Case Study: Eindhoven University of Technology boosts online learning engagement with SURF learning analytics

Make online learning more motivating with learning analytics

Eindhoven University of Technology, represented by lecturer and researcher Uwe Matzat, sought to address challenges in online education where students often lacked motivation and lecturers struggled to identify at-risk students early while still safeguarding privacy. Their goal was to find a scalable way to improve learning outcomes for large student groups, leading them to partner with vendor SURF on the PerActiLA project.

The solution from SURF involved implementing learning analytics to identify students at risk of falling behind within just four weeks of a course starting. This was paired with short, targeted motivational mindset interventions designed to boost student engagement and self-regulation. The project successfully demonstrated that learning analytics could effectively predict student success early on and that the interventions increased engagement, though the differential impact on weak versus strong students requires further study. The results have generated significant interest from other universities, and SURF's work has improved internal collaboration at the university while providing a model that is applicable to a wide range of subjects taught to large groups.

Eindhoven University of Technology

Uwe Matzat

Lecturer and Researcher