Among the 25 leading research institutions that make up the Unizin consortium, the University of Michigan is recognized as a leader in the field of learning analytics research and development. This distinction contributed to U-M being asked by Unizin to lead the design and development of the Unizin Data Platform (UDP), a cloud-based infrastructure for delivering learning analytics products and services to enable a data driven teaching and learning ecosystem.
A project team, lead by John Johnston in ITS Teaching and Learning, are completing the ingestion phase of the project with Unizin. This has involved capturing data from several sources, enriching bulk data and transforming it into a Unizin Common Data Model (UCDM), establishing the framework for data stores, and validating the data for accuracy. Moving forward, other university partners will begin to collaborate, and chief information security officers from eight of these universities will meet to review the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) hosting environment.
Ultimately, the UDP will collect data from across the teaching and learning landscape and will enable research in the advancement of the learning sciences, develop better pedagogical tools and methodologies, deliver personalized learning analytics at scale, and ultimately improve student outcomes. Further updates and information will be published as progress occurs.
The Unizin Data Platform (UDP)
