10.3.2 Qualitative data analysis

If you are unable to access digital analytics for your course and would still like to find out the kind of information that will give you insight into geographical location and types of access, you can achieve much by running short surveys on your course for free. The OpenLearn team at The Open University uses SurveyMonkey to administer start and end of course surveys that ask learners to (anonymously) disclose their motivations for study, demographic information, aspirations, challenges and suggestions for improvement. It is a simple and highly effective way of gathering the kind of data that will make the difference to you when reviewing your course.

Such methods also provide the ability to extract data, pre-packaged into tidy graphs, user comments and spreadsheets illustrating key data, without the need to be a statistician, but providing the opportunity for deeper analysis if required.