Learning Pathway: Use of data for student success

Theory of Change: Change in Doing

Difficulty: Basic (no prior knowledge needed)

Contact details: braimoh.bello@cesar-africa.com

Name of Service Workshop: Wits Students Success M&E Framework

Date of workshop: 16 August 2024

Duratio: 9am – 1pm

Purpose of workshop/About 

The workshop will describe the process of designing and developing a university-wide M&E system. We will begin by highlighting the value of having a university M&E plan and describe the detailed and systematic method of setting up one. Foundational concepts in results-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) will be covered. The different thematic areas in the Wits Student Success Framework and the university-wide M&E framework will be discussed as a case study.

Learning Outcomes

1. Know the hierarchical result areas in a results-based M&E framework.
2. Know how to translate university programme interventions and activities into a logical framework.
3. Know the major elements in an M&E framework.
4. Know key personnel needed to design and implement a university-wide M&E framework

Who should attend

Staff involved in developing and implementing university interventions; registrars; staff responsible for university data collection, synthesis and reporting; and those interested in M&E,

Prerequisite skills required by attendees: None

Face to Face or Online: Online

How would you recommend participants implement their learnings from this service workshop at their own institution.

By considering how they can use M&E concepts and tools in their unit/department’s activities (including indicators). By thinking about how their unit’s outputs and results can be measured to capture their contribution to university student success.

Learning Pathways : Supporting students

Theory of Change: Change in Doing

Purpose

The pervasive dissatisfaction with performance indicators within higher education institutions underscores a pressing need for transformative action. Despite concerted efforts to address issues such as retention rates, student success, and low throughput rates, the status quo often remains unchanged. Institutions face these challenges, identifying factors such as student academic withdrawal, protests, and diminished morale as contributing to a bulging phenomenon characterized by high access and low throughput. In response, there arises a necessity for student activism to emerge as a potent force capable of advocating for change, amplifying voices, and challenging entrenched norms.

The workshop will respond to the following questions;

1. In what ways can student leaders harness their agency and influence to effect meaningful change and disrupt the status quo?
2. How might the university provide support and foster an enabling environment to empower student leaders in their pursuit of reshaping the narrative surrounding student activism?

Learning Outcome

1. Strengthening collaboration using their agency to achieve institutional goals

Seamless integration of face-to-face and online indicates cohesive and continuous learning across two different learning contexts, one online and one face-to-face, that can happen without any interruption or disconnection. The question that we aim to answer with this webinar is how could lecturers design a course with the two learning contexts seamlessly integrated.

The aim of the webinar is to help lecturers design blended learning interactive study guides aligned with experiential learning in a blended learning environment. The proposed experiential learning flipped-classroom flow planner guides lecturers step-by-step as they navigate between online and face-to-face through each part of a learning unit and provides practical suggestions on the digital learning, teaching and assessment strategies and technologies that can be used. Colleagues from the Faculty of Dentistry will also showcase their blended learning units within the context of their disciplines

Learning Outcomes

The aim of the webinar is to help lecturers design blended learning interactive study guides aligned with experiential learning in a blended learning environment.

Learning Pathway: Use of data for student success

Theory of Change: Change in Knowing

Difficulty: Basic (no prior knowledge needed)

Purpose of the workshop

Understanding the BI landscape including data governance, data architecture and infrastructure for the delivery of actionable and predictive information to support student success.

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge of the BI landscape, data governance, quality assured data warehouse provisioning, and predictive actionable analytics to support student success.

About the Workshop

The workshop will  provide a brief introduction to the transformative approach and impact of the Carnegie Pathways and will explore the reasons for its move to OERs. The UFS team will share the implementation, success and development of a contextualised model and materials. Participants will have an opportunity discuss various ways in which the contextualised OER materials can be used in their institions.

Learning Outcomes

Participants will:

• Reflect on the
  • potential of Pathways approach for institutional pedagogical innovation.
  • reasons for a move to OERs.
  • approach and lessons learned in the UFS Pathways project.
• Participate in conversations around how the contextualised materials can be adapted in various institutions.

