Data, Date, Everywhere: What’s an Educator to Think?
Abstract
While using data in higher education has become an emerging trend (Drake & Walz, 2018), some studies question its effectiveness in improving teaching and learning, especially in early-term, high impact courses (Cox, et al., 2017). One method to improve effectiveness involves creating a faculty-driven data culture (Hora, Bouwma-Gearhart, & Joon Park, 2017).
This session focuses on how one Composition Department has established a culture where academic leadership, course leads, curriculum, and faculty work together to collect and analyze data through metrics, external evaluations, research pipeline projects, pilots, and other methods. The department uses the data to identify and address challenges through course revisions and standard practices for feedback, outreach, and course revisions. New data is then used to evaluate the effectiveness of changes.
The session examines how the development of this faculty-driven data culture has successfully improved student success, learning, and experience while giving faculty an increased sense of ownership over course content, instruction, and assessment. It shows a connection between improving these factors and persistence and retention. It explores methods of gathering and analyzing data for course revision and process enhancement. It discusses the specific roles academic leadership, curriculum, course leads, and faculty play in data gathering and analysis, implementing resulting course or process revisions, and assessing effectiveness of changes. Finally, it provides specific examples of data informed changes made in curriculum and processes as well as their outcomes in terms of student success, learning, and experience.
Presentation Description
While using data in higher education has become an emerging trend (Drake & Walz, 2018), some studies question its effectiveness in improving teaching and learning, especially in early-term, high impact courses (Cox, et al., 2017). One method to improve effectiveness involves creating a faculty-driven data culture (Hora, Bouwma-Gearhart, & Joon Park, 2017). This session focuses on how one Composition Department has established a culture where academic leadership, course leads, curriculum, and faculty work together to collect and analyze data through metrics, external evaluations, research pipeline projects, pilots, and other methods. The department uses the data to identify and address challenges through course revisions and standard practices for feedback, outreach, and course revisions. New data is then used to evaluate the effectiveness of changes. The session examines how the development of this faculty-driven data culture has successfully improved student success, learning, and experience while giving faculty an increased sense of ownership over course content, instruction, and assessment. It shows a connection between improving these factors and persistence and retention. It explores methods of gathering and analyzing data for course revision and process enhancement. It discusses the specific roles academic leadership, curriculum, course leads, and faculty play in data gathering and analysis, implementing resulting course or process revisions, and assessing effectiveness of changes. Finally, it provides specific examples of data informed changes made in curriculum and processes as well as their outcomes in terms of student success, learning, and experience.
Location
Stream B: Curriculum Dialogues
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Thompson, Stephanie; Vice, Josef L.; Kelly, Teresa Marie; and Green, Barbara, "Data, Date, Everywhere: What’s an Educator to Think?" (2020). Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative. 45.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cssc/2020/2020/45
Data, Date, Everywhere: What’s an Educator to Think?
Stream B: Curriculum Dialogues
While using data in higher education has become an emerging trend (Drake & Walz, 2018), some studies question its effectiveness in improving teaching and learning, especially in early-term, high impact courses (Cox, et al., 2017). One method to improve effectiveness involves creating a faculty-driven data culture (Hora, Bouwma-Gearhart, & Joon Park, 2017).
This session focuses on how one Composition Department has established a culture where academic leadership, course leads, curriculum, and faculty work together to collect and analyze data through metrics, external evaluations, research pipeline projects, pilots, and other methods. The department uses the data to identify and address challenges through course revisions and standard practices for feedback, outreach, and course revisions. New data is then used to evaluate the effectiveness of changes.
The session examines how the development of this faculty-driven data culture has successfully improved student success, learning, and experience while giving faculty an increased sense of ownership over course content, instruction, and assessment. It shows a connection between improving these factors and persistence and retention. It explores methods of gathering and analyzing data for course revision and process enhancement. It discusses the specific roles academic leadership, curriculum, course leads, and faculty play in data gathering and analysis, implementing resulting course or process revisions, and assessing effectiveness of changes. Finally, it provides specific examples of data informed changes made in curriculum and processes as well as their outcomes in terms of student success, learning, and experience.
