Using a Risk Management Approach in Analytics for Curriculum and Program Quality Improvement

Learning analytics, with a risk management approach, provides relevant and actionable information to teaching and administrative staff to make evidence-based decisions in curriculum and program quality improvement. This paper outlines the development and pilot implementation of a risk management model with an online feedback system in a research-intensive Australian university. Providing teachers and executives with the opportunity, facilitated by the essential IT infrastructure, to contextualise data and to document their response to the identified risks is a proactive approach to empower staff to make enhancements to their teaching practices, and to influence academic management. In addition, the opportunity for individual teaching staff to examine the progress of their own courses is a fundamental step in curriculum and program quality improvement. Positive feedback has been received in terms of the ease of access and opportunity provided to contextualise the risk. Future development will incorporate dynamic data from different sources, such as student participation in the learning management system, to build a holistic risk management framework in teaching and learning.