Learning Pathway: Use of data for student success

Theory of Change: Change in KNowing

Difficulty: Basic ( no prior knowledge needed)

Purpose of the workshop

This workshop will introduce participants to strategies and tools for implementing module reviews using a data-informed approach

Learning Outcomes

• Understand module reviews through a Course Analytics framework
• Implementing module reviews with a structured survey or interviews
• Understand how to structure data to facilitate data-informed decisions [to improve the quality of teaching and learning]
• Understand how to close the module review loop with the “Theory of Change”

Learning Pathway: Supporting students

Theory of Change: Change in Doing

Purpose of the workshop

The purpose of the workshop is to train delegates in the international Supplemental Instruction model. Nelson Mandela University is the SI National Office for Africa and is, as such, responsible for the training of interested SI Coordinators and academic staff from institutions around Africa. At this particular workshop the principles of SI will be presented and the implementation process discussed, so that the newly trained delegate will have a step by step process to enable them to implement such a model on their own respective campuses should they wish to do so. Delegates will also be able to discern which SI principles can be incorporated into existing peer learning programmes.

Delegates should take note that SI is a Student Academic Assistance Programme and this will be the focus from which the training takes place. We have allocated time for individual consultation where the trainers will assist delegates who need assistance to contextualise the information for their needs.

The sessions will be as interactive as possible and scheduled as morning and afternoon sessions for 3 consecutive days to prevent online fatigue. Below are the times:

25 March 2024:  09h00-12h00 (3 hours)

25 March 2024: 14h00-16h00 (2 hours)

26 March 2024:  09h00-12h00 (3 hours)

26 March 2024: 14h00-16h00 (2 hours)

27 March 2024:  09h00-12h00 (3 hours)

Attendance at all sessions is mandatory to qualify for the certificate

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the training, delegates will be able to understand the SI principles, develop/adapt a SI programme for their context, implement, monitor, and evaluate the programme, and train SI Leaders.

Learning Pathway : Use of data for student success

Theory of Change: Change in Being/Transforming

Difficulty: Intermediate (Prior knowledge needed)

About the Workshop

The University of Cape Town’s Data Analytics for Student Success (DASS) project team will provide a data analytics workshop on visualising course (module) data, using the Know Your Course and Students (KYCS) reports developed at UCT as a case study. The KYCS reports provide a profile of the student cohort in the course, historical performance data of the course and related courses, and diagnostic assessment data through use of NBT subdomains.

The two-hour session will look at how this report was developed and evolved at UCT, the different types of expertise that went into the reports, and how it has been used in workshop contexts with academic staff who are course convenors or lecturers.

Participants will get an opportunity to explore the KYCS reports as one example of how to visualise course data, and discuss opportunities and challenges for this type of work at their own institutions, including discussing questions such as:

• How can NBT subdomain data provide insights into the foundational knowledge domains that influence students’ performance in particular courses?
• How can visualising course data create new insights and prompt interventions by course teams to improve student success?

The session aims to empower participants with valuable insights on creating a tool like this for their institutions. We look forward to an interactive; collaborative session with the hope of creating a real impact together.

Learning Outcomes

Understand the expertise domains and processes involved in developing reports which visualise student cohort data and course performance data

Gain insight into strategies for working with academic staff to build data literacy and derive actionable insights from learning analytics in a teaching context

Learning pathways: Supporting students

Theory of change: Change in being/transforming

Difficulty: Basic ( No prior knowledge needed

About the workshop

Student success in universities can vary from one institution to another, and it may also evolve over times educational priorities and practices change. This refers to a common perspective among educators, students, and stakeholders on the key factors, goals, and indicators of what it means for students to thrive and excel in their educational journey. This shared understanding fosters a cohesive approach to supporting and measuring student success.

Learning Outcomes

1) Define student success within the South African context.

