- This week we hosted another of our regular Analytics Labs Showcase and Start-up events in Manchester.
- The event was attended by over 90 people including Labs participants and invited guests. Our audience included colleagues from the Department for Education and Universities UK. Once again, the demonstration by outgoing Labs participants of proof of concept Analytics Labs data visualisations did not disappoint.
Participants continue to rise to the challenge that is set them by laying enthusiasm, creativity and commitment on to a foundation of sector, data and visualisation experience and skill and creating some excellent outputs.
The Themes Demonstrated
The Showcase element marked the culmination of 13 days work over three months by Analytics Labs teams made up of members from across the UK Higher Education sector. Teams demonstrated their proof of concept work on the following four themes:
- Diversity in Higher Education
- Financial Sustainability
- Learning Analytics
- Wellbeing
- Feedback on Dashboards
Feedback from the expert panel and the audience was very positive. To pick just a handful of comments from the panel; teams had produced proof of concept data dashboards that were, individually, ‘eye catching’, ‘bold’, ‘polished beyond what was expected’ given the time available. The panel also fed back that the dashboards were able to, ‘tell a story simply and clearly’ and ‘raise questions’.
- Analytics Labs Teams – from Forming to Performing – in a very short space of time
The teams were formed in October 2018 and members, largely, had not previously met their new colleagues. It is always quite remarkable how individuals within the teams quickly gel and work together to achieve common goals. It is particularly interesting to note that individual participants are based across the four UK nations and much of the work is done remotely. We know from previous experience that the professional and personal networks that have developed will continue as participants share contact details with each other and join the Analytics Labs Alumni group.
- We asked outgoing team members to sum up their Analytics Labs experience in 3 words and here are some of their responses:
- Challenging, Rewarding, Valuable
- Interesting, Inspiring, Innovative
- Rewarding, Networking, Fabulous
We do hope that the teams who have just begun their Analytics Labs experience will feel similarly when they demonstrate their outputs at the Showcase in May.
- New Themes
- The incoming teams are exploring the following themes:
- Welsh Insights – exploring the factors of most interest to Welsh Higher Education Providers.
- Professional Teaching Qualifications – looking at teaching qualifications amongst the HE staff workforce with related trends and associated benchmarking.
- Research Data – looking at two areas:
- What are the downstream effects of particular tranches of research funding, from research activities and collaborations, through outputs and their reach and use, to research outcomes, impact and the contribution of research to wider economic and social change?
- What factors affect how research practices, that are intended to protect against bias in experimental research, are reported?
- Further updates coming soon
- We’ll post updates on how the teams and their outputs develop and highlight upcoming opportunities to join Analytics Labs, soon.