Abstract
Research in Learning Analytics (LA) has contributed to various guidelines, recommendations, frameworks, and checklists to collect and use student data ethically. However, little is still known about how ethical issues regarding student data for analytical purposes emerge in practice. The few studies engaging students in data ethics often ask general and hypothetical questions, resulting in abstract reasoning on data ethics. Therefore, the present study aims to complement existing research by engaging students as stakeholders in contextual data-driven processes to fill this knowledge gap. It seeks to understand how students reason in situ on data collected and analyzed during their studies. In particular, this empirical study applies a pre-post intervention methodology investigating students’ views of data-driven practices. A pre-intervention questionnaire addressed general conceptions and attitudes towards data driven practices without focusing on specific contexts. The post-intervention questionnaire, which was introduced to students after interacting with an analytical dashboard designed explicitly to raise students’ awareness of data collection practices at the university, intended to investigate to what extent the experience with the dashboard introduces contextual information and alters people’s views about these practices. Results indicate that students are often unaware of the traces they leave in the Learning Management Systems and the awareness raised by the analytical dashboard enabled them to identify risks as well as opportunities for potential uses of their data. Such increased awareness impacts students’ privacy perception and the acceptance of LA systems in student activities.
This study contributes to a grounded understanding of how students reason in practical terms about their data, discusses the role that awareness and context play in students’ willingness to share their data for learning analytics purposes, and offers insights into student attitudes regarding the collection and use of their data.
Speakers bio:
Johanna Velander is a PhD student at the Department of Computer Science and Media Technology at Linnaeus university in Sweden. She is interested in data driven practices in education and its implications for stakeholders and educational practices.
Dr Nuno Otero, is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Greenwich, UK. He is interested in theories and conceptual frameworks in HCI, and Technology-Enhanced Learning. In a nutshell, the question driving his research concerns the understanding of how the properties of distinct devices, computational artefacts and embedded external representations impact on people’s activities (from work related activities to educational and ludic contexts).