2) Universities to critically explore their student success indicators and programmes and develop them in line with graduate attributes they wish to develop

3) Develop relevant and intentional frameworks for student success. 

Learning Pathway: Supporting Students

Theory of Change: Change in doing

Difficulty: Basic (No prior knowledge required)

About the Workshop

The workshop aims to train delegates in the international Supplemental Instruction model. Nelson Mandela University is the SI National Office for Africa and is, as such, responsible for the training of interested SI Coordinators and academic staff from institutions around Africa.

At this particular workshop the principles of SI will be presented and the implementation process discussed, so that the newly trained delegate will have a step by step process to enable them to implement such a model on their own respective campuses should they wish to do so. Delegates will also be able to discern which SI principles can be incorporated into existing peer learning programmes.

Delegates should note that SI is a Student Academic Assistance Programme and this will be the focus of the training. We have allocated time for individual consultation where the trainers will assist delegates who need assistance to contextualise the information for their needs.

The sessions will be as interactive as possible and scheduled as morning and afternoon sessions for 3 consecutive days to prevent online fatigue. 

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the training, delegates will be able to understand the SI principles, develop/adapt a SI programme for their context, implement, monitor, and evaluate the programme, and train SI Leaders.

Learning Pathway: Transforming institutions

Theory of Change: Change in Doing

Difficulty: Basic (No prior knowledge needed)

About the workshop

This workshop aims to share experiences and provide a framework for the development and implementation of an OER fellowship programme at Higher Education institutions. The workshop facilitation will present the framework in a toolkit format that provides guidelines to interested university staff on how to create and include new openly licensed online resources in their classes or adapt resources to their students’ specific contexts. It will also address the relevant management and coordination principles as well as research needed to ensure effective support, preparation and submission of funding applications and credible OER and open access practices.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the key elements for development and implementation of a grant funded OER fellowship programme.
• Be able to participate in and support the creation or adaptation of open educational resources such as open textbooks, online tutorials, wikibooks or combinations of open learning objects.
• Be able to conduct research and make OER available under a Creative Commons License.

Learning Pathway:  Transforming institutions

Theory of Change: Change in Doing

Difficulty: Basic (no prior knowledge needed)

Purpose

Student counselling practices in higher education vary in terms of counselling model, staff capacity, resourcing, and student population size, amongst other things. However, we can all use the same foundational principles to strive for standard service experiences, faster operational workflows, full visibility into service operations, minimised risks of service disruption, greater efficiency and process adaptability, and quality control.This workshop aims to share relevant operations management principles and business process flow techniques to improve counselling service delivery.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this training workshop, attendees will:

• Understand the key elements of effective operations management
• Understand the key elements of process management
• Understand how to design and improve an existing process using the business process life cycle

Who should attend? Student counselling staff, admin team leaders, Managers, Directors

Learning Pathway: Transforming institutions

Theory of Change: Change in being/ Transforming

Difficulty: Basic

About the workshop

A common complaint in Higher Ed is the multiplicity of systems and the need for integration into a single point of entry. This workshop explores Application of the Application Programming Interface (API) concept as a way to support such integration. The development of API specifications is a proposed method of standardising the access approach to the extent that technical solutions can be integrated seamlessly. The sharing of methods across institutions can then be facilitated. To facilitate the development of predictive models, participants will also learn how APIs can be used to share data and resources between institutions, enabling them to work together more effectively on research studies.

