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IJEM
24,2 Harnessing ICT potential
The adoption and analysis of ICT systems for
enhancing the student learning experience
116 Shane Dawson
Graduate School of Medicine, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
Liz Heathcote
Heathcote Consulting, Wollongong, Australia, and
Gary Poole
Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth, University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, Canada

Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to examine how effective higher education institutions have been in
harnessing the data capture mechanisms from their student information systems, learning
management systems and communication tools for improving the student learning experience and
informing practitioners of the achievement of specific learning outcomes. The paper seeks to argue
that the future of analytics in higher education lies in the development of more comprehensive and
integrated systems to value add to the student learning experience.
Design/methodology/approach – Literature regarding the trend for greater accountability in
higher education is reviewed in terms of its implications for greater “user driven” direction. In
addition, IT usage within higher education and contemporary usage of data captured from various
higher education systems is examined and compared to common commercial applications to suggest
how higher education management and teachers can gain greater understanding of the student cohort
and personalise and enhance the learning experience much as commercial entities have done for their
client base. A way forward for higher education is proposed.
Findings – If the multiple means that students engage with university systems are considered, it is
possible to track individual activity throughout the entire student life cycle – from initial admission,
through course progression and finally graduation and employment transitions. The combined data
captured by various systems builds a detailed picture of the activities students, instructors, service
areas and the institution as a whole undertake and can be used to improve relevance, efficiency and
effectiveness in a higher education institution.
Originality/value – The paper outlines how academic analytics can be used to better inform
institutions about their students learning support needs. The paper provides examples of IT
automation that may allow for student user-information to be translated into a personalised and
semi-automated support system for students.
Keywords Communication technologies, E-learning, Higher education
Paper type Conceptual paper

International Journal of Educational

Management
Introduction
Vol. 24 No. 2, 2010
pp. 116-128 New technologies are just different, and we need to understand the difference and the
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0951-354X
appropriate circumstances for applying various technologies for effective teaching and
DOI 10.1108/09513541011020936 learning (Bates, 2005, p. 3).
Tony Bates (2005), author of Technology, E-learning and Distance Education, reminds Harnessing ICT
us that different technologies offer different affordances and should be selectively potential
utilised to maximise returns in student learning and efficiencies of operation. This
simple, yet effective, advice has been broadly adopted within Higher Education (HE)
circles in terms of the implementation of various learning management systems (LMS),
e-Portfolios and social networking applications, for example. While it can be well
demonstrated that HE has made significant advances in the implementation of IT 117
infrastructure and adoption of E-learning tools for augmenting and facilitating student
learning, the full potential of these resources are yet to be realised. For instance, when
navigating through the current list of internet applications (e.g. Myspace, Facebook,
eBay, iTunes, Amazon, Google) frequently used by HE students, it is clear just how
customised the user experience within these commercial tools has become. Interest
groups, various communities of practice, updating and visualising social and work
networks, and extensive access to information help ensure that the adoption of these
tools is personally relevant and time efficient for the end-user. A key driver in the
success of these resources has been knowledge of the end-user’s current and future
requirements. This has commonly been determined through tracking, capture and
analysis (data mining) of user-behaviour within the specific applications (Cho et al.,
2002; Mobasher et al., 2000).
Compared with the commercial sector, how effective have HE institutions been in
harnessing the data capture mechanisms from their student information systems,
learning management systems and communication tools for improving the student
learning experience and informing practitioners of the achievement of specific learning
outcomes? Goldstein and Katz (2005), examined the level of utilisation of information
and communication technologies (ICT) data mining techniques for informing HE
teaching and learning. The authors noted that the most common users of the
institutions analytical platforms were associated with finance and admissions. Faculty
Deans and teaching staff were reported as seldom engaging with the available
institutional data. In essence, there has been limited uptake of ICT data analytics
within HE in order to inform the design, delivery and evaluation of teaching and
learning practices.
The greater adoption and utilisation of academic analytics (Goldstein and Katz,
2005) for informing the broader teaching and learning agenda is gaining increasing
momentum within the HE sector. The readily available data enables practitioners with
more robust and rigorous means of providing students with a high quality
personalised educational experience. This paper argues that leveraging data captured
by various education systems remains minimal, and focuses on what could be and
perhaps should be at the ready disposal of all educators. The paper firstly outlines the
role of ICT data in catering to the demands associated with accountability and
performance standards. The importance for alternate sets of student data promoting
instructor reflection on pedagogical action is also discussed The paper then proceeds to
explore the current suite of ICT resources that are available within the commercial
sector and that are utilised to enhance the consumer experience and develop a growing
market share – priorities mirrored in all HE institutions operating within the current
education context.
IJEM User-tracking in business applications
24,2 Capturing information about the end-user’s current and future needs is an integral
practice in contemporary business. A key factor in the success of any commercial
entity or service industry is a thorough understanding and knowledge of your
customer base. For commercial enterprises, knowledge of the end-user’s patterns of
behaviour, engagement, interests and future requirements are increasingly obtained
118 through data tracking, capture and modeling (Cho et al., 2002; Edelstein, 2000;
Mobasher et al., 2000). The predictive power resulting from data mining techniques
emerges from the development of subsequent models of user-behaviour in order to
determine overall relationships and patterns of interest (Pyle, 1999). A simplified
example of the business application of tracking user-input and subsequent prediction
of end-user requirements can be observed in the presentation of “key” advertising links
associated with the keywords located within individual Gmail (Google e-mail)
messages. The technology situated behind this affordance provides a personalised and
more individually relevant user experience. After all, the advertising is directly linked
to the e-mail content. The adoption and application of data mining processes provides
the organisation with a data-informed opportunity to provide the user with a more
personalised, relevant and timely experience and therefore, provide the company with
a better bottom line.

