The document discusses key challenges in the field of learning analytics, including connecting analytics to pedagogy and learning science, developing ethical guidelines, focusing on learner perspectives, and addressing issues of consent, privacy, equality and data ownership. It presents ten reflection questions to prompt thinking on these challenges, such as how pedagogy links to analytics work, the problems analytics aim to solve for learners, important ethical decisions made, and potential changes in response to the challenges. Six core challenges are also summarized: building learning science connections, using diverse data sets, considering learner views, establishing ethics protocols, ensuring consent and safeguarding, and promoting equality and data control.
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Ethical challenges for learning analytics
1. Rebecca Ferguson
The Open University, UK
Learning analytics:
facing up to the challenges
slideshare.net/R3beccaF
@NYU_LEARN
2. Learning analytics
The measurement, collection,
analysis and reporting of data
about learners and their
contexts, for purposes of
understanding and optimizing
learning and the environments
in which it occurs.
3. Ethics
• What is worth
seeking — that is,
what ends or goals
of life are good?
• What are
individuals
responsible for —
that is, what
duties should they
recognize and
attempt to fulfill?
Willis, Pistilli & Campbell. (2013).
Ethics, big data, and analytics.
Educause Review Online
4. Learning analytics help us
to identify and make sense
of patterns in the data
to improve our teaching,
our learning and
our learning environments
5. Privacy
A living concept made out of
continuous personal
boundary negotiations with
the surrounding ethical
environment.
Privacy can be understood
as a freedom from
unauthorized intrusion: the
ability of an individual or a
group to seclude themselves
or the information about
them, and thus to express
themselves selectively.
Ferguson, Hoel, Scheffel, & Drachsler (2016). Ethics and privacy in learning analytics.
6. Privacy & data protection
Willis, Pistilli & Campbell. (2013).
Ethics, big data, and analytics.
Educause Review Online
From the perspective of
data protection, data are
treated as property. From
the perspective of privacy,
data are much more
personal, almost a part of
the self and certainly very
bound up with the sense of
self. If we reveal these
data, we reveal ourselves.
Ferguson, Hoel, Scheffel, & Drachsler (2016). Ethics and privacy in learning analytics.
7. Build strong connections
with the learning sciences
Under-represented in early work:
• cognition
• metacognition
• pedagogy.
Understanding and optimising learning
require knowledge of:
• how learning takes place
• how it can be supported
• the importance of factors such as
identity, reputation and affect.
Learning analytics could help develop:
• good learning design
• effective pedagogy
• increasing student self-awareness.
Challenges: http://oro.open.ac.uk/36374/
Teaching with analytics: https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2019.62.4
Keywords
learning analytics
analytics use
data-informed decision making
instructional improvement
instructional dashboards
pedagogical support
teaching analytics
learning analytics design
learning analytics implementation
Challenges: 2012
8. H
Reflection opportunity
How do you make
the links between
pedagogy and
learning analytics in
your work?
How could you make
them more clearly?
@NYU_LEARN
9. Develop
methods of
working with a
wide range of
datasets
in order to
optimise
learning
environments
Challenges: 2012
“…automated techniques are able to
extract information with an efficiency that
is beyond the capabilities of human-
coders, providing the means to deal
analytically with the multiple modalities
that characterize the classroom. Once
generated, the information provided by
the different modalities is used to explain
and predict high-level constructs such as
students’ attention and engagement.”
Chan, Ochoa, Clarke (2020): Multimodal Learning Analytics in a Laboratory Classroom
11. Focus on the
perspectives of learners
Criteria for learning success could include:
• grades
• persistence
• motivation
• confidence
• enjoyment
• satisfaction
• career goals.
Analytics for learners:
• personalised,
• easily understood
• clearly linked with improving learning
• transparent
• open to challenge
• two-way process.
John Knox, LARC: http://bit.ly/lak17-practitioner-trackChallenges: 2012
12. H
Reflection opportunity
What does success
look like from your
learners’ perspective?
How could your
analytics do more to
help your learners
achieve their goals?
