A Little Speedback for Math 110

So, here is my webignosis for the Independent Study Course Math 110:

• The Syllabus has one of the highest bounce rates on the whole site. This may indicate that the syllabus is either overwhelming in its content or format. Granted, polynomials usually made me want to bounce too, but perhaps a feature could be included so that when students are enrolled in the course, the syllabus provides links directly to each lesson or topic listed so they could get more information. What if you could mouse over a topic and see an example problem pop up? Redesigning, including adding color or reducing the text somehow, might encourage people to stay longer or move forward instead of exit the site.
  
• More links to enroll in the course. From what I could see, students sometimes found the Orientation material, Syllabus, and Begin Course pages without first going through BYU's Independent study website. I tried this approach and found that it was extremely difficult to know how to enroll in the course from those pages. Linking students back to where they can enroll would prevent circular clicking around looking for registration. This is like trying to sign up for your classes in the Talmadge Building when you actually need to be at One-Stop in the Wilk.
  

Questions I had included the following:

• What does it mean on Lesson 1 Page Session (where students are directed to log into something and start the homework assignment) and the rates are as follows:
  • 46.15% Bounce
    
  • 37.62% Exit
• Does this mean they are leaving the site or logging in to start their assignment? If they are starting their assignment, great. If not, we may want to look into encouraging more students to read through the material and immediately apply it on the assignment.
  From what I could see it appeared as though they couldn't start an assignment and come back to it later. It was arranged as an all-in-one sitting assignment. That would make me exit if I were a student as well, especially because math takes a long time when you are doing new problems or reviewing stuff you are rusty on. This means students have to schedule out a chunk of time to read and do the assignment without knowing how long it will take.
• What kind of goal pages would be most helpful here? We don't have a shopping cart or flight arrangements to measure learning. Is it when students complete the assignments? I guess I missed some of our discussion on what KPI are appropriate for learning instead of trying to make money.
  

Who's Using Web Analytics in Instructional Design?

Although I have a long way to go in improving my internet searching skills, I spent a little time poking around to see what has been written about using web analytics in online education. I struggled to find "articles" but found proof that someone is doing it--maybe. A job posting for a Campaign and Web Analytics Senior Manager for Kaplan University included the following description as part of the job responsibilities:

Conducting a myriad of web metric analysis from visitor segmentation to funnel conversions to search analyses using Unica NetInsight software and Google Analytics on Kaplan web portal and the KU site.

Design, oversee and conduct in-depth analysis on prospects/lead, current student and general population. Metrics will include conversion, start rate, retention, graduation, advocacy, etc.
Analyses will be examined by campaign, school, degree type, media and various other demographics.

From what I read, Kaplan provides online courses and degrees to please all walks of life in the online learning population. I still couldn't quite tell if this position included using analytics to determine course effectiveness or if it, like most other references to web analytics and education, was primarily about MARKETING the education that was offered. Most other references seemed to be about educating students about web analytics. It looks like most institutions of higher education have been concerned with web analytics in regards to increasing their student body rather than increasing student learning.

Metrics that Matter: Dreaming Big

In a perfect world, I'd choose to track the following:

• Acts of confusion--when did students click on the wrong thing or get lost because they didn't understand the directions or the interface? This unnecessarily increases the time the course takes.
  
• Acts of skimming--what parts of the screen are they reading, glossing over completely, etc.? Essentially, some way to find out what text is unnecessary to help students complete the course successfully
  
• Technical failures--to what extent is a bad internet connection or other mechanical failures affecting learning? We tend to experience this as a group when teachers use certain technology or media in the classroom and it can be very compromising, but how interruptive is it when your entire context for learning is online?
• Connections to other internet sites--is the student simultaneously on wikipedia, facebook, the OED, etc. as they complete the course? What are they doing right before and right after they work on their course? This would probably require Big Brother style surveilance but boy, wouldn't it be interesting?
  

Something Funny

I took this picture at the beginning of the football season last year as a sign of good fortune. Clearly, the pot of gold will be in LaVell Edwards Stadium this year as well.

Web Analytics Course: What I want

From this class, I hope to gain:

• Increased technological capabilities as far as blogging, web analytics, etc. for my professional skill set
  
• Improvements to my blog so my family and friends will enjoy knowing what I'm up to and what I believe
• A better understanding of how I can marry my MS in IPT at BYU with my professional/corporate aspirations. I think I am an HPT student in IPT clothing.
• Some further light on whatever the heck I should do for my master's project.