Potential data mining applications in education

Although the application of data mining processes has long been utilised within
commercial industries, there has been limited uptake and interest within HE (Goldstein
and Katz, 2005). The level of sophistication of data mining that is currently in operation
has multiple important uses if adapted for the education context. For instance, the
predictive modelling of student admissions and potential “at risk” students (attrition);
the development of personalised learning resources; and modelling the collective
learning community behaviour, all serve to assist academic teaching staff in better
understanding the specific learning needs of their current student cohort. The data
available in disparate HE ICT systems can be better aggregated and harvested and
subsequently incorporated into the suite of tools currently available for teaching staff.
A greater understanding of the student cohort and the associated flexibility in design
and delivery of learning activities, not only aids in the effectiveness and overall
efficiency of implemented teaching practices, but also in the future marketing and
promotion and demonstration of an organisation proactively responding to the rigours
associated with teaching quality.

Accountability and competition in HE

Education systems internationally have been subject to recent government reforms
that have largely focussed on developing policy relating to consumerism,
accountability and performance standards. For example, Japan has recently changed
the operational agenda of its national universities from Government funded bodies to
independent business entities, each competing for a position within the higher
education sector (Nguyen et al., 2005). A primary agenda for this reform was to
enhance teaching quality through increased business competition. In a similar context,
Australia has implemented the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund. Access to
this pool of Government funding is based on the demonstration and achievement of
teaching and learning performance measures (such as student evaluations, Harnessing ICT
employment and attrition rates, etc.) and subsequent comparisons and rankings potential
against other universities within discipline groupings. These examples are not isolated
instances. Marginson and van der Wende (2007) noted that numerous countries have
now developed policies and strategies that aim to promote institutional independence
and enhance the quality of education offered as a result of increased competition. As
the authors highlighted, a corollary of this heightened level of competition, has been a 119
growing public demand for greater information regarding the quality of teaching
available and the relative ranking of individual HE institutions.
The increased reporting demands now placed on HE Institutions has drawn interest
in methods to measure progress and achievement against various criterion for quality.
Specifically, this emphasis on teaching performance metrics is reflected in the priorities
and currently funded projects in the Australian government backed Carrick Institute
for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. For example, a project undertaken by
the Carrick Institute is the identification of specific quality metrics and indicators that
detail overall teacher effectiveness (Chalmers, 2007). In this report, Chalmers outlined
the current international trends related to teaching performance indicators, which can
be placed into several broad categories dependant upon the target audience –
government, industry, and institutional. Within each of these categories, alternate yet
inter-related data sets can be used to inform the demonstration of performance
standards (van Dyk and Conradie, 2007). For example, Chalmers noted that there is a
need for indicators of graduate employment outcomes linked to higher education.
Current measures of student employability are often derived from graduate destination
surveys. However, these surveys fail to address the relationship between implemented
teaching practices and graduate outcomes. Institutions currently collect data on
student demographics, teaching standards, assessment, learning outcomes, graduate
attributes, employment rates and student achievement. The correlation of these related
data sets may assist in the illumination of teaching and learning practices that directly
enhance employability and demonstrate the achievement of graduate competencies to
specific industry groups. This call for more robust and rigorous methods of evaluating
teaching quality is not only a priority for Australian institutions, but has also emerged
as a key future issue for all HE institutions internationally (Chalmers, 2007; New Media
Consortium and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, 2007).

