A RESEARCH PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN DATA ANALYTICS IN THE FACULTY OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AT KCA UNIVERSITY NOVEMBER, 2016
Learning analytics is the interpretation of a wide range of data produced by and gathered on behalf of students in order to assess academic progress, predict future performance and spot potential issues. It emphasizes that institutions should undertake and understand data measurement and collection activities and focus on the analysis and reporting of the data. The information can be displayed via a dashboard which is a visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives. Student achievement is the main agenda of any learning institution. The school administration has a responsibility to ensure students learn what they need to know depending on the course they are undertaking to prepare them for work. This requires access to a wide range of data and tools to continuously monitor student learning and performance. The need arises to manage and integrate data into a dashboard for effective decision making on matters concerning the student’s performance. Therefore, the aim of the study is to develop a learner analytics dashboard for predicting student performances: a case study of technical institutions. The objectives of the study are to: establish the current methods of predicting performance in technical institutions; determine the requirements for the dashboard system; design a learner analytics dashboard; implement the learner analytics dashboard system for use in technical institutions; test and validate the learner analytics dashboard.