@NYU_LEARN
13. Develop and apply a clear
set of ethical guidelines
No detailed ethical
framework has been
developed for
learning analytics.
This is a pressing need
for the field, and each
researcher could play
a part here by
including a clear
section on ethics
within their papers
and publications.
Drivers, developments and challenges http://oro.open.ac.uk/36374/Challenges: 2012
https://lak20laprinciples.weebly.com/
14. H
Reflection opportunity
What are the most
important ethical
decisions you have
made about learning
analytics?
How could you share
these?
@NYU_LEARN
25. Challenge one: duty to act
Use data and
analytics
whenever they
can contribute to
learner success,
ensuring that the
analytics take into
account all that is
known about
learning and
teaching.
Co-designing: https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2019.62.3
If you could have any
superpowers you
wanted, to help you do
your job, what would
they be?
26. H
Reflection opportunity
When do the learners
and educators you
work with really need
analytics and data?
What would happen
if they no longer had
access to analytics
and data?
@NYU_LEARN
27. Challenge two: informed consent
Equip learners and
educators with
data literacy skills,
so they are
sufficiently
informed to give or
withhold consent
to the use of data
and analytics.
Data literacy skills include the ability
to read, work with, analyse and
argue with data.
Image: Center for Spatial Research (via MOMA)
28. Challenge two: informed consent
www.cnet.com • www.vice.com
At least 10 schools across the US have
installed radio frequency scanners, which
pick up on the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals
from students' phones and track them with
accuracy down to about one meter, or just
over three feet, said Nadir Ali, CEO of indoor
data tracking company Inpixon.
30. Challenge three: safeguarding
Take a proactive
approach to
safeguarding in an
increasingly data-
driven society,
identifying potential
risks, and taking
action to limit them.
21 February, 2020: “There have been over
1.3 million threat alerts at the OU so far in
2020” (Inside Track – internal newsletter)
31. Challenge three: safeguarding
Data may be:
• inaccurate
• mislabelled
• mistyped
• incomplete
• poorly chosen
• biased sample
• out of date
qz.com
33. Challenge four: equality and justice
Work towards
increased
equality and
justice,
expanding
awareness of
ways in which
analytics have
the potential to
increase or
decrease these.
https://xkcd.com/1838 • slide from Jutta Treviranus, CC BY-NC 4.0
34. Challenge four: equality and justice
Slide from Jutta Treviranus • CC BY-NC 4.0 • @juttatrevira • inclusivedesign.ca
36. Challenge five: data ownership
Increase
understanding of
the value,
ownership, and
control of data.
37. Challenge 5: data ownership
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk • https://xkcd.com/1998
38. H
Reflection opportunity
If your learners read at
250 words per minute,
how long does it take
to find and read your
data protection and
privacy policies?
Is that the ideal time?
@NYU_LEARN
39. Challenge six: integrity of self
Increase the agency
of learners and
educators in
relation to the
use and
understanding of
educational data.
43. 1. How do you make the links between pedagogy and learning analytics in your own work?
How could you make them more clearly?
2. Which problem does your work solve for learners? How did they solve that problem in
the past?
3. What does success look like from your learners’ perspective? How could your analytics
do more to help your learners achieve their goals?
4. What are the most important ethical decisions you have made about learning analytics?
How could you share these?
5. When do the learners and educators you work with really need analytics and data? What
would happen if they no longer had access to analytics and data?
6. What data is being collected about you right now? Why is it being collected?
7. When have you provided inaccurate or incomplete data about yourself? Why did you do
that?
8. What assumptions does your work make about learners, their actions, their priorities,
their aims, or their dreams?
9. If your learners read at 250 words per minute, how long does it take to find and read
your data protection and privacy policies? Is that the ideal time?
10. What one change might you make to your work in response to these challenges?
The ten reflections
44. 1. Build strong connections with the learning sciences
2. Develop methods of working with a wide range of datasets in order to optimise learning
environments
3. Focus on the perspectives of learners
4. Develop and apply a clear set of ethical guidelines
1. Use data and analytics whenever they can contribute to learner success, ensuring that
the analytics take into account all that is known about learning and teaching
2. Equip learners and educators with data literacy skills, so they are sufficiently informed to
give or withhold consent to the use of data and analytics.
