Project Opportunity
In the 2022–23 Learning Management System (LMS) review, instructors and staff asked for better student learning analytics. Earlier efforts to integrate LEARN data into the institutional data lake stalled when D2L changed its data sets. We piloted Performance+ (P+)—D2L’s analytics add-on—to see if it could overcome past hurdles, surface student learning insights not in standard data sets, and how it compared to existing data-lake and Power BI approaches.
Teaching and Learning Innovation
Performance+ (P+) is a data and analytics add-on package for D2L Brightspace (known as Waterloo LEARN). P+ leverages default dashboards for common views of course activity and outcomes and an Analytics Builder to design custom reports. The pilot examined whether these tools could provide reliable, shareable insights across programs and support units, with minimal technical burden. The use of a tool like Performance+ could support many individuals including:
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Instructors seeking insight into how students are engaging with course content in LEARN.
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Academic advisors and students benefitting from predictive analytics to identify students-at-risk.
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Academic support staff engaging in curriculum development by accessing data across a program.
Incubation Timeline: August 2023 - September 2025
Project Goals
Evaluate the efficacy of Performance+ to determine how it can be used to better support UW students in their learning.
Engage in consultation with UW community to address current and future uses of learner data that could be supported with Performance+.
Determine whether Performance+ should be licensed long-term at the University of Waterloo.
Key Insights and Evidence
Who participated?
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51 instructors, staff, and academic advisors from every Faculty and 7 support units—broad representation across campus.
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Evaluation data solicited via demo participation, focus groups, surveys, and user testing.
What we experienced:
Default dashboards were hard to navigate and slow to load.
Default dashboards couldn’t be tailored; deeper customization depended on administrator-only roles.
Data-savvy users found Analytics Builder complex.
P+ is role-based within the LMS; many advisors don’t have (and shouldn’t need) course-level access, which blocked appropriate use.
The work surfaced the need to review institutional governance and retention policies before any broader rollout of LEARN analytics.
Project Team
Pam Fluttert, Director (Instructional Technology and Media Services)
Scott Anderson, Supervisor, Learning Environment (Instructional Technology and Media Services)
Daspina Fekekos, Computing Consultant (Instructional Technology and Media Services)
Sean Warren, LMS User and System Support, Learning Environment (Instructional Technology and Media Services)
Paige Doherty, Faculty Relations Manager (Student Success Office)
Matthew Babela, Faculty of Mathematics Liaison (Centre for Teaching Excellence)
Dolapo Oladiran, Project Manager (VPAF Project Management Office)
Teaching Innovation Incubator Team
Kyle Scholz, Interim Managing Director
Sarah Seabrook, Strategic Projects, Communications and Community Engagement Specialist
Jessica Hoang, Undergraduate Research Coordinator
Outcome
Based on these findings, Waterloo did not continue with Performance+ licensing.
Future work will focus on strengthening data governance and leveraging the existing data-lake + Power BI ecosystem for sustainable learning analytics. Learning analytics will continue to be explored at Waterloo through the EdTech Sandbox in the future.
Reasons for non-continuation
- Inconsistent source data across courses: Timing of grade updates and weightings, multiple test/assignment versions, vague assessment names, and uneven LEARN use produced noisy data that reduced the value of out-of-the-box dashboards.
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Policy and structural complexity: Cross-listed courses and students enrolled across Faculties complicated interpreting results and permissions.
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Not effective as middleware: Automation of data exports isn’t supported, exports are limited, and the AB learning curve (plus potential costs at scale) makes P+ a poor bridge to institutional analytics environments.
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Better fit with existing tools: Waterloo already supports Power BI and has campus expertise to build flexible, maintainable analytics that can combine LEARN with other institutional data via the data lake—replicating or exceeding P+ capabilities.