UCI Spark: Product Overview
This page provides a guided tour of UCI Spark as it is experienced by the students who use it. If you have any questions or would like a demo, please contact the UCI Spark team at spark-support@uci.edu.
Getting Started
Students can access spark by going directly to the website, https://spark.uci.edu, or by clicking the ‘UCI Spark' icon on the blue UCI Canvas side navigation bar.
Launching Spark in Canvas opens Spark inside the Canvas environment via an LTI integration. This provides much the same experience as visiting directly, except that the Course Analytics and Library features will open in a new tab.
Upon opening Spark, students are greeted by a Welcome Questionnaire on their first visit of the quarter and then proceed to their Dashboard. From there, they can navigate to Course Analytics for their classes or browse the entire Spark Library.
Spark Library
UCI Spark has been loaded with a library of student-oriented opportunities and resources from all around campus. These resources are referred to as "sparks" in the hopes that they will "spark" the students who see them into action. Clicking a spark leads to a relevant website for that service. Behind the scenes, each spark has student targeting criteria that include factors like the student's major, current and past course enrollment and grades, the time of quarter/year, and engagement with the LMS, which come into play in the student's Dashboard.
The Spark Library allows you to browse all the sparks that are available in the system. Note that the Library is available to anyone with a UCI login.
Sparks are organized into 5 distinct categories:
- Connecting & Engaging: related to involvement in cocurricular activities like clubs and events
- Learning & Studying: related to academic success
- Preparing for the Future: related to career readiness and employment/internship opportunities
- Wellbeing & Thriving: related to mental and physical health and life skills
- Writing & Communicating: related to developing interpersonal and communication skills
In addition to making it easier to browse sparks by interest, these categories reflect Spark's commitment to supporting all aspects of the student experience and success.
The ‘History' tab shows all the sparks that the student has clicked and includes analytics revealing their degree of interest across the five categories. There is also a ‘Favorites' tab that allows students to see all their bookmarked sparks.
Dashboard
The Dashboard provides up to four recommended opportunities and resources for this student. The sparks displayed to students are determined weekly from the Spark Library.
Each week, Spark uses the targeting criteria associated with each spark to calculate the top sparks for this student and presents them in the Dashboard. A student can be assured that if they are seeing a resource here, it's a good fit for them and worth looking into. The dashboard also takes spark categories into account in the selection process in order to diversify the support types presented.
In the left column, the ‘Course Analytics' section contains links for each course that this student is enrolled in that take them to analytics for the associated Canvas course space. The ‘Favorites' section provides an index of sparks that this student has saved for future reference.
Course Analytics
The first time that a student visits their analytics for a particular course, they will be prompted to select a goal grade and optionally enter a personal goal for the class and indicate their sense of preparedness. Research shows that taking a moment to reflect on goals and preparedness for a course supports more thoughtful preparation for the course and leads to better outcomes. These responses will also be used in the future to generate course analytics that are tailored to this student's definition of success.
After responding to the course questionnaire, students will have access to their course analytics. At the top of the page there is a reminder of the student's goal for this class. Below that, several visualizations provide views into how the student is engaging with the course space. It is currently based on activity data (including number of visits to the course space, session duration, and assignment submission rate) that is available in Canvas, but will be expanded in the future to include more diverse types of class participation. We are actively working on integrating data sources and designing visualizations that will be added over the course of the year.
The course analytics page provides information and context to help students plan and prioritize their engagement with each course. We are working with campus experts to iterate on these analytics with the ultimate goal of providing actionable,evidence-backed guidance to encourage students to develop effective academic habits. We are also actively soliciting feedback from students to build upon what resonates with them and to ensure that data is being presented in a way that is informative and motivating.
We recognize that students have different motivations and may respond differently to the same analytics. Currently, students have the option of turning off their visualizations. In the future, when comparative analytics are added, their display will be optional.
Quarterly Welcome Questionnaire
On the first visit to Spark of the quarter, students are presented with a brief questionnaire. These questions can be changed each quarter and are intended to help with targeting opportunities, to drive analytics, and to support research. The questionnaires during the pilot year are being used to establish a baseline for measuring Spark's efficacy and identifying needs where Spark can provide more support.
Pilot Year
The 2024-25 academic year is UCI Spark's pilot year. During this time, we are soliciting feedback, analyzing usage, and actively iterating upon and growing out features and content. We welcome all feedback and suggestions! If you have something to share, please contact spark-support@uci.edu.