Researchers at IU Bloomington’s Bloomington Assessment and Research (BAR) and Office of the Registrar were awarded Best Practitioner Paper Award at the 11th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (LAK21).
The paper, Learning Analytics in the Context of COVID-19: A case Study of Using Network Analysis to Guide Campus Course Offering Plans, was authored by BAR staff Gina Deom, Stefano Fiorini, Linda Shepard, Julie Teague and Office of the Registrar’s Mark McConahay.
The paper explores their work to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 on IU Bloomington’s campus during the fall 2020 semester. The goal was to safely maintain an in-person class experience to the fullest extent possible, especially for new undergraduate students. The researchers applied a network analysis to course enrollment data to estimate rates of student-to-student contact in various instruction modes. Researchers proposed a hybrid model of instruction to reduce contact points between students.
“We are grateful for the recognition received at the LAK forum, and we are particularly thankful for the many campus partners that supported this effort, Enrollment Management, IU Network Science Institute, Office of the Registrar and the all campus taskforce established for fall planning during COVID,” said BAR director Linda Shepard.
BAR’s proposals and guidance helped decision makers at Indiana University adopt a hybrid model of instruction which resulted in reduced number of in-person contact and greater path lengths between students. Learn more about this project here: https://bar.indiana.edu/projects-publications/enrollment-planning-social-distancing.html
LAK21 was hosted by the Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR), an international organization made up of leading international, inter-disciplinary researchers who are working to understand the role and impact of data analytics on teaching, learning, training, and development. Learn more about SoLAR here: https://www.solaresearch.org/about/
Bloomington Assessment and Research supports faculty, programs, campus initiatives, and the student experience by providing data, research and analyses for decision support. Learn more about BAR here: https://bar.indiana.edu/index.html