Building your business case for learning analytics

A successful business case covers the implications as well as the launch of a project, so I’ve written these blogs as a resource for colleagues planning to implement or refresh learning analytics at their organisation.

From intention to impact

Learning analytics can help by bringing together data from various systems across your organisation, such as attendance, virtual learning environment (VLE) engagement and assessment outcomes. Data can then highlight early warning signs and enables timely interventions. But first, you need a strong business case to secure investment and staff capacity.

Our learning analytics specialists have worked in higher education and implemented these systems themselves. We understand the challenges and can help you build a credible case that fits your strategy, governance and resources.

Why this matters now

• Continuation and financial resilience
  Low continuation rates cost millions in lost tuition and associated income. Even a 1% drop can significantly impact budgets. Rankings also reflect continuation, for example The Guardian University Guide weights it at 15%.
• Compliance for international students
  The Basic Compliance Assesssment threshold is rising from 85% to 90%. Institutions need timely attendance and engagement evidence, supported by intervention processes that are fair and student-centred.
• Wellbeing and student experience
  Institutions have a duty of care to protect and promote student wellbeing. Rising mental health concerns and limited resources make proactive support critical. Wellbeing underpins retention and compliance, so insight and clear intervention pathways are essential.

The business case: step by step

Build your foundations

Start with absolute clarity. Define what success looks like and express it through your organisation’s assessment methods, for example, aims, objectives and key results (OKRS) – it’s important that you implement a method that everyone can understand and measure. These objectives should anchor your business case and keep the project focused.

Objectives turn ambition into actionable steps. They make it easier for stakeholders to see the value, track progress and approve investment.

Prepare a clear elevator pitch. Explain how learning analytics will help you spot disengagement sooner, evidence compliance and strengthen wellbeing support. State the cohorts, timeline and how success will be measured.

Understand governance

Map the pathway through your governance structure.

• Identify a senior sponsor who can guide the proposal, and a business lead to take learning analytics into business-as-usual
• Plan committee flow across transformation or planning boards, data governance, risk and finance
• Maintain a risk register with mitigations for data protection, resource, data quality and integrations
• Align with existing strategies for continuation, international compliance and wellbeing

People, roles and resourcing

Bring people with you. Appreciate this will bring new responsibilities onto teams that may require initial support, with the understanding that analytics can reduce workloads as a single source of truth, rather than accessing multiple systems. A well designed learning analytics platform will make it simpler to identify and manage students who require support.

• Confirm business and technical leads early - decide if you need a project manager
• Define responsibilities for data governance, integrations, service design, frontline operations, change and student communications. Be prepared, but do not overestimate the effort required
• Plan capacity for the cost of success. Learning analytics will identify more students needing support, which also presents the opportunity to bring efficiencies around finding information and intervention management. Model triage, referral pathways and thresholds so demand is manageable and effective

Processes and protocols

Translate benefits into day-to-day workflows.

• Update personal tutoring policy to include how alerts are surfaced, triaged and actioned
• Define intervention thresholds in your student engagement policy
• Ensure timetabling data quality and change process so attendance analytics become a reliable foundation for wider engagement analytics
• Prepare the teams. Learning analytics, and particularly attendance monitoring is a priority system. End users report issues to your help desk. Provide first line scripts, knowledge base articles and escalation routes

Technical readiness and interoperability

Stay product agnostic but demonstrate architectural thinking.

• Integrate with core systems such as VLE, student records, timetabling and attendance capture
• Define data quality standards and update cadences that make alerts meaningful
• Ensure UK GDPR compliance, DPIA completion, role-based access controls, audit logging and retention policies

In part two of this series, I will discuss stakeholders, and the phases and reporting touchpoints to complete your business case to secure buy-in and ensure lasting change and transformation.

• Read our senior managers' guide to learning analytics to assess your institutional readiness for learning analytics, build a business case, assess its impact and more
• Contact your relationship manager to discuss your learning analytics requirements