HE and ICTs
The emphasis on the demonstration of quality services comprises only one component
of the multiple demands placed on the contemporary HE institution. While universities
are challenged with the need for streamlining data capture and reporting processes
they are also struggling to cater to the educational needs of current and future students
entering a changing and uncertain workforce. In this business-oriented climate, the
adoption of ICT has received considerable attention within the education literature as a
primary instrument in the strategy for responding to the demands associated with
consumerism whilst also facilitating the student learning experience (Hosie and
Mazzarol, 1999; Mazzarol et al., 2003). In essence, the scalable adoption of ICT
embraces both commercialisation and pedagogical agendas. For instance, as
previously noted the reductions in government financial support for the HE sector
has forced universities to seek alternate sources of revenue. One such source has been
IJEM the international student market (Mazzarol et al., 2003). The large-scale adoption of
24,2 online technologies has enabled the sector to expand its reach into new markets while
minimising operational costs (Hanna, 1998; Mazzarol et al., 2003). This expansion has
not only impacted upon the delivery of education resources to off-campus students, but
also on the design and accessibility of learning activities available for on-campus
cohorts (Coates et al., 2005). The rising costs of education and the subsequent
120 requirement for student part-time employment have required the blending of more
traditional modes of education delivery with online ICTs, such as learning
management systems (LMS) (Hosie and Mazzarol, 1999). The adoption of ICTs to
provide increased accessibility to discipline content and contact with peers and
teaching staff is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for all institutions. While this
presents a very simplified explanation for the rapid expansion of ICTs in education, it
does serve to illustrate that the vast majority of universities have at their disposal a
tool that not only provides flexible access and contact with the organisation but also
tracks and records the patterns of behaviour undertaken by particular demographics.
It is this latter affordance that is currently gaining increasing interest amongst the
academic community (Campbell et al., 2007; Dawson, 2007b; Goldstein and Katz, 2005).

Academic analytics
HE institutions are now beginning to acknowledge the additional operational benefits
derived from data mining, analysis and reporting. Campbell and Oblinger (2007)
discuss the heightened level of accountability placed upon universities and the
capacity for ICT systems to provide alternate data sets by which to measure quality
and assist the organisation in their decision making processes. For instance the authors
state that:
As the demand for accountability grows, institutions are being asked to present data that
document their accomplishments. Data can also be used to guide internal improvement. This
culture of accountability puts new pressures on higher education, but these pressures also
create new opportunities for colleges and universities to reexamine the processes and tools
they use for decision making (Campbell and Oblinger, 2007, p. 2).
Although universities have mined enterprise ICT systems for reporting purposes, the
emphasis has been predominantly associated with transactions and operations in lieu
of more predictive modeling and informing teacher-student and student-student
interactions (Goldstein and Katz, 2005). As Goldstein and Katz (2005) report:
Academic analytics in higher education remains in its infancy, or perhaps in early childhood.
The potential, however, is great, and it is likely that the times will demand more of our data
and the systems that manage it (p. 9).
In essence, the focus of the data collation and aggregation has been on refining and
enhancing the processes for reporting, marketing and attracting additional sources of
revenue. Figure 1 illustrates the relationship between data captured within the adopted
LMS and the range of potential information consumers – from institutional
administration using the data for strategic decision making, to students having access
to just-in-time support resources based on their past academic performance. Despite
the depth and range of data available and its capacity to inform a diversity of end-users
there have been minimal and localised applications of this data within HE circles. For
example, the shaded component of Figure 1 illustrates the type of commonly utilised
 Harnessing ICT
potential

