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Action Analytics Innovators Launch Collaborative Community to Forward Student Access, Affordability and Success

The Public Forum on Action Analytics and the Action Analytics Community of Practice are now available to higher education institutions and technology vendors worldwide via edu1world.org. Funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities to support the Action Analytics Education Partnership (AAEP), these online communities are designed to propel collaboration and sharing regarding best practices in the application of Action Analytics in higher education. AAEP is leading the way in leveraging technology to reinvent academic and administrative processes that improve productivity, reduce costs, and foster innovations that improve student success.

Irvington, VA (PRWEB) May 19, 2010 — The Action Analytics Education Partnership has officially launched 2 new online communities – The Public Forum on Action Analytics and the Action Analytics Community of Practice – funded by a generous grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system in partnership with Capella University, these online communities are designed to propel collaboration and sharing of best practices in the application of Action Analytics among thought leaders and distinguished practitioners in higher education nationwide.

Action Analytics is a multi-dimensional effort aimed at fundamental and strategic education reform. Action Analytics strategically uses data, statistics, predictive modeling, and visualization to promote student success, achieve institutional efficiency, and demonstrate transparency. These critical efforts are designed to impact every level of education in the context of massive economic, social, and technological change. The ultimate goal is to use the pursuit of student access, affordability and success to achieve financial sustainability and discover a viable, replicable model by 2020.

The private Community of Practice is being launched with key participants from the second National Symposium on Action Analytics, held May 5-7 in St. Paul, MN. Other designated thought leaders and distinguished practitioners will also be invited to participate. This core group will generate new ideas and new syntheses of insights on an ongoing basis and will then share their findings with the larger Public Forum on Action Analytics, which is open to all edu1world members. Participants in the Public Forum will in turn contribute their opinions and expertise. Through this process, a rich collection of expert and practitioner opinion and best practices will be compiled and made available to all.

Dr. Donald M. Norris, President of Strategic Initiatives Inc., serves as Moderator for the new online communities.

The effort is being spearheaded by the Action Analytics Education Partnership (AAEP), which includes the Minnesota State Colleges and University System (MNSCU), Capella University, the Shank Institute of Innovative Learning, and Strategic Initiatives, Inc.

Dr. Linda L. Baer, Senior Vice Chancellor of Academic and Student Affairs for MNSCU, is a driving force within the Action Analytics movement. According to Dr. Baer, “MNSCU has been very active with our own Action Analytics initiatives with a state-level focus on performance improvement and accountability across all 32 of our institutions. We have successfully used Action Analytics to improve the performance of underserved students and to revitalize our STEM programs. We will be contributing these experiences and many, many others to the online Community of Practice.”

Capella University is an international leader in the use of advanced analytics techniques. Dr. Michael J. Offerman is the newly appointed Interim President at Capella. He formerly served as University President from 2001 through 2007. During that time, Capella grew from 2,000 to 22,000 students and developed its award-winning learning outcomes assessment model. Says Dr. Offerman, “We have been using predictive modeling and analytics to deal not just with recruitment and strategic enrollment management but to ascertain students’ likely success, to determine when their behaviors and level of engagement suggest they may be at risk of failing, and to effectively intervene.”

At the end of May, AAEP will conduct a webinar summarizing the results from this week’s National Action Analytics Symposium.

About Action Analytics Education Partnership
AAEP includes the Minnesota State Colleges and University System (MNSCU), the nation’s fifth largest system of 2-year colleges and state universities; Capella University, a 17-year old proprietary university; Shank Institute of Innovative Learning, a non-profit think tank focusing on future technology and learning organizations; and Strategic Initiatives, Inc., a for profit developmental consulting firm. The partnership’s mission is to capture, share, and implement best practices in analytics and predictive modeling and to encourage the breadth and depth of use of action analytics across higher education institutions and other enterprises as a tool to ultimately improve institutional performance and student success and to light the way to establishing financial sustainability in higher education.

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