Absorb- an LMS (Learning Management System) with Learning Analytics

As a non-eductor, I had to really on a Google search for finding "a learning and assessment environment that offers learning analytics". Most results were LMS that were designed for businesses for training purposes. They tended to advertise delivering learning at scale, user-friendly experiences, training flexability, and, of course, special feedback reports (see link 1 below). The LMS that had the most detailed information I could find about its learning analytics was a product called "Absorb", which emphasized offering a range of reports with "popular out-of-the box options" (which I am assuming refers to, as we saw in the lecture video, data about users' interactions, participation, time spent, etc., or, to summarize, more that just test and quiz results). Their demo video emphasizes being able to track learning analytics for either an individual, or for groups of learners, which is interesting if one is trying to analyze interactions and teamwork as part of the learning and assessment process. Among the things that can be tracked are "test scores, learner activity, time spent, courses started, enrollments, total comments" and the list goes on. The video is short, but being able to analyze "total comments" and "learner activity" indicates to me that this is a platform that offers tools to help bring the learning and the assessment process together (as opposed to separating them via a test or a quiz). You can also set reports to be sent out automatically. If I were to use this platform, I would set the reports to be sent out rather frequently so as to be able to let users know what they are being assessed on (so that they can participate more effectively). The dashboard also uses "bold charts and graphics", which is helpful for analyzing minute data, such as "learner activity" (see link 2 for the video I am citing for this example).

It was interesting for me to learn through this update that a lot of LMS products target businesses for training purposes, as I would have thought that they target institutions of learning more frequently. It also made me consider the online learning platform that we use at the educational non-profit I work for. This activity helped me see how our platform might offer sequential learning that can be done on one's own time, but it is very limited in terms of assessment. The assessment tools only track course completion and quiz scores, and while there is a chat feature and discussion board, there is no way to track learner activity or interactions between users as a way of assessing them. A recommendation I would now make to my team is that we explore how we might modify the learning experience to be more interactive so that we can assess the activity instead of the quiz results or feedback surveys.

Link 1: https://elearningindustry.com/top-lms-training-software-with-learning-analytics-tools

Link 2: https://www.absorblms.com/features/reporting-and-analytics