Tuesday, May 31, 2011

UIS to help create online learning database

The University of Illinois Springfield is one of six schools sharing a $1 million grant to develop a database to help predict online learning success and provide help to students who may need it.

UIS will participate in the Predictive Analytics Reporting Framework project directed by the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies.

Data to be collected include such things as a student’s age, academic record, gender, where he or she may have transferred from and other information, he said.

“In looking at the data, we should be able to identify patterns of success or trouble in the past,” said Ray Schroeder, director of the UIS Center for Online Learning, Research and Service. “Then we can assign tutors or otherwise make sure the students have help available to them.”

The research was featured in an May 31, 2011, article in The State Journal-Register.

Read the story online