ll be plenty of time for networking too – so come and join us!
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