UCI hosts inaugural Waypoints Symposium leading a national dialogue on data driven student success. Photos by Xanat Alvarez/UCI.

With nearly 100 in attendance, higher education leaders from more than 35 institutions from across the nation convened at UCI on March 30 and 31 for the inaugural Waypoints Symposium to discuss data-driven student success. Event attendees spent a majority of the two days engaging in thought-provoking collaboration and innovative approaches to ideas such as: How can we use data to encourage learning and create more fulfilling learning experiences? How do we increase data literacy and what would it take to implement it campus wide?

“It’s really about institutional change management – we can’t forget about the human element,” said Tom Andriola, vice chancellor of data information & technology and a symposium facilitator.

Concepts involving both cultural and institutional change were discussed, including defining academic integrity, curricular coherence, students as partners, governance around what data is needed, course policies and post-COVID flexibility. The symposium took place at the Anteater Learning Pavilion using the active learning space where attendees could sit in small groups to encourage discussion on concepts including:

  • course policies to enhance access, equity and inclusion
  • grading practices to promote learning or equity
  • creating parity around multiple sections of a course
  • “unified curriculum” approach to gateway courses
  • empowering students to choose learning over performance

Opening remarks from UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman and the keynote talk on “Using Campus Data Analytics to Support Student Success and Equity at Scale” can be viewed at this link.