We are leveraging Survey2Person to create personas for a progressive education project. Here are the details.
Executive Summary: Design and implement targeted surveys of learners (and potentially educators) at different levels in Qatar Foundation and at different stages of the ‘applicant-to-alumni’ journey. Analyze the results of these surveys using machine learning tools and potentially augment the survey data with available data from other sources, such as learning management systems. The goal will be to generate representative personas of learners at different stages and design KPIs for guiding the Qatar Foundation’s progressive education mission.
Background: According to the Qatar Foundation Strategy Plan, Progressive Education is defined as the “Innovatively re-imagining and transforming education to unlock the potential of learners and prepare them for the world of tomorrow by encouraging creativity and student agency. Progress in the theme of progressive education will enable the Qatar Foundation to achieve progress in each of its four strategic objectives, as shown in the figure immediately below.
These strategic objectives are further clarified via defined strategic initiatives in the progressive education area, as shown immediately below.
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This program will contribute to these strategic initiatives, especially those listed immediately below.
- Target all educational levels, using QF as a platform to influence national practices.
- Research topics will be selected based on those that best address QF’s progressive education challenges.
- Data and impact measurement is critical.
- Advocate for policy change at a national level through data-driven advocacy.
Project: The foundational concept of this project is that of a progressive education cycle – which is the totality of cognitive, affective, sensory, and behavioral responses during all stages of the progression education journey, including preparation, application, enrollment, attendance, and assessment. Tag lined as Applicant to Alumni!
Lifelong learners continually move through these five stages at different periods of their life, but our premise is that many of the needs and objectives at each stage are common for each period, from K12 to professional education. The progressive education cycle is visually displayed in the figure immediately below.
Learning analytics is the process of collecting, measuring, analyzing, and reporting data about learners and their interactions with educational material, programs, and policies. Learning analytics equips organizational leaders to decide what strategies work best for their learners and other stakeholders. This data includes learner performance, educational background data, and learner characteristics. Access to robust learning analytics augments decisions when identifying learning difficulties and opportunities for support. Learning analytics can provide insight into learner engagement. Moreover, learning analytics provides insights for individuals, helping students monitor their attention level and pace and better understand learner mastery of a subject. Learning analytics data can feed a variety of tools, including intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs), intelligent digital assistants, and intelligent textbooks. It can provide learners with personalized instruction, while teachers can benefit from the use of learning analytics to improve support for learners and drive classroom engagement. Organizational leaders can use predictive algorithms to manage educational operations and improve learner retention rates.
Objectives: Via the central employment of survey data and supported by the triangulation with other data sources for enhanced learning analytics, the overall project objective is to
(a) identify the cognitive, affective, sensory, or behavioral attributes of learners at each of the stages of the progressive education cycle,
(b) generate representative personas of learners at each stage, and
(c) determine key performance indicators for HBKU, and similar organizations, to enhance progressive education programs at each stage of the cycle to better achieve organizational aims, goals, and objectives.
Scope of Work:
- Establishment of a “Learning Analytics for Progressive Education” website ‘Applicant to Alumni’ for disseminating research, white papers, and other deliverables
- Discussions with key stakeholders to identify refined objectives
- Development of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at each stage of the Progressive Learning Cycle for each various student segment; prioritization of segments
- For priority segment(s), each one of more stages of the Progressive Learning Cycle
- Identification of potential sample frames.
- Compilation of data to construct the sample frame.
- Application of selection methods for selecting unbiased and efficient samples in single or multi-stage sampling.
- Design of survey instruments and procedures for survey implementation; Cognitive testing of survey wording and design to ensure meaningful results.
- Implementation and management of surveys.
- Analysis and interpretation of survey data.
- Generate learner personas using Survey2Persona https://s2p.qcri.org/
- Feedback to organizational key stakeholders aligned with strategic objectives and measurable KPIs in a project report
Project Duration: 2 years, with options for follow-on
Outputs/Deliverables:
- Measurable action items for Qatar Foundation leadership
- Procedures for the data-driven measuring of progressive education initiatives
- Website for dissertation of instruments, research, and findings
- Systems and approaches for the analysis of learning analytics data
- Social media for ‘bite-size learning’/micro-learning; apps by community-centric with direct learning with attributions of a formal educational curriculum
Current Project Members: Jim Jansen1, Soon-gyo Jung1, Ali Farooq1, Joni Salminen23
1 Qatar Computing Research Institute, Hamid Bin Khalifa University; 1 College of Science and Engineering, Hamid Bin Khalifa University; 2 School of Marketing and Communication, University of Vaasa
