Dive Brief:
- Fully 87% of students surveyed for McGraw-Hill’s report about the impact of technology on college student study habits said learning analytics would improve their academic performance, and nearly 66% of those who use it already say its impact is “very” or “extremely” positive.
- According to eCampus News, students embrace analytics as a form of continual feedback on their progress, much like the feedback they receive after taking any action on social media.
- Students also responded that adaptive learning tools are the most effective study technology, beating out learning management systems.
Dive Insight:
Learning analytics is taking off in higher education as faculty and administrators see the value of harnessing data that, in many cases, is already being collected to improve student outcomes. The newly released Caliper Analytics standard, created by IMS Global Learning Consortium, aims to create an industry standard for third-party analytics technology that ensures institutions maintain access to data collected about student activity and that the data is reported in a format that can be merged with other such information. At the University of Michigan, the end goal of improving learning analytics is empowering students with access to its findings.
Besides analytics and adaptive learning, the McGraw-Hill survey also asked students about technology use for studying. Laptops still dominate as the tool of choice, but smartphones continue to gain ground with 61% of respondents saying they use them to study.
