At the launch of the Learning Analytics Cymru  (LA Cymru) last year, participants recognised that learning analytics are a fruitful area for collaboration, and expressed an interest in building ‘communities of experience’. 

JISC have engaged a consultant, Kerr Gardiner, to help coordinate this. On Monday 18th March, colleagues from across WHELF took part in a webinar led by Kerr, which was organised by Dr Andrew Dalgleish, WHELF Representative for the University of South Wales.

One of the key outcomes is that members understand the need for institutions to manage the LA Cymru project strategically and will engage within their home institution to do so. They will also look to ensure that data provisioning is strategically aligned.

WHELF members agreed to make LA Cymru part of their agenda and to create sub-groups when necessary. It was noted that Libraries collect and manage data in different ways and that WHELF has a strong network across Wales which it can draw upon to support the LA Cymru project and share knowledge.

WHELF would welcome more discussion with the JISC LA project team on the role that libraries can play, in order to clarify how they can support LA activity. To achieve this, an LA Cymru briefing document and roadmap to align their library activity with would be useful.

WHELF would like to thank Kerr for setting up this informative webinar which has given us much to discuss and explore.