SoLAR Flare Practitioner’s Conference: Using Analytics to Create Real Solutions for Real Problems Purdue University October 1-3, 2012 The challenges facing higher education in the United States and abroad are wide ranging with varying degrees of urgency. In many cases, the use of academic analytics to address some of these challenges is being considered – but generally on a small, highly-localized scale that makes them difficult to justify and continue long-term. The use of “big data” to address challenges in higher education requires ideas for collaboration, development, implementation, scaling, and promulgation. At the Society of Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR) Flare Practitioner’s Conference, you’ll have an opportunity to work with a team of faculty, staff, and administrators from various institutions on challenges to develop big ideas to be put into practice. You won’t be working with real data—instead groups will work under the assumption that access to all data is already secured. Working groups will have access to unlimited resources; however, groups may encounter restrictions during the process. The working groups will produce real solutions to real problems. This won’t be like any other conference that you have attended lately – there will be very little talking “at” you. Concurrent sessions with presenters will not be happening. Instead, you will have the opportunity to connect with colleagues and do practical work – to collaborate with faculty and staff from around the country to tackle some of higher education’s biggest challenges through the application of learning analytics. Through the working group collaborations, you will learn more about the issues and how others are looking to analytics as part of the solution. Topics for discussion may include: · Increasing success among women and minorities in STEM fields · Enhancing community college success and completion rates · Improving access and success rates for first-generation and/or low-income students · Addressing higher education pipeline issues · Developing a means for more students to graduate with a college degree · Altering the design and delivery of gateway courses · Examining the relationship between student engagement, learning outcomes, and performance · Evaluating theory-based programs designed to increase student success · Gathering appropriate data for predicting student success, retention and graduation – and developing interventions based on student success systems Each topic will be facilitated by a thought leader in higher education. Thought leaders will provide a clearly-defined challenge to be addressed by each group prior to the event. Each team will work on developing a practical solution, considering both technical and non-technical attributes, that focuses on sustainability and scalability. Further, solutions should present information to students, faculty, and administrators alike – such that each person at the institution can become instrumental and responsible for student success. The solutions will be presented in two ways: First, at the conclusion of the conference, each working group will present its solution to the larger group. Second, each group will develop a brief write-up of their solution while at the conference. These write-ups will be synthesized into a broader white paper addressing analytic solutions to challenges found in higher education. We believe that collaboration across institutional and commercial boundaries is the only way to fully address the challenges facing higher education today. We look forward to working with people with different roles and perspectives of the education sector to develop solutions for these challenges – and potentially bringing them to fruition. We hope to have you join us as well. Early Registration ends August 17! For more information, or to register for the conference, visit www.solaresearch.org/flare/purdue2012 Kindest Regards, Akesha Horton Senior Educational Technologist | Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP) | Purdue University http://www.itap.purdue.edu/learning/ (765) 496-3499 | akesha@purdue.edu