What is LARC?
The Learning Analytics Data Architecture (LARC) Data Set is a research-focused data set containing information about students who have attended the University of Michigan since the mid-1990s. The data is meant to help answer typical learning analytics questions about students, their academic careers, and their class outcomes. The data is divided into that which is constant throughout a student's academic career (e.g., ethnicity, SAT test scores, high school GPA, and earned degrees), that which can change from term to term (e.g., academic level, academic career, term GPA, and enrolled credits), and that which can change from class to class (e.g., subject, catalog number, earned grade, etc.).
Who Can Use It?
The LARC Data Set is available to U-M investigators who have obtained Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval and signed a memorandum of understanding (see link below) describing their specific research interests.
Requests to access the LARC data set should be emailed to [email protected] and will be reviewed by U-M data stewards.
Requestors can ask for the following roles:
- LARC Student Info - for research projects like investigating trends and outcomes over time
- LARC Student Info with Identities - for research projects that include non-LARC data like external surveys, learning technology data, etc.
Once access is granted, requester will receive access to Oracle tables for direct database access and the LARC Student folder for flat files.
How to Use It?
For guidance on connecting to the LARC database, finding flat files in the LARC Student folder joining LARC data with other data sources, and more, visit the LARC Frequently Asked Questions page from ITS. A comprehensive data dictionary is also available for review.