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Case Study

The role of advanced learning analytics in operational efficiency and early-alert programs

This case study explores the implementation of an early alert-system and education analytics platform by the Lloyd L. Gregory School of Pharmacy at Palm Beach Atlantic University, aimed at enhancing operational efficiency and providing better support for struggling students.

July 17, 2024 · 7 min read

Palm Beach Atlantic University

Established in 2001 in sunny South Florida, the Lloyd L. Gregory School of Pharmacy at Palm Beach Atlantic University offers a holistic learning experience. With a focus on servant leadership, students engage in medical missions and join a diverse, supportive community for lifelong connections and career preparation.

School type

School of Pharmacy

Location

West Palm Beach, FL

Website

https://www.pba.edu/academics/schools/pharmacy/

Number of students

50 students (average target class size)

LMS integration

Canvas
ExamSoft

Enflux product(s)

ACPE Monitoring Suite
Canvas Monitoring Suite
EDU (ExamSoft) Suite
Strategic Planning

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Overview

Palm Beach Atlantic University’s Lloyd L. Gregory School of Pharmacy aimed to effectively monitor student academic success and identify at-risk students early enough to intervene effectively. Dr. Yolanda Hardy, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Assessment, and Accreditation, partnered with Enflux in 2021 to address challenges related to fragmented data and time-consuming manual processes. Recognizing the need for a centralized data management solution and early-alert system, Dr. Hardy initiated the collaboration, which continues to evolve as Enflux supports ongoing efforts to streamline operations. This case study delves into how Enflux, a comprehensive learning analytics and decision support system, helped Lloyd L. Gregory School of Pharmacy address these challenges and enhance operational efficiency and student retention efforts. This approach paved the way for more proactive and personalized academic advising and support, fostering a culture of data-driven champions.

Challenge

Identifying challenges is the first step toward transformative solutions. At the Lloyd L. Gregory School of Pharmacy, this realization dawned as the team noticed a recurring pattern: initial exam scores often served as harbingers of overall course performance. However, essential performance data was scattered across different locations, managed by different individuals, leading to inefficiencies and delays in accessing crucial information.

“We needed a central location to house data that we were using to monitor student academic success and identify students in academic distress early enough to make a difference in their pharmacy journey.”

Yolanda M. Hardy

PharmD, Associate Dean, Academic Affairs, Assessment, and Accreditation

Before leveraging higher education learning analytics, Dr. Hardy invested considerable time manually pulling, cleaning, and merging Excel spreadsheets. This labor-intensive process included extensive data review to identify struggling students and create visualizations to help faculty. All this had to be done before any student interaction, leading to delays in support. There was also no systematic method for tracking follow-up actions, directly impacting the school’s goal of retaining academically qualified students. These challenges highlighted the urgent need for a streamlined learning analytics solution to consolidate student performance data and enhance proactive support efforts.

Solution

Upon discovering Enflux, Dr. Hardy immediately recognized its potential to address the assessment challenges faced by the school. Enflux offered a centralized location for key data points, ensuring easy access and timely updates. Dr. Hardy’s interactions with the Enflux team further solidified her belief in the solution, as they were highly responsive, answering her questions and open to suggestions.

Implementation and impact

Under Dr. Hardy’s leadership, the Lloyd L. Gregory School of Pharmacy spearheaded the implementation of Enflux, promoting its use to other academic programs with the goal of centralizing student assessment across health professions. Leveraging Enflux’s EDU Suite and Canvas Suite, which integrate data from ExamSoft and Canvas LMS, she enhanced various aspects of educational assessment and curriculum management. These suites provided tools for real-time curriculum effectiveness and gap analysis, enabling her to identify areas for improvement and monitor student progress toward degree completion. Additionally, Enflux’s Canvas Suite facilitated comprehensive program-level data evaluation, detailed student performance, and mastery tracking, aiding in competency-based assessment and personalized student advising. Enflux also supported Lloyd L. Gregory School of Pharmacy in maximizing the results of their annual AACP Curriculum Quality Surveys with the ACPE Monitoring Suite. This learning analytics software enabled them to quickly analyze and compare their program’s performance against others, gaining valuable insights into board pass rates.

Academic Advising dashboard within Enflux learning analytics software

“The following week after an exam, I can reach out to students to help identify resources to help them to stay on track towards academic success.”

Yolanda M. Hardy

PharmD, Associate Dean, Academic Affairs, Assessment, and Accreditation

Enflux, a leading learning analytics company, significantly improved operational efficiency and facilitated timely communication between faculty and administration. Though faculty members don’t directly access Enflux, the learning analytics software centralized grades, allowing Dr. Hardy to quickly update faculty on student performance and enhance advising. This eliminated the need for individual updates after each exam, enabling educators to assess student performance across courses and understand each student’s academic journey, which was crucial for the Assessment Committee’s annual reports. The early alert system in the higher education institution provided by Enflux played a key role in this process.

Key benefits

The efficiency edge. Enflux's user-friendly interface streamlines data navigation, freeing up time for strategic tasks.
Centralized insights. By consolidating key data points, Enflux empowers faculty to deliver timely, evidence-based, and personalized support to students across all courses.
Dynamic data access. With daily data refresh cycles, Enflux ensures institutions stay agile and scalable in their academic endeavors.

Results

ease of use

centralized location of key data points

personal assistance from members of the Enflux team

timely updates (daily data refresh)

The advantages of Enflux were immediately apparent and impactful. With data already formatted for use and no need to merge information from multiple classes or platforms, Dr. Hardy experienced significant efficiency gains right from the start.
Time previously spent on data preparation, cleaning, and visualization was significantly reduced, allowing educators to devote more attention to student interactions.
The user-friendly interface and responsive Enflux team further facilitated streamlined operations, making leadership responsibilities more manageable.
Additionally, the platform's timely data refreshes enabled prompt identification of students in need of support, thereby enhancing support initiatives and aiding in program accreditation compliance tracking.

If your program is struggling with timely and efficient student assessment and support, our learning analytics and early-alert systems can streamline your processes and enable data-driven decision-making.