Learning outcomes

• Application of Application Programming Interface Specifications to achieve system integration at and between institutions

Learning Pathway : Use of data for student success

Theory of Change: Change in Doing

Difficulty: Basic

Purpose of the workshop

The purpose of a workshop on data analytics for student success using non-programming tools is to provide participants with the skills and knowledge to use data analytics to improve student outcomes. The workshop aims to introduce attendees to basic data analytics concepts, non-programming data analytics tools, and data visualization techniques. Attendees will learn how to collect, clean, analyze, and visualize student data to gain insights into their students' learning patterns, strengths, and weaknesses. They will also learn how to use this information to personalize learning and provide targeted interventions to help students succeed.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completing the workshop on Data Analytics for Student Success using Non-Programming Tools, participants will achieve the following learning outcomes:

• Understanding of Data Analytics in Higher Education:Grasp  the significance of data analytics in enhancing student outcomes and institutional effectiveness.
• Familiarity with various non-programming data analysis tools  and their applications in student data analysis.
• Ability to gather and organize student data from different sources, and skills to preprocess and clean data to ensure accuracy and consistency
• Proficiency in using non-programming tools to perform initial data exploration, identify trends, patterns, and outliers, and draw meaningful insights from student data.
• Capability to create effective and visually appealing data visualizations to communicate insights, making complex information more understandable.
• Understanding of how data insights can inform personalized learning strategies, enabling instructors to tailor content and methods to individual student needs.
• Skills to use data analytics to identify students at risk of academic challenges, enabling timely interventions and support.
• Ability to develop and implement targeted interventions based on data insights to help students succeed academically and overcome challenges.
• Understanding of ethical considerations related to data privacy, security, and bias when using data analytics in higher education.

Prerequisite skills: None

Face to face or Online : Online

Learning Pathway : Use of data for student success

Theory of Change: Change in Doing

Difficulty: Basic

Purpose of the workshop

The purpose of a workshop on data analytics for student success using non-programming tools is to provide participants with the skills and knowledge to use data analytics to improve student outcomes. The workshop aims to introduce attendees to basic data analytics concepts, non-programming data analytics tools, and data visualization techniques. Attendees will learn how to collect, clean, analyze, and visualize student data to gain insights into their students' learning patterns, strengths, and weaknesses. They will also learn how to use this information to personalize learning and provide targeted interventions to help students succeed.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completing the workshop on Data Analytics for Student Success using Non-Programming Tools, participants will achieve the following learning outcomes:

• Understanding of Data Analytics in Higher Education:Grasp  the significance of data analytics in enhancing student outcomes and institutional effectiveness.
• Familiarity with various non-programming data analysis tools  and their applications in student data analysis.
• Ability to gather and organize student data from different sources, and skills to preprocess and clean data to ensure accuracy and consistency
• Proficiency in using non-programming tools to perform initial data exploration, identify trends, patterns, and outliers, and draw meaningful insights from student data.
• Capability to create effective and visually appealing data visualizations to communicate insights, making complex information more understandable.
• Understanding of how data insights can inform personalized learning strategies, enabling instructors to tailor content and methods to individual student needs.
• Skills to use data analytics to identify students at risk of academic challenges, enabling timely interventions and support.
• Ability to develop and implement targeted interventions based on data insights to help students succeed academically and overcome challenges.
• Understanding of ethical considerations related to data privacy, security, and bias when using data analytics in higher education.

Prerequisite skills: None

Face to face or Online : Online

Learning Pathway: Transforming Institutions

Theory of Change: Change in Doing  

Purpose

To provide a service introduction workshop for the Siyaphumelela National network in design thinking  

Learning Outcomes

• A high level understanding of the design thinking process 

• Exposure to working and collaborating creatively in teams 

• Exposure to a Design Thinking framework 

• Exposure to the key tools and techniques of Design Thinking 

• The ability to reframe challenges and ideas from the USER’s perspective, and 

• 2-3 methods/practices that they can use. (e.g. warm-up, or mapping tools). 

Location: Face to Face at UCT

Learning Pathway : Use of data for student success/ Supporting student

Theory of Change: Change in Doing

Difficulty: Intermediate

About the workshop

Session 2

This session aims to assist participants in putting diagnostic information in conversation with the curriculum. This session picks up where the previous session in this series left of and is focused on using the student profile, drawn from diagnostic information, as a basis for the development of curriculum interventions, changes in the curriculum itself, or even , peagogy. With a cohort’s profile as starting point, the CEA Team will help participants engage with artefacts from a particular course in an effort to understand the implications of what we have learnt about the needs of the students that will be enrolling for a given course.