121

Figure 1.
Example ICT data from
institutional LMS, the
derived information and
possible end-consumers

and reported usages of the available LMS data (adapted from Heathcote and Dawson,
2005; Heathcote and Prakash, 2004).
Given the increasing importance for HE institutions to rapidly respond to the
student cohort social and academic needs, and the high degree of investment in
researching student learning, it is surprising that the information on student behaviour
captured by the LMS has been so rarely interrogated and adopted beyond basic load
and tool usage. The quantity and diversity of data available regarding student online
learning behaviour, interactions with peers and teaching staff and access to other
institutional ICT systems (student services, library, etc.) for example, affords an
opportunity for integrating automated student learning support and services. For
example, early identification of student disengagement in the online environment may
indicate an “attrition-risk” thereby triggering various learning support mechanisms
(such as: academic writing support; tutoring, library resources, staff timetables and
calendar) while also notifying teaching staff of the need for developing and
implementing additional learning interventions.
To date there has been a lack of research regarding the application of academic
analytics to inform the design, delivery and future evaluations of individual teaching
practices. Although the majority of commercial LMS have the in-built capacity to
report on specific types of user activity, e.g. unique users, session login times, resource
usage and potentially, navigational pathways, this data has been commonly only
reported at the request of individual instructors monitoring class activity. For instance
WebCT Vista reports individual student activity (Figure 2), yet comparisons and
averages with fellow class peers or with courses operating in the same program are not
readily available. While data relating to class activity provides information to assist
instructors in the ongoing design and implementation of teaching practices, access to
comparative data sets accessible by all staff and students provides a rich composite of
information to benchmark performance and establish predictors related to the
implemented learning activities, not only within an individual course, but across
multiple courses, programs and faculties.
Goldstein and Katz (2005) and more recently Campbell and Oblinger (2007) have
commenced discussions and research with educational communities such as
EDUCAUSE regarding the broader systemic use of ICT data for both accountability
IJEM
24,2

