NOTTINGHAM TRENTUNIVERSITY LEADS THEWAY IN LEARNERANALYTICSSTREAM POWERED BY HP IDOL TRIGGERS TIMELYSUPPORT FOR STUDENTS

“We have great data, but the traditional approach to using it is very mucha rear view mirror activity and if you’re always looking in the rear view,you’re heading for a crash. We needed a way to look forward and exploitour existing data to the best advantage of our students and that is whatStREAM has given us.” – Mike Day, Director of Information Systems,Nottingham Trent University

TIMELY HELP TO KEEP STUDENTS ON TRACK

When university students find it difficult to stay the course they needsupport to help them engage effectively, get the most out of theirstudies and keep on track. Swift tutor intervention is vital andNottingham Trent University (NTU) is now leading the way through anearly warning system developed by DTP Solutionpath. Powered by HPIDOL, StREAM enables timely tutor support helping to increase studentattainment, as well as promoting a sense of belonging.

INDUSTRY

Higher Education

OBJECTIVE

Use analysis of behaviour to flagstudents who might need help and tooffer timely support

APPROACH

Conducted proof of concept testsfollowing by a more comprehensivepilot

IT MATTERS

• Uses state-of-the-art data analysis that delivers around 90 per cent confidence in the results

• Analyses silos of data totalling some 50 TB

• Delivers results and triggers warnings through an intuitive user dashboard

BUSINESS MATTERS

• Provides students who might need help with timely support, as well as saving around £1.25 million a year in lost fees, if just ten per cent of current dropouts are able to stay onthree year courses

• Generates behaviour analysis that is welcomed by 93 per cent of students and shows that students who are highly engaged have a veryhigh chance of successfully completing their course, while evenstudents with a strong academic background, but who do not engage, have only have a 40 per cent chance of completing their course

• Recognises Nottingham Trent University as a leader in learner analytics

Telephone: 0113 276 0210

Web: www.solutionpath.co.uk

Email: hello@solutionpath.co.uk

Follow us on Twitter @DTPSolutionpath for our views on all things Big Data analytics!

CASE STUDY

CHALLENGELOCATING POOR ENGAGEMENT

Moving on to higher education is an exciting challenge for youngpeople but for various reasons, many thousands decide to drop outacross the UK higher education sector each year.

There are over two million students in the UK, but according to latestfigures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), 12.9 percent of first years dropped out in 2012/13. Not only is this a worryingstatistic for students, but with UK tuition fees currently running at up to£9,000 a year, it’s also bad news for universities who lose millions ofpounds in revenue.

With 28,000 students, NTU offers over 500 courses. National surveysshow an impressive employment record with 93 per cent of graduatesand 91 per cent of postgraduates finding jobs or going on to furtherstudy six months after leaving.

Although its first year dropout rate is better than the national average,NTU decided to take positive steps to identify students who weredisengaging from their studies and provide timely support that mighthelp them continue with their studies. At NTU, 40 to 45 per cent ofstudents have what the UK government calls a ‘widening participation’background, coming from low income or disadvantaged homes or beingthe first in their family to have ever attended university. They may havestruggled to meet the standards to enter university and might needextra support when they get there.

“We were involved in national higher education retention andengagement studies, which sought to identify factors in keepingstudents engaged and on track,” says Mike Day, Director of InformationSystems at NTU. “This work revealed a group of students who we cameto know as ‘the doubters’. These doubters were not very confidentwhen they came to university and often found it very difficult to ask forhelp when they needed it and tended to suffer in silence.

“We wanted to provide a mechanism where we could identify doubtersas early as possible in the academic cycle, because the earlier theyovercome their doubts, the more successful they are likely to be.”

Of the many suppliers who offered analytics solutions, DTP Solutionpathwas the most willing to work collaboratively with the University, its staffand students.

“We had good data, but we knew we could use it better. We had asupplier who was willing to help us find a way of using it moreeffectively; and we had a very specific objective around identifying asearly as possible those students who were disengaging. It was aperfect storm that allowed us to move forward quickly on a ‘learneranalytics’ solution,” adds Day.

£1.25 MILLION SAVING ON LOST

FEES WITH JUST 10PER CENT FALL IN

DROPOUTSW

Telephone: 0113 276 0210

Web: www.solutionpath.co.uk

Email: hello@solutionpath.co.uk

Follow us on Twitter @DTPSolutionpath for our views on all things Big Data analytics!

