Evaluation of SoLAR Southern Flare
Participants were invited to complete a
questionnaire and the results have been collated in such a way that they might be useful
to others who may wish to run a similar event
The first question together will an analysis of responses was
1.
What were your main reasons for attending this event?
To learn about/ or satisfy a general
interest in LA 27 responses
Network with others in the area 13
Find out where other institutions are up to 11
The results for the following question were
collated by reason for attendance:
2.
Did you realise these goals?
To learn about/ or satisfy a general
interest in LA
Yes 26
Mostly 1
Network with others
Yes 9
Pretty
much 3
No 1
Find out where other institutions are up to
Yes 10
No 1
Those who attended out of general interest and/or to find out where other
institutions are up to were the most positive about having achieved their
goals. Those who attended to network with others were mostly positive.
Again, responses to the next 2 questions
were analysed in the context of the goals of attendance.
For those whose goals were:
To learn about/ or satisfy a general interest
in LA
What helped you achieve these goals?
- Presentations 14 responses
- The workshop I attended 7
- Conversations 5
- The mix of formal and informal sessions/ structure of event 4
- Variety of view points + pros and cons 4
- The keynotes 3
- Good intimate conference 2
- The twitter stream
- Skillful moderators
- Summary from ACODE
- Panel session
Is there anything we could have done differently to
help you achieve these goals?
- no 16
- more open discussion sessions 3
- some pre-reading for newbies 2
- for next event organise work groupings based on shared problems or analytics maturity
- more break time
- workshop could have been more focused
- don't put the keynote on at 4pm to open the event
- establish ‘home groups’ for timetabled smaller group discussions of presentations
- distribute presentations before the session
- don't know
Network
with others
What helped you achieve these goals?
- Organisation of the evening cocktail event 4
- discussions at workshops and papers 4
- unstructured time/ time to network 4
- Getting folk in the room
Is there anything we could have done differently to
help you achieve these goals?
- less talking at us (too many papers) 2
- establish a “Moodle” like site beforehand so we can introduce ourselves and start connecting prior to the event 2
- longer lead times for papers
- more promotion
- more play & conversation
- list of attendees and contact details (available)
- presenters slides (done where supplied)
Find
out where other institutions are up to
What helped you achieve these goals?
- Breakfast/ lunch/ dinner conversations with others 5
- presentations 5
- The workshop I attended 2
- Chance for exposure to other Australians 2
- international perspective
Is there anything we could have done differently to
help you achieve these goals?
- No 2
- scrape the Twitter stream on blogs
- aggregate URLs – beginnings of a repository of relevant data to Learning Analytics
- more student-focused presentations
- need a cross sector (not just ACODE) interest group to drive this agenda – should be multidisciplinary
My
analysis – Depending on the motivation for attending, there were different ways
in which the structure of the event helped and ways in which it could be improved.
For
those whose aims were to learn more
about LA or who had a general interest in the area, it was clear that the
presentations, workshops and keynotes were instrumental in helping them achieve
their aims. The majority of this group could not think of any way in which
their experience could have been enhanced, although the suggestions about
providing pre-readings and more discussions have been noted for next time.
For
those whose aims were to network with
others in the area, the built-in opportunities for discussion were highly
valued. The decision to change the conference “dinner” to a stand-up cocktail
event appears to have been a good one, as comments were made about the higher
level of networking that was made possible by that arrangement. As one might
expect, this group asked for more opportunities to make personal contact with
others both online (before and after the event), and face-to-face during the
conference.
For
those whose aims were to find out what
other institutions are doing those needs were mainly met through
conversations over meals and attendance at the presentations.
The suggestions about blogs, making URLs available,
and setting up an interest group are already underway.
5. What are you
planning to do in terms of learning analytics when you return to your
institution?
The majority of participants plan to
discuss, share, report back, employ common-sense approach and lessons learned,
scope, plan, and get the right people in the room. This indicates that there
will be a high level of transfer of learning from the event back to the
institutions.
6
Are you interested in being part of a Learning Analytics network?
A significant number of people have already
added their names to Google Document and those will be contacted shortly
7
Any other comments you would like to make?
·
Brilliant / Thank you/ well
done 9
·
When is the next one?/ do it
again 4
·
Good to amazing food 3
·
Conference was expensive 2
(note we broke even on the event so not
sure how we could do it more cheaply)
·
Good organisation 2
·
I am concerned about ethics 1
·
Next time make it more
interactive
The great majority of comments were very positive, although there
some aspects that will be improved next time.
T H A N K S
