The next BAEF session is going to be of interest to a wide audience with a subject close to many of our hearts, essay mill cheating. Our speaker, Phil Rothwell (Teaching and Learning Academy, LJMU), will outline how Canvas data can be a powerful tool for the analysis and enhancement of student engagement, system development, and teaching, learning and assessment. In this case, it also proved to be a powerful aid to police investigation. Phil will tell the story of how Canvas data was used to initiate and support an investigation into an essay and exam mill that was operating across multiple international borders and involving over 25 UK HEIs and more than 500 students. The investigation ultimately led to the seizure of millions of pounds. The presentation will explore how simple data forensics and triangulation techniques were used in partnership with Merseyside Police to help bring an end to large-scale fraud and misconduct. This was enacted via the implementation of the Skills and ...

  Greetings educators Apologies for the radio silence we have been busy behind the scenes lining up some interesting events for this year and to kick things off we have a visit from KNIME.   Save the date: Monday 24th March 5pm to 6pm Presented by Dr Stefan Helfrich   Brief Description of the Session   In this workshop, participants will learn about the basics of the low-code KNIME Analytics Platform and how they can use it to include visual workflows in their teaching. We will create a simple workflow to familiarize attendees with KNIME, followed by a more comprehensive tour of the platform highlighting the advantages of using KNIME for teaching data-related topics in educational settings. Lastly, we'll dive into a more elaborate use case featuring an interactive data app to showcase practical ap...

  This article is a shortened version of one that first appeared in the ICAEW blog in 2023  https://www.icaew.com/groups-and-networks/communities/data-analytics-community/community-insights-and-announcements Human Centric Analytics (HCA) would seem a natural paradigm to use when defining, measuring, and reporting on Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) as it ties together a holistic societal approach in tackling social and environmental sustainability, and the need for reporting and measuring the levers of change in business. What methods can we use to help us to do this? How can we ensure that behaviours are embedded alongside measurement protocols such that change becomes real, and not just a ‘tick box’ exercise, hence creating more sustainable and less risky business throughout the corporate landscape? In this months blog our founder and chair, Christina Phillips, ponders these questions. As Eli Goldratt famously said “tell me how you measure me and I’ll tell you h...

This month we are proud to present a thoughtful blog post from one of early members, Dr Sam Buxton. Sam's words resonate with our presentation earlier this year on what business analytics skills companies want and what tools they use. That talk covered the results of a survey that we ran with over 200 participants. The results showed that companies most value the ability to use spreadsheets, i.e., Excel, a solid knowledge of statistics and the ability to visualise and present data well.  Best, Chris, Chair of BAEF  As an educator of business analytics, it is important to consider the environment in which we teach. Over the summer, there have been some interesting talks on AI in education, embedding business analytics in accounting programmes and what skills and tools do companies require of business analysts. This post focuses on students’ perspectives of the tools they think they need. Teaching business analytics to non-specialists at both undergraduate and master’s levels ...

Presented by one of our board members Dr Marios Kremantzis Brief Description of the Session Marios sits on the organising committee at the BAEF and is Chair of the Operational Research Society’s OR-Analytics-Education Special Interest Group. In this session he will present current work related to two highly quantitative units that adopted Chatbot as a teaching assistant: Prescriptive Analytics as part of the MSc Business Analytics, and Mathematics for Economists, for BSc Economics students. This highly prescient subject promises to be an informative and enjoyable session with other colleagues dedicated to teaching Business Analytics well. Profile: Marios Kremantzis is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Business Analytics at the University of Bristol, where he also serves as the Program Director of the MSc Business Analytics and as Senior PGT Tutor. Additionally, he is the Co-Editor in Chief of the open-access journal Intelligent Technologies in Education (ITEd). With a PhD in Manageme...