Learning Outcomes

• Exposure to the use of Diagnostic Assessment through engagement with a specific assessment instrument(s)
• Making connections between the student profile and its implications for teaching and learning within a particular context.
• Exposure to different approaches to responding to student needs (identified using diagnostic information)

Learning Pathway : Use of data for student success/ Supporting student

Theory of Change: Change in Doing

Difficulty: Intermediate

About the workshop

Session 1

Introduction to the process, techniques, and principles of using diagnostic information. The webinar looks at the instruments that are used to collect this type of data to understand the instrument itself and understand the reports on results gathered with the instrument.  The aim is to help participants make the necessary connections between the design of the instrument, the interpretation of results based on the instrument, and what that means in terms of the student profile within their context.

Learning Outcomes

• Exposure to key diagnostic assessments and techniques.
• Introduction to the importance of focusing on student-centreds needs.
• Understanding the profile of a particular cohort ( an exemplar or the participant’s own), performance trends and emerging subgroups

Learning Pathways- Transforming Institutions

Theory of change- Change in being/Transforming

Difficulty-  Intermediate (Prior knowledge needed)

Purpose

To engage higher education stakeholders on the prevalence of student mental health in South Africa and explore a national HE response to address mental  health in higher education

Learning Outcomes

• To increase awareness and a more holistic understanding of student mental health among higher education stakeholders
• To understand the intersectionality of mental health on other issues experienced
• To build staff capacity to understand and feel more empowered to respond to mental health
• To develop actionable strategies to respond to mental health in a more meaningful way
• To identify potential opportunities to enhance intersectoral collaboration to enhance responses to mental health in higher education

Learning Pathway: Supporting students

Theory of Change: Change in Doing

Difficulty: Basic (no prior knowledge needed)

About the Workshop: There is considerable debate around the role of collaboration with students and how it is enabled by trust, respect, reciprocity, and shared responsibility. Collaborative open textbook development processes that include students as co-creators present a means to building a truly inclusive, democratic classroom environment where students feel a sense of belonging, which is acknowledged as a key factor in student success.

This interactive workshop will introduce participants to open education practice as a means to addressing social (in)justice in the classroom, particularly as relates to students’ sense of belonging. Student attribution and acknowledgment is a crucial aspect and participants will be introduced to Creative Commons and ways to attribute students. It will also provide practical insights into initiatives at UCT that are exploring strategies for student co-creation to aid student success.

Learning Outcomes

• Understanding of different approaches to and degrees of student co-creation.
• Engagement with principles of open pedagogy as relates to students’ sense of belonging.
• Engagement with the principles of open textbook production, particularly as relates to collaborative approaches to authorship, quality assurance and publishing.
• Insights into the practicalities and challenges of current student co-creation initiatives.
• Understanding of Creative Commons licenses and how to use them

Learning Pathways- Supporting Students

Theory of change- Change in Knowing

Difficulty-  Basic ( No prior knowledge required)

Purpose of the Workshop

 To describe the process of designing and implementing a compulsory, integrated academic and student life orientation programme for all new first-year students called Gateway to Success (GTS) in a blended mode using agile project management. We will share how we got buy-in for the concept, designed the components, and brought together role players from across the university to plan and implement the programme. We ran GTS for the first time in 2022 for over 6000 students for three weeks, with only 4 months to plan.

Learning Outcomes

1. Identify key elements of an agile project management approach.
2. Identify role players who need to be involved in an integrated first year orientation programme.
3. Outline a plan for an integrated transition programme, including role players and timeframes

Learning Pathway: Transforming Institutions

Theory of Change: Change in Being/Transforming

Difficulty: Intermediate (prior knowledge needed)

Prerequisite skills required: Have an understanding of Institutional Data on Attrition, Retention & Success (should have worked or engaged with this type of data).
                                                 Some knowledge and understanding of framework development and conceptualization and student retention & success.

