Tom Penniston Promoted to Coordinator of Learning Analytics

I am pleased to announce that Tom Penniston has accepted a new position as DoIT’s Coordinator of Learning Analytics. 

In his new role, Tom will continue and extend his work to leverage institutional, academic, and learning analytics to inform course redesigns and improve student engagement and success. He will collaborate closely with DoIT’s Analytics and Business Intelligence team, the Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support (IRADS), and of course faculty, including recipients of learning analytics “mini-grants” (the next CFP is due 6/3/22), part of the UMBC’s Learning Analytics Community of Practice.

We are also pleased to announce that Tom has been accepted into this year’s competitive Learning Analytics in STEM Education Research (LASER) Institute hosted at NC State. More than 260 applications were received, and successful recipients also receive a $1,500 travel award and stipend. Before the pandemic, Tom had also completed the 2017 “Learn Lab”  summer institute at Carnegie Mellon University.

In addition to writing several analytics-related DoIT News stories, Tom recently co-authored a chapter, “Scaling Course Design as Learning Analytics Variable” (UMBC Box version), and has presented at both the EDUCAUSE and American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual conferences.

Please join me in congratulating Tom on his new role.

John Fritz
Assoc. Vice President, Instructional Technology
Division of Information Technology