CASE STUDY

“

”

SOLUTIONCOLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIP

Developed by DTP Solutionpath, the learner analytics solutions - calledStudent Retention, Engagement and Monitoring (StREAM) - is poweredby HP Intelligent Operating Layer (IDOL). IDOL is a Big Data analyticsplatform that uses pattern matching to extract meaning from content.Because HP IDOL is based on ‘meaning’ rather than text-basedsearching it can be used on any number of information sources,including audio, video, images, social media and web content as well as structured data.

For the analytics prediction model at NTU, NTU gave DTP Solutionpath amass of anonymized historic digital footprint data, from six sources:

1. TUTORIAL ATTENDANCE2. ONLINE TEACHING RESOURCE USAGE3. ASSIGNMENT E-SUBMISSIONS4. LIBRARY BOOK LOANS5. CAMPUS SWIPES6. ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT HISTORY

The collaborative engagement kicked off with a three-month proof ofconcept using 1.3 million anonymous and encrypted previous records to develop and train an analytical model, which became the heart of theStREAM solution.

In essence, StREAM is an early warning system that uses predictiveanalytics based on meaning extracted from historical patterns.It draws data from a number of existing NTU information sources. Smart card data shows how students move around the university. Login and usage information from the Virtual Learning Environment(VLE) adds further confidence and other information is harvested fromthe library and student record systems. Performance at assessmentscan be taken into account along with electronic data on when studentshand in assignments.

The data is combined to create a digital footprint for each student,which is compared to the behaviour of previously successful studentsand of their peers on the same course, giving a model of studentengagement.

In tests, StREAM accurately predicted around 90 per cent of studentswho had withdrawn. The proof of concept was then extended to a livepilot programme involving 800 students across a range of courses. The pilot was so successful that the solution was implemented for allstudents at the beginning of the 2014/15 academic year in September2014.

Telephone: 0113 276 0210

Web: www.solutionpath.co.uk

Email: hello@solutionpath.co.uk

Follow us on Twitter @DTPSolutionpath for our views on all things Big Data analytics!

CASE STUDY

Telephone: 0113 276 0210

Web: www.solutionpath.co.uk

Email: hello@solutionpath.co.uk

Follow us on Twitter @DTPSolutionpath for our views on all things Big Data analytics!

CASE STUDYThe analytics results are presented on a dashboard, which simplyshows how an individual’s engagement compares to that of their fellowstudents. The system triggers an alert if a student starts to disengageand falls behind, prompting tutors to discuss potential problems andtheir solutions with students as early as possible.

BENEFITSBETTER STUDENT EXPERIENCEAlthough it’s still early days, NTU is confident of achieving its main aimof creating a climate of belonging that encourages and supports everystudent to be as successful as possible. The project has revealed newinsights into the importance of strong engagement, showing studentsthat even the most able students only have a 40 per cent chance ofstaying the course if they have low engagement. At the other end of thescale, those students who are highly engaged have a very high chanceof success, regardless of their background. The system also haspotential to further improve student retention rates and promises tobring significant financial benefits such that the return on investmentcase is easy to make.

“Quite apart from our main focus on student success, if we onlyachieved a modest target of saving around ten per cent of the studentswho drop out of a three year degree, it would save £1.25 million a yearon fees alone,” says Day. “However, the early warnings generated by thesystem are the main benefit, which come weeks, if not months, ahead ofwhen problems might otherwise have been noticed. This allows tutorsto take early action when students are having problems.”

“We would not have been able to achieve what we have achieved in thetimescale without the DTP Solutionpath StREAM product.”– Mike Day,Director of Information Systems, Nottingham Trent University“The system’s simple interface gives a consistent interpretation thatboth students and tutors value. In contrast, other solutions we haveseen provide a complex set of dials, gauges and widgets and forcetutors to spend valuable time interpreting and drawing their ownconclusions rather than spending time directly with students.”

Thanks to this solution, NTU is now recognised as a leader in learneranalytics. For example, the latest NMC Horizon Report name checksNTU as being about two years ahead of the game when compared withmany other education institutions; there is keen interest in the solutionfrom Benelux countries, Asia and Australia, as well as from dozens of UKuniversities who have made reference visits to see it in operation. Theproject also won the Times Higher Education Award in the UK forproviding outstanding student support.

Looking to the future, NTU and DTP Solutionpath are adding new datasources and have recently introduced a mobile app to allow students tokeep abreast of their engagement on the go. Attendance monitoringand UKVI compliance models are the latest aspects of the University’sactivities that StREAM techniques have been applied to.