About the Workshop: To share UWC’s conceptualization of their student retention and success framework. To create an awareness of indicators in supporting/ barriers to student success. For institutions to reflect on their specific context with regard to student success & retention.

Learning Outcomes

1. To identify the stakeholders involved
2. To identify institutions’ risk factors for student attrition
3. Identify factors impacting student success
4. Explore strategies to develop context-specific, student success framework

Learning Pathway: Supporting Students

Theory of Change: Change in Being/ Transforming

Difficulty: Basic (no prior knowledge needed)

About the Workshop: The innovation and use of Open Educational Resources (OER) is an ever-increasing opportunity for universities to approach issues of access and provision more directly, but issues of awareness and fear of Opening Up often delay adoption. Using open licenses as a tool to enable the creation, adaptation, recreation, and sharing of new and existing resources is a valuable opportunity to augment and/ or support learning and teaching, as well as to facilitate the empowerment of those students and staff engaging with the resources.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand OER and Open licenses
• Explore types of OER
• Challenges of Opening Up
• Explore student engagement in OER
• Consider using OER for your LT community
• Understand Open Textbooks

Learning Pathway: Transforming institutions

Theory of Change: Change in Doing

Difficulty: Basic (no prior knowledge needed)

About the Workshop: This workshop will focus on building capacity among participants to enable them to select, plan for, and implement a suitable evaluation design to measure and report on the impact of their specific student-focused interventions. An emphasis will be placed on sharing methods for documenting and disseminating project learnings that emerge from the evaluation process. The workshop will provide an introduction to relevant evaluation theory, and will make space for learning and sharing activities, as well as questions and discussion.

Learning Outcomes: At the end of the workshop, participants will have:

• An understanding of why we should evaluate our projects;
• A sense of the different evaluation designs available, and when each is appropriate to use;
• Improved knowledge on evaluation methods for data collection and analysis;
• An understanding of how to document and share project learnings.   

Institutions will deliver a 15-minute presentation that includes:
• Visualisation, aimed at the wider student success team, of any one of your institutional student success
indicators, including some disaggregation of that data appropriate to your context, and
• Use of visualization to make sense of data, and to tell a story about that data.

Participants will:
• Polishing and improving data visualisation and storytelling skills.
• Trouble-shoot any critical issues in the Siyaphumelela data analytics work

Learning outcomes

Participants will:
• Understand the background and key achievements thus far and aims of Siyaphumelela network.
• Student success is a key national priority
• Nurturing collaboration amongst universities
• New ways of doing things
• Various categories of data and how they are important to understanding student success • Quantitative and qualitative
• Leading indicators and lagging indicators
• Practice understanding how institutions have identified and used data on gateway courses (a leading indicator)
• Practice examining a set of data on gateway courses and other Key Performance Indicators
• List their own next steps for their institution’s work to know the data

UWC will be sharing about their planning process that led to high participation

In this workshop, Professor Grayson will introduce systems thinking, systems design and systemic change, illustrated with examples from Wits related to how they developed and are implementing the Wits Institutional Framework for Student Success.

Four universities will then present their work on developing their own institutional student success feedback, followed by time for questions and suggestions from other workshop participants.

The workshop will conclude with a summary of ideas and challenges raised during the workshop and suggestions for how to make further progress along the road to promoting student success.

Presentation by Diane Grayson

The discussions will be framed around:

1. Understanding the concept of Student Agency
2. Identifying the factors that hinder Student Agency
3. What Universities can do to encourage and promote Student Agency
4. How student agency can lead to student success
5. Sharing students’ perceptions on how to include and promote Student Agency

The outcome of the workshop: A better understanding of student agency in the South African context and how best to encourage inclusivity of students, and thereby promote co-creation of successful educational experiences.

The Siyaphumelela Western Cape Regional Network invites you to participate in this, the second workshop on sustainable, collaborative approaches to open textbook production that support innovative pedagogical practice and open new pathways for student co-creation.

