Open University Analysis on Tableau

Open University Learning Analytics Dataset contains data about courses, students and their demographics, grades etc for seven modules of about 30,000 enrolled students. Using Tableau’s data visualisation, we spot trends such as student demographics, gender preferences for certain Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM) and social science courses, student behaviour approaching assignment submission deadlines, grades and others. Once developed, Tableau visualisation dashboard allows interactive engagement with the data to explore and discover the trends. Some trends are obvious like urban dwellers prefer Open University online courses as they can study while still working. Other trends are counter-intuitive like STEM courses which are gender neutral. Yet other trends are more striking when visualised like the great number of students submitting assignments at the deadline itself. Based on these findings, three broad recommendations are made on targeted recruitment based on student demographics, module transformation to avoid a mad rush of students handing in assignments at the deadline, and empowerment of the weaker students.