EVADE

EVADE stands for End-to-end Visualisation and Analytics of Data for Elearning. As a system it enables the capture, analysis and visualisation of data related to learning through integration with Learning Management Systems (LMSs), talent management systems, and other sources of learner evidence. The system provides an intuitive web-based interface to select how data is analysed and visualised, with the option to embed indicative visualisations within an LMS or other web-based system. EVADE can also act as a Learning Record Store (LRS) and can support the Tin Can/Experience API (http://tincanapi.com/learning-record-store/) to the extent that it allows the capture of data in the Experience API format.

Challenge

As organisations increasingly seek to establish metrics around staff training and to demonstrate training impact, there will be an increasing demand for learning analytics tools that are easy to use by non-IT specialists such as L&D professionals. 

To date efforts to mine learning data have been hampered by a lack of data mining tools that are easy for non-experts to use and by poor integration of data mining tools with e-Learning systems (Romero & Ventura, 2010). 

One of the common challenges articulated by Learnovate’s industry partners was the inflexibility of existing Business Intelligence (BI) suites. These were seen as being separate from the LMS or other applications in which learning was occurring. The existing solutions required users to leave the learning environment and go to a specific reporting platform where they could view preconfigured reports that were designed by experts. These solutions provide limited capabilities for the end user to configure their own learning analytics in order to query the system for information that is meaningful to them. The very nature of the reports generated by existing solutions is also a problem, they do not facilitate the surfacing of relevant information to different stakeholders as and when it is needed. The user has to go looking for the information rather than the information being brought to them.

EVADE addresses these challenges by providing the following:

• Data Capture & Management

  • A service oriented approach to capturing learning events that allows a web-based API to be easily configured to capture data in varying formats and from several different systems.

  • Cater for evolving Reporting & Analytics requirements by providing easily configurable and adjustable queries over captured data.

  • Real-time analytics based on configured queries that provide timely indicators of changes in the data gathered.

• Data Analytics

  • Continuous and dynamic performance management by tracking evidence of learner engagement across numerous systems with analytics being provided in realtime.

  • Identification of meaningful learning events by allowing Learning and Development managers to analyse the learning events that are relevant to their learners and learning context.

• Visualisation and User Interaction

  • Developing a data driven decision making culture by raising the visibility of realtime analytics to deliver continuous insight.

  • Flexibility to cater for high-level and fine grained analysis that can be adapted as needed by L&D managers.

  • Intuitive visual interfaces for configuration, reporting and display of analytical outputs based on custom designed visual querying and visualisations suited to the end-users and their contexts.