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Of course the current big buzz in the LMS arena is analytics: over the past few years each and all of the LMS providers, on their own or in partnership with other firms, have announced an analytics strategy and analytic applications that allow faculty, departments, and institutions to leverage student transactional data extracted from the LMS for analytic purposes intended to aid student academic performance, course completion, student retention, and learning outcomes.

Learning analytics holds increasing potential for student agency and autonomy, highlighting a need for ethical discourse at all levels of higher education institutions. Topics central to this dialogue include student awareness of analytics, the future of algorithms and learning analytics, and the redefinition of failure.

"Every time a student interacts with their university - be that going to the library, logging into their virtual learning environment or submitting assessments online - they leave behind a digital footprint. Learning analytics is the process of using this data to improve learning and teaching. Learning analytics refers to the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about the progress of learners and the contexts in which learning takes place. Using the increased availability of big datasets around learner activity and digital footprints left by student activity in learning environments, learning analytics take us further than data currently available can."

"Using a mix of skills in data engineering, analysis, and business intelligence, the Office focuses on analytics subject areas such as executive and academic program dashboards, marketing, enrollment management, retention, financials, and service centers. A service catalog includes predictive analytics, metrics dashboards, forecast modeling, Ad Hoc reporting, operational reporting, and variance analysis."

"while these are worthwhile efforts, it is crucial for institutions to use predictive analytics ethically. Without ethical practices, student data could be used to curtail academic success rather than help ensure it. For example, without a clear plan in place, an institution could use predictive analytics to justify using fewer resources to recruit low-income students because their chances of enrolling are less sure than for more affluent prospective students. "

"Progress on data and analytics has stalled. EDUCAUSE is working with NACUBO and AIR to produce an analytics statement advocating for these important efforts in higher education and modeling the collaborative spirit needed for success."

"Note that Virtual Worlds is chugging out of the Trough of Disillusionment, with only 5-10 years to arrive at the Plateau of Productivity. Big Data and Gamification have a bit more hype to hype before their demise. In-Memory Analytics and Text Analytics are just now descending into the Trough! On, no! While Predictive Analytics is cruising!"

"Whether you're an individual or a brand, it's important to adjust your content around the changing seasons and fickle trends. A good way to monitor the effectiveness of your pins and reach is by investing time in Pinterest analytics tools. To help, we've gathered six services that measure a wide range of Pinterest engagement metrics. How do you determine your Pinterest influence, either for your personal or branded account?"

Wolfram Alpha, the "computational knowledge engine" that quietly handles a large number of queries from Apple's Siri, launched a new feature today that allows you to quickly get an overview of all your data on Facebook. The new report, says Wolfram CEO Stephen Wolfram, expands Wolfram Alpha's "powers of analysis to give you all sorts of personal analytics." The company plans to expand these reports with new features over time, but they already give you a pretty deep look at your Facebook habits.

The rise in social media analytics tools has satisfied marketer demand for a way to measure and gather insights from social marketing efforts.

"Data is great, but the purpose of Analytics is to get insights so that we can take action. In this post, I will cover some sample reports from the new app tracking interface and how they can help us make decisions for our business."

The dashboard is a highly useful service for marketers to get an idea of their most popular posts and to aggregate performance data over a period of time. It lessens their reliance on third party companies, who often charge for their analytics tools. But is it useful for users, beyond a quick navel gaze? The jury's still out.

"As higher education institutions in the United States strive to maximize their use of resources to better support students, it is now more critical for professionals to make data-informed decisions. Most institutions are currently gathering an abundance of data from multiple sources, which provides a good opportunity for functional units, divisions, and departments to share timely and relevant data and collaboratively deliver programs and services. Three of many integral units that are involved in data-informed strategies are institutional research (IR), student affairs, and information technology (IT). Thus, three higher education membership associations, the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, and EDUCAUSE partnered to conduct a survey that examined the current landscape of institutions' use of data and analytics for student success. This report describes a variety of challenges and opportunities regarding institutions' readiness to expand their use of data across functions."

"In order not to fail, it is necessary to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve with learning analytics, a vision that closely aligns with institutional priorities."

"This three-week course provides a foundation for marketers and analysts seeking to understand the core principles of digital analytics and to improve business performance through better digital measurement."

"This report is the result of a research partnership between Burning Glass Technologies, BHEF, and IBM, motivated by the need to close the data science and analytics skills gap through data driven insights and increased collaboration between higher education and industry. It defines the data science and analytics (DSA) landscape, presents research findings about the skill gap, adds context to the DSA jobs and skills that are disrupters, and offers recommendations to alleviate the DSA talent shortage."

"These are both important models for examining unintended biases that may arise in algorithmically based decision making. "

"To succeed in today's connected world, you need to build a community around your company, brand, and products. Over the last decade, social media monitoring has become a primary form of business intelligence, used to identify, predict, and respond to consumer behavior. Listening to what your customers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying about you is key to getting great results from your social media campaigns. There are countless tools out there, offering many ways to analyze, measure, display, and create reports about your engagement efforts."

"Education is increasingly occurring online or in educational software, resulting in an explosion of data that can be used to improve educational effectiveness and support basic research on learning. In this course, you will learn how and when to use key methods for educational data mining and learning analytics on this data."