Leveraging Learner Data and evidence to benefit teaching and learning

The wealth of learner data offers valuable insights into students' learning behaviours, preferences, strengths, and areas for improvement. Evidence from data helps teachers refine their teaching strategies, personalize instruction, and ultimately enhance the learning experience for all students. Data-informed methods help teachers to understand how students engage in the learning activities, how the learning materials are used, and how they interact with peers. Thereby teachers can tailor their instruction to meet the diverse needs of individual learners. By analyzing data on student performance, engagement, and progress over time, educators can identify patterns, trends, and areas of difficulty. This enables them to intervene early, provide targeted support, and differentiate instruction to accommodate various learning styles and abilities.

From a holistic perspective, effective utilisation of learner data fosters a culture of transparency and accountability in education. By documenting student progress and achievement, teachers can communicate effectively with stakeholders, including students, parents, administrators, and policymakers. Transparent access to learner data empowers stakeholders to actively engage in the educational process, collaborate on goal-setting, and monitor progress towards learning objectives.

Bio

Thashmee Karunaratne from Stockholm University and also Digital Futures Faculty has a background in Computer Science and an interest in utilising data for various types of decision-making. In her PhD in Machine Learning and Data Mining, she focused on learning from medicinal chemistry data and building models fostering decision-making on various molecular properties. Her post-doctoral research extended to diverse uses of data including data from digital tools for education. Thashmee is currently an associate professor in the unit of Digital Learning, at ITM, and research on digital transformation in education, specifically focusing on data from virtual learning environments. She also has been involved in many national and EU projects in the areas including digital transformation, technology in education, skills training, and healthcare transformation.