Within the 35th jubilee international Central European Conference on Information and Intelligent Systems (CECIIS), which is held in Varaždin, a work meeting and workshop of the project financed by the Croatian Science Foundation entitled "HELA - Improving HEI maturity to implement learning analytics" was held.

The project leader is Full Prof. Nina Begičević Ređep, Ph. D. and the co-leader is Full Prof. Diana Šimić, Ph. D., both from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Organization and Informatics (UNIZG FOI).

The meeting and workshop took place on 19th September 2024. Members of the project team from FOI, as well as deans and vice-deans from several Croatian higher education institutions participated in the work meeting and workshop.

The meeting was opened by the project leader, Full Prof. Nina Begičević Ređep, Ph. D. who presented the purpose, objectives, activities and results achieved in the last three years of the HELA project to those present. Through a detailed review, she highlighted the contribution of the project in raising awareness of the importance of the application of learning analytics as well as the maturity of higher education institutions for the implementation of learning analytics. She also emphasized the results in the field of planning and decision-making agility in higher education.

She also highlighted the contributions made in the development of the maturity framework for the implementation of learning analytics in a hybrid environment, as well as the ongoing activities aimed at the successful completion of the project, planned for February 2025. She especially emphasized the importance of cooperation with different higher education institutions in the development of methodology.

It was also announced that by the end of the project, the project team will conduct two field researches at Croatian universities and three field researches at European universities, in order to gather additional data needed for maturity analysis and development of the framework and agility of higher education institutions.

After the work meeting, a workshop entitled "Agility in planning and decision-making in higher education" was held. The workshop was attended by deans and vice-deans, who, through a constructive discussion, together with the HELA project team, participated in a focus group and interviews related to the topic of agility of higher education institutions and learning analytics.

The CECIIS conference, as well as the work on the HELA project, provide an excellent platform for exchanging experiences and promoting innovation in the field of education and digital technologies.

The research project (IP-2020-02-5071) "HELA – Raising the Maturity of Higher Education Institutions for the Implementation of Learning Analytics" is financed by the Croatian Science Foundation. The value of the project is €103,023.43, and the duration is four years. The third and last period of the project lasts from September 1, 2023 to February 28, 2025. During the 48 months of project implementation, the team participated in the publication of over 36 scientific research papers, 2 doctoral theses and 15 undergraduate and graduate theses.