Credit Hours: 5
Instructional Mode: Online & Asynchronous
Student Collaboration: Weekly small group virtual meetings (student choice of meeting synchronously or asynchronously)
Faculty Designer: Dr. Julia Rutledge, Learning Analytics director
Instructor: Dr. David Hatfield, Senior Director of Metadata at McGraw-Hill
“This course provided a beautiful bridge between theory and practice, allowing us to utilize the skills we have been developing for the past 2 years in a real world context.”
Student end-of-course evaluation, spring 2023
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Students engage in a comprehensive consulting project that pairs student teams with a learning organization of their choice to design and produce a consulting report to be presented to key stakeholders. The consulting project will build on knowledge and skills learned in prior courses within the program and require application of program concepts in authentic contexts. Multiple opportunities for presentations and feedback are scaffolded into the process.
Students will:
- Connect and apply learning analytics theories, concepts, methods, and practices
- Ascertain client needs and collaborate with peers on a professional consulting project
- Employ analyses and present findings and recommendations for portfolio-worthy capstone project
Why this course?
In Year 1 courses, students build foundational knowledge and skills using collaboration, software tutorials, and prescribed data sets. In Year 2, students focus on application and practice with a broader set of tools and skills. The Capstone course brings foundations and application together for an authentic, problem-based learning experience. Students work with real-world clients and real-world data to make a real-world difference.
How do students learn in 695?
Students are scaffolded through the consulting process with weekly assignments. They are supported by their unique Board of Directors (consisting of PhD alums from the department, the teaching team, and program alumni) and perform dress rehearsals for formative feedback prior to meeting with their client. The instructional team provides extensive feedback each week on progress and guides the team through the consulting process, from needs assessment to final presentations.
What did our 2023 Client Partners have to say about consulting project?
Very impressed. The findings are helpful. They analyzed a new-to-us data set and practically created the proof-of-concept and initial analysis for us to build on.
The team was highly receptive to feedback, questions, and making any necessary adjustments throughout the project. Also extremely knowledgeable and all aspects well articulated.
The presentation was thorough and well organized. The findings are extremely helpful as we think about reporting mechanisms and accurately reflecting our students/ student needs.
Excellent job! Truly! All team members were always well prepared, thoughtful, communicative, and professional.
Schedule of Topics
| Week | Topic |
| 1 | Foundations: Self-select your student team and establish your partner agreement; Define team roles and norms |
| 2 | Client Communications: Schedule meetings; Client Background Memo |
| 3 | Needs Assessment Draft |
| 4 | Client Meeting: Needs Assessment |
| 5 | Options Roadmap Draft |
| 6 | Board of Directors: Options Roadmap |
| 7 | Client Meeting: Options Roadmap |
| 8 | Analysis Prep |
| 9 | Analysis & 1-Pager Draft |
| 10 | Visualizations Draft |
| 11 | PowerPoint Draft |
| 12 | Board of Directors: Final Presentation Practice |
| 13 | Presentation Revisions & Final 1-Pager |
| 14 | Client Meeting: Final Presentation |
| 15 | Reflections on team, capstone consulting project, and Learning Analytics program curriculum |
What students say
“Creating our group roles & norms at the beginning of the semester has helped us stay organized week to week – we now have a solid schedule. We are a well-oiled machine, and each of us brings a different strength and perspective to the table.”
Morgan Hall, data analyst, class of 2023
Instructor Insights
“The capstone course is a unique experience academically. It is certainly a course, with weekly expectations, assignments, grading, etc., But, it provides an opportunity to be so much more:
Positioned as the primary actors, working in teams to craft complete learning analytic investigations and deliverables for real clients, students can fully take on professional roles and immerse themselves in the kinds of surprises, headaches, hard work and hard-won success they will find as graduates. The sense of accomplishment and pride can be powerful and palpable. The nerves and anxiety that come with being responsible for defining problems and solutions that need to make sense and work for clients are too. Learning how to produce real analyses and prepare effective data stories for clients is hard and demands a range of skills. This experience gives students an opportunity to draw on prior courses while pushing themselves to do more than they thought they could and embody their aspirations.” – Dr. David Hatfield
Sample Week
Materials including videos, assignments, and readings will be available at the beginning of each week. Below is a suggested guideline for spacing out assignments in order to provide enough time for work, interactions with the instructors, students, and student group, etc. While the rhythm may change depending on the week, students can generally expect to engage with course materials and each other in this way and thus may plan accordingly. Note the purposeful balance between individual and group assignments. Below is a sample from Week 4 of this course:
| Week 4: | Options Roadmap Draft | ||||||
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
| Learning Objectives | After performing client needs assessment in Week 3, determine 2-3 options for analysis | ||||||
| Options Roadmap Draft | Include brief descriptions for 2-3 analysis options via simple Ppt due Mon pm | ||||||
| Group Dynamic Check-in | How is your group functioning? Individual response due Mon pm | ||||||
What More Students are Saying:
It really helped to refine my career/professional goals in how I want to pursue my career. I know that this has always been something I needed to do, but did not know the details. Now, I feel more confident in pursuing my goals. – End-of-semester evaluation, 2023
I believe this course had a major impact on my career trajectory as it allowed me to work with an actual client with real needs and experience the ups and downs of analyzing data. I also expect it expanded my network within the learning analytics community, which will also prove fruitful in the future. – End-of-semester evaluation, 2023
The instructor did a great job in providing comprehensive feedback. His approach is helpful. He treated me with respect, yet, did not sugarcoat in his feedback where I needed to make improvements. I respected him for that. – End-of-semester evaluation, 2023
The quantity and quality of the feedback of this course is extremely helpful. Our Teaching Team and Board of Directors were there for us during each step of the process, which eased the pressure of it being our final Capstone term. – End-of-semester evaluation, 2023
As I reflect on the start of this semester and our capstone course, the words that really come to mind are pride, collaboration, and progress. – Emma Nickerson
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ACADEMIC CALENDAR & RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
By virtue of enrollment, each student agrees to uphold the high academic standards of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; academic misconduct is behavior that negatively impacts the integrity of the institution. Cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, unauthorized collaboration, and helping others commit these previously listed acts are examples of misconduct which may result in disciplinary action. Examples of disciplinary action include, but is not limited to, failure on the assignment/course, written reprimand, disciplinary probation, suspension, or expulsion.
ACCOMMODATIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
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DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
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