Presentation at LAK14, the fourth international conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge, Indianapolis, March 2014.

1. Data Wranglers:
Human data interpreters
to close the feedback loop
Doug Clow
Institute of Educational Technology
The Open University, UK

2. The Open University
• Largest university in the UK
• 200,000 students
• 7,000 tutors
• 1,000 academic staff
• Supported open learning
Milton Keynes

3. At scale, each year
• 600 courses
• > 200,000 students
• > 1 million assignments
• > 1 billion views of OU/BBC coproductions
• > 3 million Moodle transactions per day
Photo (cc) Marieke IJsendoorn-Kuijpers http://www.flickr.com/photos/mape_s/333862026//

5. data wrangling

6. “Learning is a complex social activity” (Siemens, 2012)
• Lots of data
• Lots of tools
• Humans to
make sense
Photo CC (BY) Tobias Lindman on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cowb0y2000/6243008944/

7. Data Wrangling
• Institutional capacity
building
• 8 Wranglers
• Faculty link
• Regular reports

8. Data
• Delivery data
• Completion,
pass rates,
demographics
Pelophylax perezi Photo CC (BY-SA) Paulo Brandão on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulobrandao/3567716506/
• Student feedback
• Activity data
(Moodle)

10. Photo CC (BY) Preneur d‟Image on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/surbykids/9368298544/
Report Process
• Briefing discussion
• Data analysis and report writing
• Draft discussion
• Final report

11. Photo (cc)-BY-NC nataliej on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nataliejohnson/2122722198/
• Scrutiny in draft
• Standard document template
• Executive summary
• Recommendations
Quality assurance

12. Responsive „quick reports‟
Photo (CC)-BY Mark Dumont on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wcdumonts/9256493975/
Doing extras

13. reaction

14. users data

15. users data

16. users data

17. examples

18. 0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Forum Wiki Pages Quiz
Unique visits per week to VLE components
for one course

19. Course use of Elluminate
Students using
Elluminate
None 18%
Informal 27%
General student support 35%
Specified activities not assessed 49%
Specified activities referenced in
assessment
95%
Usage of Elluminate broken down by course use
of Elluminate for one Faculty between 2011-
2012.

20. conclusions

21. Photo CC (BY-NC-SA) quas on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/quas/1703493/
Evaluation:
• Data quality
• Data quantity
• Unevenness
• High cost
• Slow
• Bottom up

22. Photo CC (BY-NC) Alexey Kljatov on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaoticmind75/9516811453/
It is only through the detailed process of
engagement and dialogue between analysts,
stakeholders and the data that insight and
organisational change are developed.

23. • Gill Kirkup, Mary Thorpe, Alison Ashby & her team
– esp. Vicky Marsh and Jim Peard
• Oliver Millard
• Evaghn DeSouza
• My fellow Data Wranglers
Thanks to …

24. Doug Clow
@dougclow
dougclow.org
doug.clow@open.ac.uk
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

25. cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by David Goehring: http://flickr.com/photos/carbonnyc/33413040/

26. Doing extras
• 60 points vs 30 points
Photo (CC)-BY Steve Snodgrass on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevensnodgrass/4034636727/

27. cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by zzpza: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zzpza/3269784239/
Workshops
• Integrated/joint Learning Design/Data Wrangling
• Module production workshops
–Intensive all-week workshop
–Many presentations (LTS, other relevant modules)
–IET: Data Wrangling and Learning Design

28. (CC) Eoin Gardner on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/18091975@N00/5310045271/
The impersonal is political
• Data used as
weaponry in
ongoing battles

29. Data
• Delivery data
• Completion,
pass rates,
demographics
Photo CC (BY-NC) ChaoticMind75 on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaoticmind75/8629790711/
• Student feedback
• Activity data
(Moodle)