Case Study
Data Driven Curriculum Data Analysis: ESPOL’s Computer Science Curriculum Re-design
Based on work by:
Gonzalo Méndez, Xavier Ochoa & Katherine Chiluiza, Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral (ESPOL), Guayaquil, Ecuador
Intervention Types
Course
Process
This ESPOL case study demonstrates how a set of simple techniques may be applied to readily available historical academic data to provide educational institutions with insights into the effectiveness of their courses and programs. Leaders and faculty at ESPOL used a set of simple techniques and analyses on historical academic data to provide insight into the effectiveness of their courses and programs. These techniques could help faculty to gain a better insight on the nature and current performance of their courses and provide insights on possible problems or difficulties that students are having. Techniques described are: real course difficulty estimation, dependence estimation, curriculum coherence, dropout paths, and load/performance graph. Such analysis is demonstrated using 12 years of academic data of ESPOL’s Computer Science program that was being re-designed; the results of the analysis may be used to supply evidence to underpin recommendations for curriculum re-design.
- Existing historical course data can use learning analytics to yield insights that can help academic institutions drive improvements in curriculum design.
