The APOA Project in short

There has been a steady interest rising in regarding learning analytics in the recent years. Quite often the focus is driven by technological development and not meeting the end users’ needs. In the current educational context where the groups are becoming more heterogenous the educators need to better understand the needs of the learners.

The aim of the APOA project is to look at the use of learning analytics in the Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) in Finland. The project is funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. There are 11 Finnish higher education partners in the project.

The project has 4 subsections:

1. The users of learnin analytics (the pedagogical perspective). This is divided into two sections, 1a) the perspective of the learners and 1b) the perspective of the teaching staff.

2. Digital learning analytics environments. This section includes piloting existing systems and interfaces and developing visualisation solutions.

3. Pilot projects. Selection, execution and evaluation of pilot projects.

4. Recommendations. Dissemination of tested practices; conclusions and recommendations.

The APOA project has five main level main aims:

  1. To research what kind of data the learners, educators and guidance staff who who utilize learning analytics need
  2. Based on these needs, to pilot and develop the used digital environments in the universities of applied sciences
  3. To pilot and evaluate the pedagogical processes that use learning analytics in different UASs
  4. To create recommendations and policies for the effective and ethical use of learning analytics in the UASs
  5. To up-skill UAS staff in the advanced use of learning analytics

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