Back in June 2013 the PAR Framework openly published an intervention assessment framework called the Student Success Matrix to help PAR members figure out how to respond when confronted with predictions of which students were likely to drop out. "What should we do to respond to these predictions showing our students at risk?" our members asked.  At that time Dr. Karen Swan, Stukel Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Illinois Springfield, reminded us that there are already lots and lots and lots of things that academic advisors, faculty and other student success professional already do to help students succeed in school. Going back through the professional literature, she and Dr. Peter Shea, SUNY-Albany, helped us find models of student engagement and participation relevant to our work at hand. Karen proposed a framework to map interventions using predictor behaviors of success and points in the academic completion cycle.  Over the past year Karen and Peter have worked closely with Sandy Daston, PAR Framework Director of Student Success and the entire PAR SSMx working group (Hae Okimoto, University of Hawaii System; Jennifer Freed, Dan Huston, and Fermin Ornelas, Rio Salado College; David Shulman, Broward College; Denise Nadasen, Jack Neill and Karen Vignare, UMUC; Patsy Moskal and DeLayne Priest, University of Central Florida; Michelle Wiley, Penn State World Campus; Mysti Reneau, Community Colleges of Spokane) to refine processes and tools for promoting intervention measurement. This group of experienced educational practitioners and decisionmaker has helped determine what can actually be done for student at risk - even down to knowing how to support those 37 students that are most likely to fail Math 101 this semester.  PAR institutions have begun the process of inventorying, tagging, describing measuring and evaluating literally hundreds of interventions currenty in use on campuses to help student succeed. Thanks to the SSMx we have accelerated the process of connecting predictions of risk to the interventions that will mitigate risk.  This post is to acknowledge Karen's leadership and contributions to PAR's thinking about using predictions as cataysts for taking action, and for linking interventions to predictions to underscore the importance of linking predictions to action.  

Here's an October conference in San Diego you may not have heard about.Post from: The eLearning CoachThe Presentation Summit 2010

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Thanks to Libby Nelson's great article Big Data 101: Colleges are hoping predictive analytics can fix their dismal graduation rates, we have been fielding a lot of questions about the PAR Framework. Here is an update on who we are and the work in which we are engaged. MEET THE PAR FRAMEWORK - The Predictive Analytics Reporting (PAR) Framework is a national, non-profit provider of learning analytics as a service. PAR brings 2-year, 4-year, public, proprietary, traditional and progressive colleges and universities together to collaborate on mitigating student loss by identifying the effective practices that support student progress toward their academic goals. The PAR Framework offers a unique multi-institutional perspective for examining dimensions of student success that will help improve retention in US higher education.  PAR is distinguished among the many data analytics solutions emerging in the education domain by its common, openly published data definitions and student success frameworks. HOW PAR WORKS - PAR uses predictive analytics to deliver tools and reports aimed at improving academic success for students in online, blended and on-ground programs. PAR members receive flexible predictive models, cross-institutional benchmarks, and an intervention insight toolkit supporting a student success methodology that links predictions with interventions and student supports. PAR institutions provide a full set of anonymized undergraduate student data that allows for comparative investigation of student success trends over time, at the individual student, course and degree level. (PAR members provide periodic updates of their data ensuring the ability to measure changes over time, the impact of student interventions and enabling the predictive models that PAR produces to be adjusted and tuned for current data.) In return, PAR institutions receive actionable reports and student watch lists developed using predictive analytics.  Once institutions deliver their student-anonymized and institutionally de-identified data, PAR researchers and data scientists use statistical and data mining techniques to identify and reveal the factors that most impact student success in the combined dataset and the individual institution level.  Members quickly receive institutionally-specific models that predict the likelihood of each student achieving institutional specific milestones. These include but are not limited to passing a course or courses and being retained at the institution.  