Using visual analytics to explore Community Engaged Learning and Teaching at the University of Otago

Abstract

Community Engaged Learning and Teaching (CELT) is an interdisciplinary practice involving students and the wider community. Through CELT, students acquire skills that may not be so readily learned in formal classwork. Practitioners at this university came together to promote CELT to the wider institution, but faced difficulty in clearly defining the boundaries of the practice. To aid the development of a shared understanding of CELT, practitioners engaged in a process of ‘visual analytics’. This method involved analysing data on CELT programmes through the collaborative development of interactive visualisations. In the end, the visual analytics approach proved useful for co-constructing a shared understanding of the CELT space.