Location: Frio (The Commons)

Description: This workshop is designed for educators and educational leaders who are not data scientists but who need or want to know more about learning analytics and how it may support teaching and learning in their own context. What do we mean by ‘learning analytics’? What data is used? How are the data manipulated? Can we trust what learning analytics tell us about our learners or our courses? Are there ethical issues we should consider before undertaking such data analyses? And which tools might be more or less useful for analyzing data in meaningful ways?

Activities:

Workshop goals: Understand how and why the field of learning analytics has developed. Ferguson, R. (2012). Learning analytics: Drivers, developments and challenges. International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 4(5/6), 304-317. http://oro.open.ac.uk/36374/ Lang, C., Wise, A. F., Merceron, A., Gašević, D., & Siemens, G. (2022). What is learning analytics? In C. Lang, G. Siemens, A. F. Wise, D. Gašević, & A. Merceron (Eds.), The handbook of learning analytics (Second ed., pp. 8-18). SoLAR. https://www.solaresearch.org/publications/hla-22/hla22-chapter1/ Consider who the stakeholders are in learning analytics, and the different purposes for which learning analytics might be employed. Investigate some current learning analytics processes and tools, and consider the claims made about their utility and value and relation to learners and learning. Consider ethical dilemmas that related to the use of learning analytics and learning data.

Workshop Leader: Leah Macfadyen, University of British Columbia