Member institutions also receive academic models for their institution that include detailed student level data to create watch lists, structure interventions and inform local decisions about the factors identified as having the greatest impact on student success. They also receive institutionally anonymized and de-identified findings from the entire dataset that yield over-arching insights about retention patterns in U.S. higher education to inform practice and policy. PAR TOOLS FOR BENCHMARKING: The PAR Student Success Matrix (SSMX) helps institutions comprehensively assess their student success policies, interventions and programs. The SSMX makes it possible to organize the wide variety of student supports - from orientation to mentoring to advising - into a systematic validated framework designed to quantify the impact of student success practices and determine the best support for students at the point of need.  The SSMx also reveals gaps and overlaps in student support programs and gives institutions the tools to evaluate the efficacy of their investments at the program level.    Quantified intervention effectiveness results. The common PAR measures for assessing and predicting risk and the validated frameworks categorizing student support services create the mechanism to effectively measure the impact of student supports within and across institutions.  PAR member institutions are encouraged to take part in quantitative, closed loop field tests, measuring the effect of targeted student supports (e.g. tutoring, student services, email, text messages alerts) against at-risk students. Institutional benchmarks. PAR Framework members receive institutionally-reflective and cross-institutional benchmark reports of student level outcomes such as retention, successful credit accumulation, academic performance indicators, and earning a credential. COMPREHENSIVE INSIGHTS BASED ON VARIATIONS IN: Student demographics Financial aid factors Traditional vs Non-traditional status Full-time/Part-time status Major/Program pursued Credential pursued Online vs. On-ground vs. Other modalities of course taking Prior academic history PARTICIPATION IN A COLLABORATIVE COMMUNITY OF EXPERTS: PAR Framework members represent an engaged community of forward thinking institutions, each with perspective and practices around student retention, progression, and completion. PAR membership provides institutional leaders with the models, technical support, services, and guidance needed to evaluate techniques, tools and solutions used to improve student outcomes. PAR provides the collaborative environment needed to support policy implementation and effective practice guidance necessary to capitalize on the power of data-driven decision-making for improving student success in reliable, repeatable, scalable ways.  For more information about joining PAR, please contact us at info@parframework.org.  

The message emerging from this week's University of Maryland University College (UMUC) Learner Analytics Summit (#innovatelearning) was explicit and to the point: Forward thinking instititutions are stepping up to opportunities for improving post-secondary experiences for students using data to inform proactive, evidence-based decision-making.  No doubt, we all hope that the answers to questions we can't sometimes even articulate yet are going to emerge from dashboards and apps, fully formed, as if from the Magic 8-Ball. Sadly this is not the way things work. We need to build capacity for decision-making in a data-informed world just as much as we need to figure out the exo-structure required for systems to interoperate and for intelligence to be shared. Matt Pistilli (Purdue University) tweeted one of the great tweets of the event when he noted that "the data do not speak for themselves. I have, in fact, been in the room with them, and they did not speak a word #innovatelearning".  It's a great reminder that if we are going to get anywhere quickly on this journey, we are going to need to be the ones driving the bus on learner anaytics adoption and creating organizational cultures of evidence-based decision-making. Malcolm Gladwell has talked about tipping points, those moments when a new practice or innovation, idea or trend emerges into public consciousness. Learner analytics are at the point of tipping into public consiciousness in the war on student loss.   Congratulations to Karen Vignare and her team for convening us, to Bill Moses and the Kresge Foundation for the means to do so, a high-five to Linda Baer for her guiding hand, and thanks to all the presenters and participants for helping us start figuring out how to drive the learner analytics bus, on the journey toward Evidence-Based Decision Land. (Cue unicorns, bluebirds and rainbows.)

