Measuring More, So We Can Do Less

In both our business and personal lives we are learning to do more with less, but how do we know what’s working?

You will not be accomplishing more, if less of what you’re doing is working and we all have only 24 hours in a day and that’s not changing.

I Can Haz Attenshunz and Ingajmentz

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I wanted to share with you a Twitter chat that I will be hosting this Monday, April 4th from 12:30pm ET to 1:30pm ET that I think will be amazing.

The guest is George Siemens and my brief writeup of the scheduled chat is below and don’t forget to use the hashtag #SMCEDU.

I hope you can join us!

Learning and Analytics

George Siemens is at the forefront of defining the concept and promoting the discussion of the relatively recently coined term Learning Analytics.

Learning Analytics has been identified by the 2011 Horizon Report as one of six areas of emerging technology that will have significant impact on higher education over the next one to five years.

George is among the leaders in this emerging field and it’s not hard to see why.  So far this year, he has served as the Conference Chair for the 1st International Conference on Learning Analytics, co-facilitated the massive open courses “Learning and Knowledge Analytics” and “Connectivism and Connective Knowledge” which has drawn world-wide innovative educators to the same table to exchange ideas and knowledge, but most importantly to learn from each other.

The Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute (TEKRI) at Athabasca University which sponsored the 1st International Conference on Learning Analytics referenced their support explaining,

“The growth of data surpasses the ability of organizations to make sense of it. This concern is particularly pronounced in relation to knowledge, teaching, and learning. Learning institutions and corporations make little use of the data learners “throw off” in the process of accessing learning materials, interacting with educators and peers, and creating new content.

In an age where educational institutions are under growing pressure to reduce costs and increase efficiency, analytics promises to be an important lens through which to view and plan for change at course and institutions levels.”

The acronym MOOC, first coined in 2008, is well known by any of his students, many of which are educators.  When George Siemens and Stephen Downes were preparing to begin the online course “Connectivism and Connective Knowledge” they were flooded with over 2000 people worldwide signing up for the free, open course. The massive number of participants prompted a new label for the super-sized course, a MOOC or Massive Online Open Course.  How is the course organized and conducted?  Interestingly, all course content was available through RSS feeds, and learners could participate with their choice of tools: threaded discussions in Moodle, blog posts, Second Life, shared bookmarks, and synchronous online meetings, but participants were invited to use the technology methods they were comfortable with. The participants took their notes, posts, discussions, and reference material to every Web 2.0 and social media technology most of us can imagine.

Most of us as we move toward deciding which social media elements are most helpful and engaging to learners will be interested in learning how to evaluate which measures are most effective. Learn how to look at your social media and teaching from the viewpoint of what the data can tell us.

George Siemens is a strategist and researcher at the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute at Athabasca University. Formerly, he was the Associate Director, R & D, Learning Technologies Centre at University of Manitoba. He is the founder Complexive Systems Inc., an research and learning lab focused on assisting organizations develop approaches to meet the needs of changing learners, employees, and global education and business environments. Siemens has keynoted and presented at national and international conferences. His publications and personal blogs can be accessed at www.elearnspace.org and www.connectivism.ca.