UCI Feature
Second Annual Waypoints Symposium Continues Important Progress Toward Data-Driven Student Success
From March 25-26, UC Irvine hosted the second annual Waypoints Symposium, a conference featuring speakers and interactive sessions exploring how to best leverage student data in guiding educational policy to ensure student success. Across this two-day stretch, over 110 thought leaders and stakeholders from 27 universities and other institutions across the country gathered in our Anteater Learning Pavilion to discuss emerging opportunities and challenges in using data to drive student success in higher education.
Kicking off the symposium was Maria Anguiano, UC Regent and current Executive Vice President of the Learning Enterprise (LE) at Arizona State University (ASU), who delivered a keynote presentation discussing ASU’s mission to reshape education to a ‘lifelong learning’ model, adapting to the rapid pace of modern innovation and allowing learners to build upon their skillset at any point in life; as well as ASU’s continued efforts to close the gaps in access and achievement for minoritized and disadvantaged student groups.
“Our goal is to inspire all of the data scientists and other stakeholders to take what they’ve learned and go back to their institutions and establish their own purpose-driven communities of practice around student data,” said Astrud Reed, UCI Compass Community of Practice Manager in the Office of Information Technology who, alongside Unicon’s Lead Data and Analytics Consultant, Tasha Dannenbring, presented a session on exploring equitable strategies in student data analytics.
Day 1 further welcomed presenters such as Laura Kertz from the UC Office of the President, who discussed the potential equity shortcomings of data dashboards; and UCI’s Raven Yoshitomi and Melanie Nakanishi, who discussed UCI Student Affairs’ shift in culture from skepticism to embracing data tools, among others. Speakers on Day 2 included panelists from the University of Kansas, UMass Amherst and UCLA to discuss data-driven reforms for teaching evaluations; Columbia University professor Renzhe Yu who showcased how campus data can inform equity-oriented institutional practices around key issues in higher education; and UC San Diego Associate Vice Chancellor for Educational Innovation Carlos Jensen, who along with UCI statistician Kameryn Denaro, presented how degree curricula structure design can facilitate or inhibit student graduation outcomes. Other panelists across both days include UCI’s Vice Chancellor of Information Technology and Data Tom Andriola, along with representatives from Unizin, a consortium of higher education institutions of which UCI is a member, and representatives from across the California State University system.
The two-day event was organized by UCI Compass, UC Irvine’s cross-functional initiative focused on using state-of-the-art data tools to bring relevant student data to campus advisors, faculty and administrators with the goal of providing actionable information to ensure equitable learning experiences and improve student outcomes.