I admire and respect Wainhouse Research analyst Alan Greenberg, so was quite interested to read his recent post in which he reflects on changes that Blackboard introduced at this year's Blackboard World. I, too, was impressed with the "new Blackboard" while at Blackboard World this year, and am really looking forward to diving into some of the work we (the PAR team) will be doing with the Blackboard team. Please refer to Alan's newletter for the complete article and especially for his take on why Blackboard's changes are a big deal. Here are a few "nuggets" from his post to whet your appetite for more...... Blackboard Reboots @ Blackboard WorldAlan D. Greenberg  In an effort to give institutions and schools more value and greater exposure to its technology sets, Blackboard has completely revamped its product line, now integrating together its product portfolio with a totally new user experience (UX) and a declared focus on learners. All teaching and learning solutions will now include Blackboard’s "base" learning management system (Blackboard Learn) and provide a full-featured online environment with course delivery, synchronous collaboration tools, mobile apps, and integration with and access to content. Technology adoption services are also included.   A tiered set of solutions are aimed at helping the educational user community address challenges such as retention, student engagement, learning analytics, communications and standards preparedness. There are four higher education teaching and learning solutions, four higher education campus commerce and security solutions, and five K-12 solutions that center on teaching and learning and community engagement. The company is considering adding more solution sets for international markets. Blackboard also plans to launch a new version of its learning environment that is delivered via the public cloud. Now the company is providing customers a full set of options: self-hosted, hosted in Blackboard’s private cloud, or via the public cloud. Word is this public cloud offering will be fully available sometime this month or in September. Being piloted in the public cloud is Blackboard’s Open Education powered by Blackboard, also announced at Blackboard World. This is a course platform that allows teachers and faculty to run public online courses and/or Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The company has created a customized learning and analytics offering available to the 259 higher education Internet2 members. The Internet2 NET+ offering will not only provide access to Blackboard’s solutions, but also will include robust analytic and learning outcomes tools, a cloud-based, cross-institutional content repository that supports most competitive LMS’s, and help desk and adoption services. Cornell University; the University of Nebraska — Lincoln; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; the University of Texas at Arlington; and Virginia Commonwealth University had representatives who guided and shaped the Internet2 NET+ certified solution. At the core of the offering, which is fully deployable now, is Blackboard’s Learning Insight solution, which is a full-featured online and mobile version of Blackboard Learn LMS and Blackboard Collaborate. (Ellen's aside: yes, this means that Collaborate works in the browser. NO more Java downloads!) FOR MORE, click here and scroll down for Alan's full article.

This post is part of my continuing series of weekly lesson summaries. My goal is to give parents & caregivers in our school community the resources needed to extend student learning at home, and to share my professional practice with teacher colleagues around the world in the hopes of improving my craft. Synopsis: Kindergarten and First Grade students worked on different yet similar projects involving digital holiday / winter imagery and a voiceover; Second Graders spent the week exploring computer coding; Third Graders got to think like mechanical engineers as they explored simple machines in preparation for our STEM projects involving wind power; Fourth Graders started making their knee braces as they prepare to wrap up (bad pun, sorry) a STEM unit. Week ending 12/13/13 EXAMPLE ONLY - THIS IS FROM LAST YEAR! Kindergarten What we learned / did / explored together: Kindergarten students do this project every year in my class - they create some original digital art and then we use Voicethread.com to record them sharing a holiday greeting. It’s great fun and the results are priceless. This week we continued working on "voiceovers" - some kids required extra coaxing (as usual) but we got it done! Every class will have their own Voicethread, I’ll share the individual links here and on my School Fusion page. What I observed / inferred / connected: We go out of our way to make kids comfortable and relaxed but there is something about hearing their own voice that brings out the shy in most Kindergarteners! What students can do at home: Kids used the ABCYa PaintGO! app for their artwork, let them show you what they can do with that site! Check out the Kindergarten Symbaloo for more interesting and entertaining activities! First