ascilite2015

Figure 2: Screenshot of additional, gradebook indicator allowing items from the gradebook to
be queried and compared.
Major enhancement to improve information representation and afford contacting students
Other questions raised by the IRAC framework, namely the abstracted representation of information
and affordances for action, were also supported through the needs analyses. Therefore, to provide a
clearer picture of student engagement and address the representation challenges around information
abstraction, MEAP+ was developed to display some of the raw information that was otherwise just
shown as percentage risk ratings (Figure 3). MEAP+ was also designed to afford action based on
provided information, in the form of a student contact system that could deliver customisable and
personalisable intervention emails, addressing a key component of the learning analytics cycle
(Arnold & Pistilli, 2012; Clow, 2012; Jayaprakash et al., 2014). Emails could be composed from
suggested snippets that provided short, specific, formative advice (Croton, Willis III, & Fish, 2014)
(Figure 4), and all sent emails were logged to maintain a record of student contact.
Figure 3: Screenshot of the information representation in MEAP+.
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FP:172