122

Figure 2.
Individual student reports
available from WebCT
Vista

reporting and enhancing the learning and teaching agenda. In a similar vein Dawson
(2006a, 2006b) has also emphasised the value of accessing ICT data for establishing
potential lead indicators for evaluating various learning and teaching outcomes.
Dawson (2006a, 2006b) demonstrated that ICT data such as discussion forum postings
can be used as a predictor of student community, thereby assisting staff with the
ongoing refinement of learning activities designed to foster a learning community
through access to just-in-time formative ICT data. Similarly, Morris et al. (2005)
identified a correlation between session length of individual online user engagement
and final assessment scores.
An important aspect of this reportage data is the ability to identify patterns of user
behaviour. Although currently lacking in most commercial LMS, the capacity to
present individual user activity within a broader context provides a more robust
analysis and pattern recognition. Anomalies in these behaviours may serve to provide
a catalyst for proactive instructor intervention. For example, Student A actively
engages in the online learning environment on a regular basis. However, the system
informs the instructor of an absence of login activity. The instructor has the option to
personally contact the individual student, offer assistance, and potentially avoid
attrition from the course. Although this may be an extreme example, the power of the
system to focus on students at highest risk and for the teaching team to harness
resources to respond to the cohort dynamics can be seen to offer a greater suite of
personalized learning resources that were previously not feasible in large class sizes.
Campbell et al. (2007) report on the use of academic analytics at Purdue University in
order to identify potential “at risk” students. The predictive model is based on past
academic results (aptitude) and the analysis of student behaviour within the course
management system (effort). The authors note that the next phase of development will
be to implement early indicators of at risk students in order to provide them with
additional resources to facilitate progression towards patterns of behaviour that Harnessing ICT
represent a low risk category (e.g. participation in group discussions, regular access of potential
discipline content and review of assessment criteria).
An additional example lies in the ability to aggregate LMS data around central
themes to identify and target areas requiring additional learning support through staff
development agencies. Burnett and Dawson (2005) argued that staff uptake of LMS
resources is often impeded by an inability for teaching staff to translate technical 123
resources to pedagogical functions. The inclusion of data visualisation of educator and
faculty benchmarks affords teaching staff the opportunity to monitor and track the
impact of designed learning activities – both individual and at a faculty level. Thus,
practitioners can identify the impact of designed learning activities on student
behaviour (engagement) in a timely and on going manner. The visualisation of student
engagement data can assist staff in linking the function of technical resources with
implemented pedagogy.
These examples illustrate the types of data captured and the value of its analysis
that is generally inaccessible to more traditional modes of teaching practice (e.g.
face-to-face instruction). This is not to say that online learning practices should replace
learning activities such as lectures and tutorials, but that the data captured by LMS
offers new insights into the scholarship of teaching and learning. However, the current
reportage capabilities of commercial LMS tends to present what is perceived as
disconnected quantitative data sets (e.g. page hits, total postings, time online, etc.) in
lieu of more learning oriented data visualisation methods. In a recent presentation
Dawson (2007a) demonstrated the interpretative value when grouping BlackBoard
Vista tools into categories of teaching administration (e.g. calendar, tracking, file
manager), assessment (e.g. assignment, my grades), content (e.g. file, content page,
weblinks, notes, folder) and student interaction (e.g. chat, discussion, mail, who is
online) for the purposes of analysis. While these groupings are subjective they are
based on the tool’s primary designed function. The presentation of these grouped data
sets provides teaching staff with a more readily interpretable interface for evaluating
their teaching practice.

Expanding academic analytics beyond the LMS

While the potential for LMS data to inform teaching practice, staff development and
administration organisation is emerging within the literature, these systems still
largely function and analyse the data in isolation from other ICT systems and data
within the institution (e.g. Student Services, Human Resources, Library, E-mail). The
discussion above examined what information LMS systems data alone provides to
meet student needs more effectively. When these data are correlated with additional
information gathered in other HE systems, a richer picture of the student learning
experience, instructor adoption and institutional usage is generated. In this section of
the paper, we explore how the integration of these commonly disparate IT systems
provides a more informed analysis and overview of the HE institution’s key functions
and how this data may be used to inform decisions relating to the enhancement of the
student experience.
If we consider the multiple means that students engage with university systems, it
is possible to track individual activity throughout the entire student life cycle – from
initial admission, through course progression and finally graduation and employment
IJEM transitions. The combined data captured by various systems builds a detailed picture
24,2 of the activities students, instructors, service areas and the institution as a whole
undertake. Figure 3 outlines how each separate HE system gathers different data sets
which, when considered together in the three examples detailed (student, instructor
and institution), provide information that can be used to assist the end-consumer in
completing their HE responsibilities and tasks more efficiently and effectively. For
124 example, consider how the student ICT interactions could be used to assist the student
in getting back on task by suggesting context-sensitive support resources and
benchmarking performance and level of engagement with peers.