Grade What we learned / did / explored together: We had a great conversation about things that Winter reminds us of and then students used ABCYa PaintGO! to create an illustration. We used Photostory to assemble all the images into one collection per class and then recorded their voice-0vers, which we’ll be sharing this week when all classes are finished. What I observed / inferred / connected: While this lesson is very similar to the one we did in Kindergarten, there is a noticeable difference in the complexity of the images created and the oral expressions. Still just as much fun though! What students can do at home: Kids used the ABCYa PaintGO! app for their artwork, let them show you what they can do with that site. Check out the First Grade Symbaloo for more interesting and entertaining activities! Second Grade What we learned / did / explored together: December 9 - 13 was Computer Science Education Week. Our Second Graders (who already had been working with LEGO WeDo robotics) spent our weekly lesson time together immersed in a series of challenging activities designed to formally expose them to writing computer code. We primarily used: Bot-Logic: http://botlogic.us/play Code.org: http://learn.code.org/hoc/1 Google Blockly: https://blockly-demo.appspot.com/static/apps/maze/index.html?lang=en Some classes got to use Tynker but most did not; the site is WONDERFUL but was overwhelmed by demand and too slow/unresponsive to use. What I observed / inferred / connected: As someone who struggles with coding, I can really appreciate the challenges kids faced this week. Some clearly "got it" and were off and running. Other struggled mightily (though no one gave up). Several students took it upon themselves to scamper around the room showing kids how to get their programs working. Mom & Dad, get ready, you may have the next Bill Gates / Steve Jobs / Mark Zuckerberg on your hands. Of all the activities above, Code.org was the best, providing a nice combination of instructional support and gradually more challenging material. I hope that this exercise results in a "lightbulb" moment for some kids and encourages them to learn more about writing code and to develop their skills further! What students can do at home: Visit the sites linked above and work through them with your child. Together you’ll be able to solve most if not all of the challenges! Definitely give Tynker a try; if it were not overwhelmed by demand, it would have been our go-to resource for the week. Check out the Second Grade Symbaloo for more learning activities! Source: Wikipedia Third Grade What we learned / did / explored together: Having just finished the Engineering is Elementary story "Leif Catches the Wind," students used Google Docs for a quick vocabulary review and to complete an assessment about the engineering design process. We then moved on to a discussion of simple machines like the hand mixer shown above. We explored how and why the machine works, its advantages and disadvantages, where force is applied and where work is done. These terms and concepts will be important as we continue working through this STEM unit. What I learned / observed / inferred: It’s all about the props! The hand mixer was the star of this lesson. It’s the kind of ordinary household thing kids instantly recognize but never really think much about. By the time we were done examining it kids were comparing it to bicycles, electric blenders, windmills and more! What students can do at home: The average home is filled with simple machines. Ask your child to find some and explain how they work. Ask them where force is applied (where the item is handled/touched) and what work is done (what is the result of the effort.) See what they tell you! Check out the Third Grade Symbaloo for fun and interesting learning activities! Fourth Grade What we covered / did / explored: Students FINALLY got to start making their knee braces - but only after they’d worked with their partner to come up with a plan. They are provided with foam, felt, Velcro, cardboard, craft sticks, string and masking tape. They’ll be improving (re-designing) their braces next week. What I observed / inferred / connected: The hands-on parts of these STEM lessons are always the most fun for everyone. Planning begins in earnest as ideas are tossed between partners like footballs. Initial designs are quickly made, erased and redone. Differences of opinion are shared and resolved (usually, amicably.) Seeing the actual building taking place, design ideas coming to life, excitement on the faces of the kids - it’s just so great to watch. That said, some kids clearly struggled with this part of the assignment and required extra coaching. Many were afraid of failure; others just couldn’t seem to envision an approach. We encouraged everyone to learn from each other - a simple walk around the room is all it took to get most kids on track. What students can do at home: Ask your child about this experience. What worked for them? What could have been better? I’d love to hear what they have to say. Check out the Fourth Grade Symbaloo for fun and interesting computer-based learning activities!

