Unleashing the Power of Student Data Analytics

The purpose of this project was to identify student personas based on various measurements of student engagement and examine the relationships between these personas and certain learning outcomes, including academic performance and perceived gains in learning. The project involved a series of analyses of data sets created by linking the existing NSSE (National Survey of Student Engagement) data to the co-curricular record, co-op participation data, and academic performance data.   

The project was a result of ISTEP’s collaboration with the University’s Institutional Research and Data Governance Office, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and the University of Toronto Scarborough campus. The project was financially supported by the Dean’s Strategic Fund, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, from 2019 to 2023. 

The project allowed us to explore the typological approach to examining student experiences conceptually and methodologically. It has paved the way for obtaining external funding for engineering education research.  

Publications:

  • Liu, Qin; & Evans, Greg. (2024, in progress). Engineering students’ engagement and learning outcomes: A typological approach. Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, OR.
  • Liu, Qin; & Evans, Greg. (2020), Unleashing the power of data analytics to examine engineering students’ experiences and outcomes. Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition (virtual). https://peer.asee.org/35431

Team Leads:

Professor Greg Evans and Dr. Qin Liu

Research Assistants: 

May 2020 – December 2020

  • Xuanhui Emma Chen, Master of Engineering student in Industrial Engineering 

September 2020 – July 2021

  • Siddhant Agarwal, Master of Engineering student in Analytics 

May – August 2021

  • Michael Avdian, senior undergraduate student in Mathematics and Economics 
  • Afnan Rahman, senior undergraduate student in Mathematics and Cognitive Science 
  • Junzhen Vickie Lao, Master of Information student in Human-Centred Data Science 
  • Yang Qu, Master of Science student in Applied Computing

May 2021 – March 2023

  • Oliver Kenan Pan, senior undergraduate student in Statistics and Management

May 2021 – March 2022

  • Wenyue Sun, Master of Engineering student in Analytics 

May – August 2022

  • Noshin Saiyara Karim, Master of Science student in Mechanical Engineering 

September 2022 – March 2023

  • Faith Dong, senior undergraduate student in Computational Cognitive Science and Neuroscience
  • Yulin Wang, Master of Science student in Applied Computing
  • Hoang Truc (Eryn) Nguyen, senior undergraduate student in Industrial Engineering September 2022 – March 2023