This session will introduce participants to practical ways in which to initiate open textbook production and engage students in authorship, quality assurance and publishing processes.

The two workshops will introduce you to some of the most widely used predictive modelling techniques and their core principles. By attending this workshop, you will form a solid foundation of predictive analytics, which refers to tools and techniques for building statistical or machine learning models to make predictions based on data.

After successfully completing the two workshops, participants should be able to:

• Understand how to use predictive modelling for student success
• Source data from different files
• Clean missing values, transform and prepare data
• Model building-build, train a basic model
• Test for model accuracy
• Make predictions and score predictive models
• Build dashboard for the predictive model.

Workshop outcomes

This workshop will introduce you to some of the most widely used predictive modelling techniques and their core principles. By attending this workshop, you will form a solid foundation of predictive analytics, which refers to tools and techniques for building statistical or machine learning models to make predictions based on data.

After successfully completing the two workshops, participants should be able to:

• Understand how to use predictive modelling for student success
• Source data from different files
• Clean missing values, transform and prepare data
• Model building-build, train a basic model
• Test for model accuracy
• Make predictions and score predictive models
• Build dashboard for the predictive model.

When implementing an Improvement Science framework in the context of Higher Education, performance challenges at multiple scales must be considered. At the whole-institution scale, the overall graduation rate is a metric which can be cascaded to the academic programme scale, where the causes of progression limitation are then evaluated. In turn, this cascades to the individual coursework level, where performance in assessments and even individual students is considered.

When such analysis yields insight into the potential causes, we then close the loop by designing interventions aimed at ameliorating the challenges identified. In this workshop we illustrate the implementation of such a framework through the AutoScholar Advisor system. In addition to the scale cascading and analysis for identifying causes of limitations, we propose interventions based on automated student advising and automated teaching and learning methods.

The integration with human-centred, non-automated methods is outlined together with access to methods which participants may evaluate both during and out of session.

Open textbooks are an important phenomenon in the global higher education landscape with compelling affordances around cost savings and content development approaches that address localisation and decolonisation of the curriculum.

Workshop 1: Introduction to open textbooks for social justice

This interactive session will provide an introduction to the concept of open textbooks, with a particular focus on the affordances they provide to address social justice in the classroom.

This Power BI intermediate workshop provides one notch up from the beginner’s course. Users will be able to enhance their knowledge on the 4 pillars of Power BI, that is: Data loading and transformation, Data modelling, DAX calculations, Reports and visualizations. That is, mastering complex data transformations, understanding the context of the data and using the Power of DAX to output valuable insights.

The various techniques will be demonstrated and applied to real-world data in a higher education setting. Participants will learn step-by-step how raw data can be transformed and developed to provide valuable insights that can drive decision making using Power BI.

This Power BI beginner workshop provides an overview and introduction to using Power BI as an analytical tool. The various techniques will be demonstrated and applied to real-world data in a higher education setting. Participants will learn step-by-step how raw data can be transformed and developed to provide valuable insights that can drive decision making using Power BI. This workshop will provide a detailed overview of the essential features of Power BI Desktop and Power BI online service. You will be guided through a step-by-step process on how to develop dynamic reports, following the 4 pillars of Power BI development: Data loading and transformation, Data modelling, DAX calculations, Reports and visualizations.

Text

• Brief history of SI

• Theoretical perspectives on SI

· Theories

· SI International definition & features

· Differences between SI, tutoring and mentoring

· Benefits of SI/ Peer Collaborative Learning

· SI desired outcomes

The Supplemental Instruction (SI) programme was created at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) in the early 1970’s. The programme was developed in response to the high drop-out and failure rate in historically difficult courses, particularly for minority and under prepared students. The programme is based on the principles of peer-collaborative learning and the integration of learning skills in a course-specific rather than remedial setting.

SI at Nelson Mandela University

SI has been offered, first at the former University of Port Elizabeth and now at Nelson Mandela University since 1993.