If more of us thought in terms of product design, our courses would be more engaging, more exciting and more to the point.Post from: The eLearning CoachThink Like A Product Designer

We were rudely awakened this past Sunday morning when an earthquake threw us out of bed at 3:20 am. It was a big one. The roar of the quake, the smashing glasses, dishes, and pottery, accompanied by the sound of exploding transformers and the splash of hundreds of gallons of water being thrown out of the pool, was deafening. And then the shaking ceased, the noise stopped, and it was all over. Of course, we knew what had happened. We live in Northern California. People who live in "earthquake country" are prepared for earthquakes, or at least we like to think we are. Flashlights in every room, with shoes at bedside (to avoid bare feet meeting broken glass), 5 gallons of water and food/shelter for 72 hours.  What we were NOT prepared for is the shock of sitting in the silence and the dark in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake that throws you out of bed at 3:20 in the morning. The wifi and landline phone were dead; we had no power.  But I had a fully charged mobile phone and working cell service. I turned to Twitter and within about 15 seconds I learned that we had just experienced an 6.1-on-the-scale earthquake, the epicenter of which was just 9 miles to the southeast of where we live. I saw that friends in San Francisco and San Jose had been awakened by the quake, too, and had already checked in to see if we were okay. We saw that our friends in Napa had been slammed, and were advised not to drive over to help because the roads had been damaged.  As the morning went on, we eventually posted pictures on Instagram and messages on Facebook to let friends and family know that we were alright. But what I learned in those first moments, when immediacy mattered most, was that in case of emergency, when WE needed targeted information, Twitter was where we turned first.         

The education sector's current fascination with innovation, distruption and entrepreneurship is being fueled by the emergence of start-up commercial ventures that create new products and services as solutions for big hairy audacious problems plaguing today's schools and students.  An April, 2014 post by CB Insights noted that investments in education technology hit a record high in Q1 2014 as investors poured more than $559 million across 103 deals in the first three months of this year.  Of note, Ed Tech funding in Q1 2014 represented nearly 45% of total funding to the sector in all of 2013. The record quarter comes after Ed Tech investments hit $1.25B across 378 deals in in 2013, the second-straight year of over $1B invested across the Ed Tech sector.  With everything from MOOCs to tutoring marketplaces to standardized APIs for K-12 schools getting funding, investors are clearly bullish on the education industry. So what could possibly be wrong with getting rounds of other people's money to help you grow your big educational idea into a product that becomes the NEXT BIG THING? Well, nothing...except you need to pay back all the money that everyone had given you. With interest and at a prenegotiated rate of return. That means that once you take someone else's money as an investment in your hot shot edu-preneurial company, EVERYTHING you do is going to be focused on paying your investors back.  Aral Balkan recently blogged about his experience with a new social media platform called Ello. His post caught my eye because it included a pointed summary of how venture capital works. Having just spend the past several months at various educational technology meetings and trade shows where the buzz over acqusitions and investments is ever-present, I found myself sharing the following paragraphs with my friends from education who may not have had the experience of working with investors: "Here’s how venture capital works: you go to an investor, before you’ve even built the thing you’re building and you tell them how you’re going to exit. It’s called an exit plan or exit strategy. You tell them, for example: "Hey, we’re going to get 100 million people using our new platform in two years time, how much will you give me for 100 million people?" And they go "Umm, we’ll give you this much for 100 million people because we’re pretty sure we can get that amount back several times over when we sell those 100 million people in an exit either to another company or in an IPO." "When you take venture capital, it is not a matter of if you’re going to sell your users, you already have. It’s called an exit plan. And no investor will give you venture capital without one. In the myopic and upside-down world of venture capital, exits precede the building of the actual thing itself. It would be a comedy if the repercussions of this toxic system were not so tragic. "Let me put it bluntly: if a company has taken venture capital, you have already been sold. It’s not a matter of if, it’s simply a matter of when. (Unless the company goes under before it can exit, that is.) "A venture-capital funded startup is a temporary company that has to convince enough people into using their platform so that they can make good on the exit they promised their investors at the very beginning. It is the opposite of a long-term, sustainable business." (Italics are mine). You can read Aral Balkan's complete "Ello, Godbye" blogpost by clicking here. I draw your attention to this article because every time I hear someone confide that their platform provider is a rising VC funded firm that is going for its next round of money, I wonder if these education customers understand the degree to which EVERYTHING their vendor provider must now do is focused on meeting their investors' expectations.