Learning from industry

The recent 2007 Horizon report identified several possible key future trends in learning
and teaching that educational institutions should monitor. The report discusses the
impact of the increasing cost of education, demand for increasing flexible learning
options (for both traditional and distance education courses), globalisation
(communication and collaboration), information literacy and democracy of
information, academic review and rewards and lastly the increasing cultural gap
between future student cohorts and faculty. Associated with these key trends is the
increasing focus on HE accountability and consumer satisfaction. A core resource
associated with both the trends predicted by the Horizon report and the mounting public
and government scrutiny over the demonstration of quality student outcomes will be the
manner of data collected and the subsequent reporting processes. While the Horizon
report recognises the growing need for more HE institutions to provide more detailed
and sophisticated reportage, the report falls short in discussing the advantages and
opportunities available for teaching and learning in accessing institutional captured
data. For instance, the analysis of student demographical data in conjunction with online
learning behaviour may provide new insights into questions surrounding topics such as
the learning needs for disadvantaged groups, learning behaviour patterns for part-time
mature age and the type and density of social networks optimal for student transition to
university life. Access to these data has traditionally been removed from the learning
context and has only recently begun to expand into the scholarship of teaching and
learning. However, further expansion is necessary. The contemporary student cohort
would benefit from visualising data informatics concerning, for example, individual
established social networks and benchmarking individual effort and performance in
comparison with course and faculty peers.
An interesting feature of Google mail (gmail.com) is the inclusion of advertising links
based on key words within the received email content. Further examples can be found in
iTunes, eBay and Amazon. Apple iTunes provides information regarding the purchase
habits of “like-consumers” and extensive peer reviews of specific artists. Ebay has
developed a rating system for evaluating the potential efficacy of transaction and
quality of services for both buyers and sellers. The primary theme here is to provide the
end user with all information necessary for enabling a personally relevant experience.
If we extrapolate this functionality further there is an opportunity for HE
institutions to integrate learning resources such as the library and course prescribed
references with student online behaviour. For example, as a student prepares a
discussion posting regarding the role of D1 and D2 turn-over in photo-inhibition –
resources related to photosynthesis; photo-inhibition; etc. could be listed as
Harnessing ICT
potential

125

Figure 3.
IJEM “advertising links” for further information and research. Similarly, areas of student
24,2 and staff support could be tagged for inclusion in questions concerning assessment
processes, academic writing, plagiarism, etc. These features can be seen to assist
students with developing individual literacy skills and fostering independent learning
and self-evaluation, while raising awareness of university support services.
The inclusion of network visualisation tools can be used to assist staff in the rapid
126 identification of students disconnected from the learning community (Figure 4).
Teaching staff can also use the network mapping to reflect on the design, timing and
evaluation of implemented learning activities designed to achieve a set pedagogical
agenda such as the generation of a learning community. Tightly clustered networks
can be seen to be indicative of a learning community (Dawson, 2008).

Surveillance
This paper has presented a rather optimistic view regarding the adoption and
integration of various student data sources. Despite this optimistic presentation, the
inclusion of any added surveillance technologies must be undertaken with caution and
reservation. In relation to the implementation and adoption of surveillance
technologies David Lyon (2001) explores the tension between discourses of societal
safety and societal control, or what Lyon has termed, the “two faces of surveillance”.
The author argues that increasingly sophisticated and often overt surveillance
measures are commonly adopted and subsequently tolerated through justifications of
public safety. For example, the inclusion of video surveillance in urban shopping malls.
In this paper we present a case for enhancing the student learning experience through
the integration of currently disparate data sources. While the data discussed are
currently available, the integration and usage of these data requires consideration of:
student and staff consent; ethics; implementation of governance policies; and ongoing
stakeholder participation.

Conclusion
The business sector has commonly used the data captured through daily customer and
client interactions in order to better inform strategic decisions and to enhance the
end-users experience. Although HE institutions have invested large sums in various

Figure 4.
Example student social
network (sociogram)
derived from ICT
discussion interactions
enterprise systems, US$5 billion in North America alone (Goldstein and Katz, 2005), Harnessing ICT
there remains a great deal of untapped potential in integrating currently disparate potential
institutional systems to better inform teaching practice and enhance the student
learning experience. While student and instructor data is currently readily available for
extraction from these disparate ICT systems, the next step in the development of
academic analytics is to compile these sources into one domain (data warehouse) where
the specific data queries and applications can be developed. A core premise underlying 127
the extraction of ICT data is the linkage from data interpretation of results back to
informing teaching and learning practice. The development of academic analytics and
the extraction of student usage data will continue to evolve at a rapid pace, in part due
to the increasing level of sophistication of the technologies adopted. However, an
understanding of the relationship between the analytical data and the implemented
pedagogical models is still in its infancy. The impact of specific teaching and learning
practices on student behaviour (observed through ICT interactions) requires further
research and investment to ensure that the interpretation of extracted data is
appropriately aligned with the desired pedagogical action.

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Corresponding author
Shane Dawson can be contacted at: sdawson@uow.edu.au

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