This programme was selected by the University after a detailed survey of existing student academic development programmes both locally and abroad. The SI model was adopted because it was felt that it could meet the holistic needs of its students; it could be instituted campus wide; it was cost effective; and had a proven track record.

SI SUPERVISOR TRAINING

By the end of the training delegates will be able to:

Develop a SI programme for their context, implement, monitor, and evaluate the programme, and train SI Leaders. 

The name Supplemental Instruction is trademarked and may only be used in conjunction with the international recognised model of the programme.

Workshop format

For the convenience of delegates and to avoid online fatigue, the training is divided into four sessions.  Attendance of all four sessions are compulsory to receive the internationally recognised SI Supervisor Training Certificate.  With the certificate you may implement and manage a SI programme at the institution you are employed at and use the name Supplemental Instruction if the international model requirements are met.

The session held were as follows: 

• Session 1: 11 April 2022, 13:30-16:00 (What is SI?  History & Theoretical perspectives)
• Session 2: 12 April 2022, 09:00-11:30 (SI session facilitation and management)
• Session 3: 12 April 2022, 13:00-16:00 (SI programme implementation A – institutional preparation and planning)
• Session 4: 13 April 2022, 09:00-12:00 (SI programme implementation B – programme operations, management and evaluation)

This workshop focuses on the importance of understanding students and being responsive to diverse student profiles in our institutional designs. In understanding who our students are, we can design learning and support them accordingly and enhance the chances of students’ success.

During this session, findings from two key national reports will be synthesised and reflection and discussion on how we understand and make sense of students’ learning will be facilitated.

Watch the recorded session, that took place on the 7 April 2022, here:  https://youtu.be/MnRCeK7ferA

Diagnostic Assessment Series: Session 1 (24 November 2020)

Assessing strengths and weaknesses to inform the development of  wrap-around support

 Watch the recording of this session on our Youtube channel at https://youtu.be/892Z3pw09lM.

Diagnostic Assessment Series: Session 2 (16 March 2022)
The use of diagnostic instruments – Understanding the student profile

Introduction to the process, techniques, and principles of using diagnostic information. The webinar looks at the instruments that are used to collect this type of data to a) understand the instrument itself and b) understand the reports on results gathered with the instrument. The aim is to help participants make the necessary connections between the design of the instrument, the interpretation of results based on the instrument and what that means in terms of the student profile within their context. 

Watch the recorded webinar at https://youtu.be/Ta8PwuliicQ

Diagnostic Assessment Series: Session 3 (23 March 2022)
Responding to student needs – a data-driven approach

This session aims to assist participants in putting diagnostic information in conversation with curriculum. This session picks up where the previous session in this series left off and is focused on using the student profile, drawn from diagnostic information, as a basis for the development of curriculum interventions, changes in the curriculum itself, or even, pedagogy.

Participants who did not attend the previous sessions are strongly encouraged to watch the recordings of sessions one and two in preparation for this session and to share the necessary information for us to generate relevant cohort reports ahead of this session.

With a cohort’s profile as starting point, the CEA Team will help participants engage with artefacts from a particular course in an effort to understand the implications of what we have learnt about the needs of the students that will be enrolling for a given course.

Watch the recorded session here https://youtu.be/qR3R3V9QUPo

To understand module reviews through a Course Analytics framework and implement reviews using surveys or structured interviews; structure data to facilitate informed decisions; and close the module review-loop with the 'Theory of Change'.

Dr Juan-Claude Lemmens, Head Higher Education Research an Innovation at UP hosted this webinar which was targeted at professional support staff that plan to facilitate module reviews at their universities.

Objectives:

• Understand module reviews through a Course Analytics framework
• Implementing module reviews with a structured survey or interviews
• Understand how to structure data to facilitate data-informed decisions [to improve the quality of teaching and learning]
• Understand how to close the module review-loop with the “Theory of Change”

Watch the recorded session which took place on the 10th February 2022 here: https://youtu.be/Q26i9YVI3Ow