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Mark David Milliron - Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Action Analytics: Using Data to Improve Student Outcomes. Now!

Interviewed by: Cali Morrison, Project Coordinator at WCET
May 2010

In early May, I had the opportunity to attend the 2nd Annual Action Analytics Symposium a diverse gathering of higher education professionals who came together to discuss how, through a concept termed Action Analytics by its developers, higher education can use data assessment and analysis to drive the re-imagination of its processes, procedures, performance indicators, and visions of success for learners and institutions. The symposium focused on catalyzing this movement across higher education sectors with reach into P-12 and workforce development in order to help achieve the national goals of a greater number of American adults with higher education credentials.

As the keynote, Mark David Milliron, Deputy Director, Postsecondary Improvement, U.S. Program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, focused his remarks on the impact on students. How can we use analytics at just the right moment that we improve student success? Following is the conversation I had with Mark:

Cali: During your Action Analytics Keynote, you mentioned that analytics are about driving a level of change that is radical for higher education. You also talked about how the use of data analytics is now very ingrained in our consumer experience giving the examples of amazon.com, 800-flowers and TiVo. Where do you see the convergence of these two phenomena happening? How will data analytics change the future of higher education?

Mark: It's a great question. If you take a step back, you can see that we experience analytics every day. We talked about the examples during the keynote: Amazon helps you choose your next book, TiVo recommends your next movie, all based on strategic data collection and sophisticated personalized predictive models. The best businesses, governments, and hospitals use analytics to reach their discrete goals—whether the search is for profit, efficiency, or saving lives. Higher education definitely cares about efficiency and effectiveness—but at our core, our goals are centered on learning, research, civic engagement, and real opportunity for students. Indeed, we at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation believe strongly that achieving a college-level certification or degree unlocks the pathway to possibilities, particularly for low income and first-generation students. And while the use of data to drive reform at the federal and state policy levels—and to improve performance at the institutional level—is vital, it's probably not enough. We think there is transformative power in taking the next step: bringing analytics into the learning moment. When we can, in real time, as students are struggling with program of study choices or understanding difficult concepts, engage them with customized information, support, or learning resources, that's when we make the "use of data" transformational.

Cali: During your Action Analytics keynote, you also mentioned that students are accustomed to this level of data gathering but are now asking institutions to use the information gathered about them to help THEM. If you were on a campus, working in e-learning, how would you address using student data to help students? What would you avoid?

Mark: My argument is that students are asking, "can you use data about me... to help ME." Far too often, by the time we collect, clean, stage, analyze, report, and argue about data gathered from a given student, it's too late. They're gone. The decision we make based on the data will, at best, help a student in the future. Or it will inform a well-intentioned policy debate. As said, what intrigues me are the education innovators who are developing systems that try to use data to help students in real time. That's the aspiration. That's what I'd be shooting for wherever possible. Something as simple as the Purdue Signals Project. In terms of what we need to avoid, I would say we need to be careful about privacy. We need to engage students in serious conversations about privacy and make sure our use of their information doesn't go too far.

Cali: One of the key issues for analytics you mentioned was the velocity of data use – that we in higher education have to be quicker and more adaptable. Could you talk a little more about your vision of how higher education can meet this issue?

Mark: Data velocity is about having the skill and will to use data quickly to make an impact. It's all about infrastructure and culture. It means having an information architecture that allows you to gather data from multiple systems - HR, finance, student, LMS, fundraising, census, state databases, etc. - and then clean, stage, analyze, and leverage it. It's a lot about quality data warehouses, analytics tools, reporting tools, and strategies for driving ease of use. And ease of use is where culture comes in. The colleges that are making the greatest progress on these initiatives are working hard to build trust by bringing together IT, IR, student services, faculty, administration, and even students to drive for quality, ease of use, and targeted innovations that have the most impact for students. This trust is essential when you want to move quickly with data. It's even more important when it comes time to face hard data that aren't so positive. I've heard it called the courage to face the brutal facts.

Cali: How do data analytics tie into the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation vision of the future? Where will you start to achieve that vision?

Mark: We have a strong commitment to data-informed change initiatives. We think big challenges can be taken on if we're willing to ask hard questions, face hard facts, and innovate around possible solutions. Indeed, it's our goal to be a learning partner in these efforts. To these ends, analytics initiatives become a powerful tool to both inform our collaborative efforts with institutions, policy makers, and other partners and to help more students achieve the opportunity afforded by college degrees by getting them the support they need, when they need it.

Cali: Finally, you mentioned that today's learners are courageous learners, that they bring a tenacity with them from their life experiences that we need to match – we need to show them that the collective "we" in higher education are also courageous learners. Could you share your experience in how the collective "we" can engage in this conversation with our students?

Mark: It's a compelling point. Sure there are some students who bring a strange sense of entitlement to their learning journey. I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about the students that are working 40 hours, going to school full time, and trying to take care of small children. They're trying to break a cycle of poverty, to chart a course to a better life for their family. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are reaching higher through education. These are the courageous ones that should inspire us to work harder at making our systems and processes better, making their learning experiences better.

How do we engage them? As any parent knows, kids learn best by watching... you. Students also learn by watching... And if we want them to be quality, critical, creative, social and courageous learners, we need to be models. Are we willing to critically evaluate what's working and what's not? Are we able to be creative in innovating around solutions to our student success challenges? Are we able to work together well as we wrestle with contentious issues in our faculty senates and community advisory groups? Do we have the courage to learn from others, try new things, admit something is not working and go in another direction? Most important, maybe the first step in this modeling process is opening up and asking them to join us in our own learning journey.