3. Take a proactive approach to safeguarding in an increasingly data-driven society,
identifying potential risks, and taking action to limit them.
4. Work towards increased equality and justice, expanding awareness of ways in which
analytics have the potential to increase or decrease these.
5. Increase understanding of the value, ownership, and control of data.
6. Increase the agency of learners and educators in relation to the use and understanding
of educational data
The ten challenges
Editor's Notes
The full report on this research is available online at this link. Here, I shall run briefly through the eight provocations to give you an idea of how learning analytics might develop during the next decade
Provocation 1: Learners are monitored by their learning environments
Provocation 1 relates to a world in which almost anything a learner uses can be used to collect data about their activities
People saw how this vision could be connected with sensor technology and the Internet of Things. They also raised the issue of Big Brother watching over learners and controlling what they do
Provocation 2: Learners’ personal data are tracked
Provocation 2 deals not with external data but with internal data. Information about where students are looking, how they are reacting to stimuli, what their heart rate is. The picture shows the Mindlfex game in which the blue ball is controlled by the user’s brainwaves – which suggests we are moving towards being able to detect thought patterns
Respondents linked this to the notion of the ‘quantified self’, and to activity in the field of medicine. They called for a reliable evidence base, which is an idea found in many of the responses to diffferent visions.
Provocation 3: Analytics are rarely used
Provocation 3 is a negative one from the point of view of learning analytics. It suggests that there will be so many problems and controversial stories that learning analytics are no longer used in ten years time. The image refers to the multi-million dollar inBloom project, funded by the Gates Foundation, which had to close due to srong opposition from parents.
Issues here of ethics, and of WHY the analytics are being developed and applied
Provocation 4: Learners control their own data
Provocation 4 is concerned with who owns the data. Should it be owned and controlled by individual learners?
Divergent opinions here. Some people think learners should control their data and that organisations should make this possible and desirable. Others think that this will make the data unusable and that it just adds needless extra responsibilities to the work of students
Provocation 5: Open systems are widely adopted
Provocation 5 is to do with getting learning analytics, and their related systems, to talk to each other and to understand each other. It also ties in with building a developer community.
In order for this open approach to be possible, a lot of work needs to be done at local and national levels.
Provocation 6: Learning analytics are essential tools
Provocation 6 sees the role for learning analytics increasing, so that all learners are supported by a mound of data
However, this requires thought about what it means to learn, how learning takes place, and how learning analytics support that process
Provocation 7: Analytics help learners make the right choices
Provocation 7 sees a positive role for analytics, with control remaining in the hands of the learners.
Although this sounds a positive future, respondents could see potential problems.
Provocation 8: Analytics have largely replaced teachers
The final provocation sees analytics replacing teachers
Any teacher that can be replaced by a computer deserves to be. This is a rewording by David Thornburg of the original Arthur C Clarke quote (“Teachers that can be replaced by a machine should be.”)
Again, this prompts consideration of how learning takes place and how it can best be supported
Provocation 8: Analytics have largely replaced teachers
The final provocation sees analytics replacing teachers
Any teacher that can be replaced by a computer deserves to be. This is a rewording by David Thornburg of the original Arthur C Clarke quote (“Teachers that can be replaced by a machine should be.”)
Again, this prompts consideration of how learning takes place and how it can best be supported
These provocations are from Neil Selwyn, Monash University
These provocations are from Neil Selwyn, Monash University
These provocations are from Neil Selwyn, Monash University
These provocations are from Neil Selwyn, Monash University
These provocations are from Neil Selwyn, Monash University
These provocations are from Neil Selwyn, Monash University
These provocations are from Neil Selwyn, Monash University
These provocations are from Neil Selwyn, Monash University
These provocations are from Neil Selwyn, Monash University
These provocations are from Neil Selwyn, Monash University
These provocations are from Neil Selwyn, Monash University