Using Data Analytics to Foster the Instructional Quality of Online Education

Teaching Analytics

Data analytics have quickly become an integral component of a comprehensive approach to improved decision-making across higher education (Desouza & Smith, 2016). The value of data analytics rests in its ability to help administrators make more informed and more efficient decisions (which, in turn, results in more effective use of limited resources). From predictive analytics to learning analytics to institutional analytics, data-driven decision-making has the potential to inform virtually all aspects of the institution. Considerable research has explored the power of learning analytics to foster student achievement and tailor learning experiences to the needs of individual students (Johnson, Adams, & Cummins, 2012), but less attention has focused on the application of teaching analytics to enhance the faculty experience or instructional quality.

Just as student activity in the online classroom leaves a digital footprint to inform learning analytics, instructional activity creates an equally impressive array of data on teaching behaviors. Learning management systems have integrated analytic capabilities that have the potential to measure a range of teaching activities (Tobin, Mandernach, & Taylor, 2015); for example: