Data Strateg y

Workbook

The world’s most visual learning record store.


Tips to Use the Workbook:
• Recruit a group of 3-5 team
members.
• Set aside a 60-90 minute
meeting window.
• Provide a copy of this work-
book to review in advance.
• Have a plan to capture
brainstorm ideas!
2 Data Strategy Workbook
Introduc tion
When developing a data strategy, many organizations will start by focus-
ing on the gaps, challenges, issues, and lack of clarity that they currently
have. While these factors are certainly what can drive the need for data
management and reporting improvements, they are not the right place to
start when setting the stage for a successful data initiative.
Through our work with customers over the years, organizations with the
most successful transformations are the ones that start their data strategy
not by filling gaps, but rather by defining the goals that drive where they
want to go. With this approach organizations have been able to more effec-
tively get the buy-in they need, design the learning ecosystem they want,
and build the roadmap to move them forward.
It is from these experiences that we have captured time tested best prac-
tices in data strategy development in this Data Strategy Workbook. This
workbook will help you outline and define the important elements of your
data strategy through four stages—Preparation, Evaluation, Evidence, and
Presentation—providing you and your team with a clear foundation to
build your learning data transformation roadmap.
By using this workbook to guide a conversation with a small group of cre-
ative team members, you will be able to:
• Define the status and accessibility of your current learning data.
• Audit and define the assets of your current ecosystem.
• Begin to scope your xAPI pilot project to build your ecosystem of the
future!
We know you’ll find this workbook a helpful resource as you work to
move your learning ecosystem forward. There are so many opportunities
for developing innovative and transformative experiences for your employ-
ees today, but they all must start with a solid data foundation. Good luck
on taking your first steps!
Preparation
When it comes to data strategy, the first thing to do is build a solid un-
derstanding of what you already have. As you answer the following
questions, keep the perspective of your learners themselves in mind, think
about how they interact with technologies, how they learn, and what
they value.

1. How many learners do you currently have in your organization? How

are those learners grouped or divided?

2. What are the current goals for your L&D department? How will you
measure success for each goal? Examples could be:

Goals Success Metrics

Provide the most effective and modern Measure and optimize platform adoption
learning opportunities to employees at of learning platforms so that the adoption
my organization. rate for each platform is >80%.

Increase learning & develop engagement Every employee engages in 5 hours of

within my organization. learning per month.

Improve role readiness and performance Ensure that all new managers have
for new managers in my organization. achieved 100% compliance of Manager
Training within 90 days of promotion to
management.

3. What aspects of your L&D program do you have great insight into?
What aspects do you have very little insight into? What aspects would
you like more insight or increased transparency into?

Data Strategy Workbook 3

 4. Keeping in mind the different ways that formal and informal learning,
digital and in-person learning, and ongoing activity happen in your
organization, define what does your current learning ecosystem looks
like?

• What learning platforms and sources are included in your learning

ecosystem?

• What reports do you currently utilize to evaluate learning in your

organization?

• How frequently do you evaluate learning in your organization? Do

you have insight daily, monthly, or quarterly?

• Do you know which learning platforms and sources are most uti-
lized by your learners? If so, what are they? Why?

Evaluation
Now that you know what you have, transition to thinking about how you
evaluate the quality, usefulness, and impact of those investments. Using
the example chart below as a guide, outline what questions and metrics
you would like to measure to help understand and monitor learning activi-
ty in your organization. Keep in mind that these do not need to be directly
tied to organizational goals at this stage, but they can be if you would like
to consider that perspective as well.

In the “What do we want to know?” column on the left, list the knowl-
edge or metrics you would like to know about the learner experience in
your organization. Under “What do we need to measure this?” in the right
column, list the activities, events, or data points that would need to be
captured in order to answer the question in the left column. It’s always
O.K. to list “I don’t know” or “We still need to figure it out!”

4 Data Strategy Workbook

What do we want to know? What do we need to be able
to measure this?

Course completion rates Course registration, course completion

Platform adoption rates Platform login, platform activity

Most and least popular courses Course registration, post-course rating by

participants

Time spent in training Learning activity, duration data

Most and least engaged learners Learning activity, duration data

Course quality relation to Attendance data, instructor feedback,

performance impact impact on performance

Evidence
Sometimes we know very clearly what we want to know, what we think
we know, and what we know that we don’t know. The harder part is to
understand what data actually provides the evidence for these things that
we as learning designers and managers know qualitatively. At this point,
use the following questions to help identify what data you already have
access to, what data you are missing, and what data matters the most.

1. Is it important to you that you can measure individual learning activ-

ity? If so, how do you capture identity currently for both digital and
in-person training?

• Examples: Single Sign On (SSO), corporate email address, Employ-

ee ID, registration sheet, etc.

2. For in-person training, is attendance, score or any data recorded digi-

tally either during or after the training?

• Does that information live in a database or data warehouse?

Data Strategy Workbook 5

 3. Does your organization currently utilize a competency framework or
skills matrix to guide learning content creation and/or measure learner
progress toward competency or skill mastery?

4. If you are able to obtain data from your current platforms, answer the
following questions for each set of data that you are able to obtain:

• What platform did this data come from? How did I obtain this
data?

• What pieces of information are in the data?

• I.e. name, email, duration, score, etc.

• What are some activity types or actions you see in the data?

• I.e. completions, clicks, starting a course

• Do you see any meaningful patterns?

• I.e. A learner jumps to module 2 before completing quiz 1

Presentation
Now we’ve reached the fun part! Know that we’ve taking into account
what data we have and what data is most important, we get to think about
how we want to present this data to our stakeholders so that they are able
to access and use the data this data to transform our organization!

1. Within your organization, who would have access to learning

analytics?

• Program admins (can see all data)?

• Executives (can see all data)?

6 Data Strategy Workbook

 • Team leaders / Managers (can see data scoped to their team)?

• Individuals (can see only their own data)?

2. How would you want your stakeholders to see and review these learn-
ing analytics?

• Examples: real-time and interactive data dashboards, scheduled

reports, BI tool such as Tableau, etc.

3. How would you want your stakeholders to use and apply these learn-
ing analytics?

4. In an ideal ecosystem, where would you and your stakeholders access

these learning analytics?

5. Do you currently have any business intelligence tools or workflows

that this data would need to fit into or be built on?

Time to Make It Real

What a conversation! What a journey! So many good ideas! Explore some Case Studies:

Now that you’ve completed the workbook, you should have a great idea • Linking Performance and
of the data reporting your organization needs to assess and optimize your Learning Analytics
learning and development programs. You should also have a clear map of • Deep Insights in TD
your existing data assets and how they can fit into your learning analytics Magazine
strategy. Your last step in this guide is to create a list of action items as a • Modern Learning
group to ensure that this conversation doesn’t stop here. Your list might Ecosystem Design with xAPI
include things like: • Yet Analytics Case Studies

• Connect with your BI team to understand what their workflow is like

• Meet with your IT team to learn how data access permissions and au-
thentication from different tools in your learning ecosystem is decided

• Schedule a review of the conclusions you’ve made at this point with

Data Strategy Workbook 7

 other stakeholders or team members that weren’t involved with this
process to get their input

• Meet again as a group in two days to share reflections on the process

and add in any aspects or considerations that were missed in the initial
workbook session

We hope you found this a helpful guide and that you’ll add us to your
action items list. We’d love for you to reach out to the Yet Analytics team
to schedule an informal conversation to discuss your Data Strategy Work-
book conclusions. We will be happy to get you pointed in the right direc-
tion for next steps on your xAPI journey!

8 Data Strategy Workbook

About Yet Analytics
Bringing new technologies to market in the human capital space, Yet
Analytics builds products that revolutionize learning and talent develop-
ment. Yet’s suite of technologies includes the world’s most visual learning
record store, used by organizations to measure the health of their learning
and development initiatives.

About the Yet Analytics xAPI LRS

The Yet Analytics xAPI LRS is the world’s most visual learning record
store. Collect learning records from across your learning ecosystem with
the Yet xAPI LRS. Use the LRS analytics dashboard to measure learning
activity, resource use, and engagement. See the impact of learning invest-
ment, evaluate the effectiveness of learning resources, and define your or-
ganization’s experience graph with the Yet xAPI Learning Record Store.

Take a Tour of the #1 Ranked

Yet xAPI Learning Record Store + Analytics

See why Yet’s xAPI LRS is the world’s most visual Learning Record
Store. Yet collects and visualizes data from the experience graph to help
you find patterns and insights in your people data: yetanalytics.com/demo.

Work with Yet’s Learning Analytics Exper ts to Develop

Your Learning Ecosystem

From xAPI workshops and strategy development to data integration and

IT deployment, the Yet Analytics team can help accelerate your learning
analytics initiatives. Reach out to our analyst team to find out if strategic
consulting is right for you: hello@yetanalytics.com.

Data Strategy Workbook 9

Exeperience intelligence in human capital analytics.

yetanalytics.com • hello@yetanalytics.com • 410.256.3673