Tom Cavanagh
Vice Provost for Digital Learning,
University of Central Florida
Into the Light: Using Data Mining to Reveal Online Programs (Institutional Scope)
Tuesday, February 15 | 4:00PM–5:00PM | Lincoln East
Session Type:
Professional Development
The University of Central Florida is a large institution growing at a rapid pace. Online course development is supported centrally but implemented locally, creating a situation where, in some cases, colleges/departments were unaware that they were offering de facto online programs. To manage oversight and reporting of online course activity, UCF has developed a proprietary Executive Information System (EIS). This session will describe how the EIS was used to specifically research and discover online programs that were available but undeclared. With this data, programs were identified and formally opened for distant students.
Learning Objectives
* Explore how online course development can outrun online program development.
* Hear how a large institution (UCF) manages this issue through the advanced application of open-source technologies.
* Understand the methodology used to programmatically mine a mySQL database to identify programs either online or close to being online.
* Learn how the resultant data analysis can be applied to provide additional access to students.
