Page 27 - Campus Technology, November/December 2017
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Purdue App Puts Learning Data Into Students’ Hands
Engineering students at Purdue University can track their study behaviors with Pattern, a quantified-self tool designed to help learners regulate and improve their habits.
Category: Student Systems & Services Institution: Purdue University
Project: Pattern: Quantified Self-Assessment for Students
Project lead: Beth Holloway, assistant dean of undergraduate education, director of women in
engineering
Tech lineup: Developed in-house
LEARNING ANALYTICS TOOLS have become increasingly valuable for college and university administrators looking to boost student success. But can data also inform decision-making on the part of students themselves? A project at Purdue University (IN) explores that possibility by taking advantage of the “quantified self”
movement (made popular by health-tracking apps such as Fitbit) and putting the data into students’ hands.
Pattern, one of several teaching and learning apps developed by Purdue Teaching and Learning Technologies over the past few years, allows students to self-track their academic and extracurricular pursuits and rate how productive they are. The app also lets them compare their behaviors to other students to see which activities may yield the best results. Pattern can suggest when to study, recommend ways students can be more efficient with their time, and suggest how long students should be spending on tasks.
Beth Holloway, assistant dean of undergraduate education in the College of Engineering and director of women in engineering, set out to apply Pattern to a course engineering students find particularly difficult. Her project piloted the use of Pattern in a single section of a mechanical engineering course on thermodynamics during the Fall 2016 semester
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CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY | November/December 2017
Project lead Beth Holloway
Photo courtesy of Purdue University


































































































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