Dive Brief:

• University of Toledo professors Claire Stuve and Kevin Gibbs are highlighting the importance of a synchronous component to online courses, of monitoring student interaction, and of collecting data for constant improvement when aiming for student success online.
• In a piece for eCampus News, the duo write that synchronous element gives students a chance to interact with their peers and instructors, virtually, in real time, meeting the needs of traditional and nontraditional students with recorded interactions to be reviewed later.
• Tracking how students engage with course materials, how long they watch videos, and whether they review gives instructors data for early warnings and helps crystallize the power of technology in student outcomes.

Dive Insight:

Digital activity means data. Every time a student logs into a course platform or learning management system, it is tracked. Instructors can find out how long a student spent in the program, what he clicked on, or when she stopped to re-watch some content. Institutions like Purdue are seeing the power of analyzing such data for face-to-face classes where fewer actions can be tracked. The Course Signals program alerts students as early as two weeks into the term if they seem to be getting off track. For online courses, the data could be even richer.