Internet Learning Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2017/Summer 2017 | Page 10

The Value of Common Definitions in Student Success Research: Setting the Stage for Adoption and Scale
Figure 1. Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation. Downloaded 10.17.16 http://bit.ly/2enXbUY
the promise of being able to generalize
research results beyond a single experimental
condition, a single pilot program,
or a single institution. The danger
comes from not evaluating educational
technology innovation using empirical
evidence, generated using open frameworks
and common data definitions.
The methods of the academy
have traditionally forced the evaluation
of innovation-in-practice to be
measured using experimental and quasi-experimental
methods that employ
inferential statistics and small n studies
under relatively tightly controlled
conditions. The introduction of learning
analytics introduces the ability to
explore the effects of interventions on
all participants in the messy situations
they inhabit. This in itself is disruptive,
as are the more global changes that use
of learning analytics diffuse through
higher education (Swan, 2016).
This article explores the use of
data analytics to guide student success
initiatives in the context of a particular,
cross-institutional collaborative project,
the Predictive Analytics Reporting
(PAR) Framework. What is perhaps
most important about the project is that
it created a social system to support the
diffusion of innovation. Applying new
approaches to supporting student success
depends upon our collective ability
to find common ways to articulate
the shared benefits of using data to
help students better navigate their educational
experiences, and to obtain
essential support at points and times
of need. This article also explores the
value and impact that using common
data definitions and frameworks to organize
information generally available
at post-secondary institutions brings
for sharing results. Those results may
help with both generalizability of re-
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