ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we explore three different studies that examine LMS course design as a learning analytics variable, which is largely missing in current literature and practice. First, we discuss a study conducted by an LMS vendor who created five “course archetypes” to standardize analysis of faculty design practices across 70,000 courses at nearly 1,000 institutions enrolling 3.3 million students. Second, at a single university, we analyzed student final grades by these course archetypes but found a negative correlation for the most sophisticated course archetypes, which was unexpected. Finally, by adjusting our approach to focus on the “strength of relationship” between student LMS activity and grades, we found that course design does matter and that the more sophisticated course designs have a stronger relationship between student activity in the LMS and their course outcome.
