Tracking students' digital footprint at Ball State

We live in a digital world. From credit card statements to what you Google, everything can be tracked and that allows organizations such as government agencies or big businesses to track what you do.

If you buy a Blu-Ray player on Amazon.com, the online seller might recommend movies based on what you previously searched for or purchased in the past. It also might recommend a specific sound system that other users liked with the player that was just bought. Computer systems are set up to learn specific users' buying habits and compare them to what the trends of other users.

If Amazon can do that selling a product, can that same model be used to help students succeed in college? The answer is yes.

Ball State University is attempting to make sure that the data collected on students is used as efficiently as possible to help them graduate in four years. The newest tool for the university is software called Rapid Insight.

"(Rapid Insight) simply takes collected information and compares it to different things. How often are (students) in class compared to a grade they got? What are course pairings that didn't work well together for students?" Vice President of Information Technologies Phillip Repp said.

Using those results, the university can make better use of resources in helping and advising students.

"You still have to know what you are looking for like any good statistician. These tools really help compartmentalize the data sets. It lets you ask the question," Repp said.

Collecting the data

Are students skipping class? The university knows.

Are students having mid-term deficiencies? The university knows.

Are students involved in clubs or attending sporting events? The university knows that, too.

Each of those things, and many more, are tracked digitally and become sets of data. Because of that, a student's digital footprint can be the fastest tool in Ball State's arsenal when it comes to helping students achieve success and, ultimately, a diploma.

One way Ball State tracks what students are doing is via their university-issued ID cards, which are swiped in card readers when entering residence halls, buying food or getting into sporting and social events around campus. ID card "swipe data" gauges whether a student is involved in campus life.

"We know from national research that if students are engaged they are more likely to graduate on time," said Kay Bales, Ball State's Vice President of Student Affairs and someone directly involved in the Rapid Insight rollout.

The university then compiles that data to see a specific student's habits by showing a pattern of someone who is either engaged in campus life or not. Comparing the trends and habits of a student in their campus life with other data from their academic life forms a bigger picture of the student's track.

A major data point in a student's rating as an "at-risk student" comes from a freshmen survey that monitors students in their first semester at the university the 80-question survey asks how often freshmen go home and how they feel about the community and their classes.

The rating from that survey was, for many years, the only major early reference point to see if a student was set up to succeed at Ball State. If a freshmen showed warning signs that they were at risk for failing out or dropping out, either a resident hall assistant or other administrator reached out to the student. Beyond that initial check though, very few means existed to track students past the survey.

Rapid Insight brings a new strategy for helping student success by taking those survey results and comparing it to other possible clues about a student.

"Each person may be different. We will test things such as high school (grade-point average). Each data point carries a certain weight from test scoring to involvement around the university," Bales said.

If those habits change for the worse, Rapid Insight can alert school officials to check in with a student and see how he or she can be better supported by the university. Ball State keeps two retention graduation specialists on staff specifically to work with residence halls and other administrators to keep students on track.

Big Brother?

If the idea of a university knowing a lot about what a student does conjures up images of George Orwell's novel "1984," it shouldn't. Data collection is something that is becoming commonplace in modern society, and while at times can be scary, have a benefit to them.

Matt Mudd, a sophomore public relations major, said that it's something people need to grapple with.

"Not everyone is going to be thrilled about being monitored closer, but there is a real benefit to the students that need the help," Mudd said.

Some students around Ball State's campus weren't surprised by university data tracking efforts. Since their freshmen year, students become fairly used to the idea that they are tracked by their ID swipes and use of programs like Blackboard, an online course system professors can use to assign readings, homework and quizzes.

"The thing is, students just get accustomed to it and I don't put all that much thought into it," said Leah Benson, a junior biology and premed student at Ball State.

They even support the idea, saying it could be a real benefit for the students.

"You know it costs a lot of money to go here, so it behooves (students) to really keep on track" said Alexis Hamilton, a junior premed psychology student.

Academia and 'big data'

Big data collection is big business for universities across the country. Dozens of higher education magazines and websites report almost daily about new technologies being implemented nationwide to achieve what Ball State is aiming to do.

Rapid Insight, while a game-changer for the way Ball State can compare data, isn't that revolutionary of an idea, Repp said.

"Big data is used everywhere around the country now, from cybersecurity to online courses. The change is extracting data and having algorithms to understand that data is more common now than five years ago," Repp said.

