Building learning analytics cMOOC for teachers and learning designers through online collaboration between universities

Abstract

In Finnish universities of applied sciences learning analytics has not been on the agenda until recent years. The activity is still largely based on individual teachers’ enthusiasm and the faculty in general is not well aware of what learning analytics is about and what it can provide to teaching and learning. In recent years Finland has had several large national projects which are related to learning analytics. One of the first ones was “eAMK-project” in which Learning analytics was included as a minor part. In the project, it was soon realized that the knowledge and skills of an average teacher needs to be boosted in this field. Therefore, a cMOOC course was created – the very first in learning analytics in Finnish. The course is targeted mostly for teachers and learning designers. After completion of the course, participants should have the readiness to start using learning analytics in their work. Showing the mastery of the new skills, they are also encouraged to apply for “Learning analytics master” digital badge.

The course was developed collaboratively among six universities of applied sciences in Finland. The developers have met each other periodically in face-to-face project meetings but most of the course construction work took place online. In this article, the structure and contents of the course are described. Also, the building process and the different elements and methods required for the online collaboration are explained. Before opening the course, it was evaluated using quality criteria for online implementations developed by national eAMK-project. The first implementation of the cMOOC was held in spring 2019.