Academic research groups across the country are taking note. The New York Times highlighted the issue in a December op-ed about what colleges track with their students, and Ball State was mentioned because of its efforts.

The data not only is used in student intervention but might begin to show up in reports to stakeholders like the statehouse and donors to show academic achievement.

The need for speed

According to Bales, research shows that speed is key when reaching at-risk students. Before Rapid Insight, universities tracking students could only use their findings to warn future students. By the time struggling students were identified, it was often very difficult to help them get back on course, or they would have dropped out already.

Rapid Insight is still in the testing phase but administrators are confident that the results look promising. Bales along with other University officials hope to have the project ready and fully operational by the 2015 fall semester.

"Eight years ago when we identified key strategies, one of the things we knew was the data was not linking up. So it was difficult to get that total picture. We have been able to employ different software and databases at the institution to be able to bring data points we haven't been able to in the past," said Bales.

Administrators working to implement the program at Ball State are looking how to build models that compare the data, hopefully preventing what is known as a "data silo" where information stored at one department about a student isn't correlated with other data.

According to Repp, universities had already been able to do these types of examination models but the process required a lot of manual entry into the system and was very labor intensive.

Student's just starting their first and second year at Ball State may find the extra help useful according to

Different Layers in Data Collection

Rapid Insight isn't the only way to see if a student is doing well. There are several layers of data collection that different people at the university can track. In the classroom, professors are able to see if and how their students study. While not used directly in Rapid Insight, it's another checkpoint to make sure students succeed.

Students might not realize that the way they use the online education platform Blackboard is monitored as well. This engagement is looked at less by the admin level of the university and is instead focused on by instructors to make sure their content is engaged with by the students.

The problem with Blackboard analytics is that professors don't always use the system to its total capability.

Stephen Hessel, an assistant professor of Spanish, said that the systems can be very useful, but professors don't always adapt to new technology that can be difficult or lacks enough incentive.

The other problem is teachers are normally focused on teaching, not the analytics of how they teach.

"While analytics can really help a student, not everything is going to come from that. Teachers will use other methods to help engagement as well," said Hessel.

One way professors already see how the course could be better engaged by is the evaluations at the end of the term, though they are optional for students to take.

"The systems help a lot but it takes time to bring people to a point where they are comfortable using them," he said.

Other professors liked the idea of being able to track content engagement but argued that without training they were less likely to use it.

Hessel did agree that an administrative system like Rapid Insight that flags students above the teaching level makes sure students have support as many deal with the transition from high school (where there is a lot more oversight) to college.

Technology is the game changer

The biggest at-risk students identified by the university have been recipients of Pell Grants (need-based grants given to mostly undergraduate students). When doing research, Ball State discovered that Pell Grant recipients were between six and eight points lower for the rating scale of first- and second-year students returning to school. Many either failed out or dropped out for numerous reasons. This was a big problem for Ball State since Pell Grant recipients make up roughly one third (around 5,300) of the student populace, according to an article produced by the university.

That is why this fall Ball State rolled out the Achievement App.

In a project inspired by the Weight Watchers program, the app gives points to students for certain achievements, such as going to certain events on campus or registering for classes on time. Those points can be redeemed at the university book store for certain items.

The program's "achievements" are based on data points that Ball State has already identified as key to a student's success and retention in college, such as engagement in campus life.

"We asked a wide range of questions about what were some of the barriers they dealt with. What were some of the ways they felt supported? Then we also asked about their use of technology and what that looks like," Bales said in a department report about the project.

The next step beyond Insight?

Ball State is looking beyond its current projects to see what the data means on a national scale. Repp said universities across the country will start to try to compile data with other universities to see what the normal is across the country.

The Educational Advisory Board, an organization with a focus on data-driven impact in education, has asked Ball State to participate with other universities in such a collection, Repp said.

Other educational organizations such as the Innovation Alliance have universities from across the country teaming up to improve graduation rates through data analysis.

"The change rate of technology is very rapid, and we just need to find what makes sense for us," said Repp.

Some of the data points that can be correlated about a student and utilized by the university are:

• High School GPA?
• College GPA?
• Mid-term deficiencies?
• Does the student join campus clubs?
• Are they attending sporting events?
• What courses are they taking together?
• Are they failing major related classes?
• Does the student lives on or off campus?
• Is a student late or absent from class frequently?
• How comfortable are they at the university?
• What are their responses to university administered surveys like the MAP and residence hall surveys?
• Is the they homesick?
• Are the involved in greek life at the university?