I calculate it would take someone over an hour to read all of the OU privacy policy and related documents (around 2,000 words). In your learning journal, note the issues reported in the paper that were raised by students and that you consider to be the most important. Several issues are raised by the answers given to the research questions: The most important concern in my opinion is : No informed consent opt out is available. “Do you think the…

Read More Read More

Read the OU’s policy on the ethical use of student data for learning analytics. Write a one-page summary of the key points in the policy. The Open University (OU) (2014) Policy Document outlines the reasoning for the universities use of analytics. Generally this is focussed on proactive interventions to assist students with their studies. The university has produced a policy statement with 8 principles stating how the university aims to ethically use the data gathered, provide boundaries and detail the…

Read More Read More

In your learning journal, take the problems and barriers you identified and listed in the previous two activities and map them to the steps of the ROMA framework. You could do this in the form of a list, or you could use presentation software, such as PowerPoint or Keynote, to produce visualisations of the links between steps and issues. Having read the relevant section of the Ferguson et al. (2015) paper I have listed the barriers identified in the previous…

Read More Read More

Introduction This short report will attempt to highlight the changes required in our institution to achieve the management’s ambition of supporting learning and teaching by the use of learning analytics. The field of learning analytics is a complex and rapidly evolving one. This report will hopefully provide some clarity on the current developments in learning analytics and how they could successfully be applied in our context. The definition of Learning Analytics suggested by Siemens (2010) has been stable on Wikipedia…

Read More Read More

* Dawson and Macfadyen group the reasons for lack of uptake under two headings: ‘Perceived attributes of an innovation’ and ‘The realities of university culture’. In a blog post, or in your learning journal, note the reasons they identify for lack of uptake, and choose your own headings to group them under. In the Dawson et al. (2012) paper numerous reasons for the lack of uptake of the findings of data studies are given. The reasons for this are listed…

Read More Read More

Return to the article that you began reading in Activity 15: Ferguson and Buckingham Shum (2012), Social learning analytics: five approaches. Finish reading the article and make notes on the different types of socialised learning analytic and how they might be implemented. Social learning network analytics The Ferguson et al. (2012) paper notes that Social Learning Analytics (SLAs) may be implemented using the (now defunct) SNAPP tool (Social Networks Adapting Pedagogical Practice). This tool produces visualisations of forum contributions to…

Read More Read More

* Note what the authors aimed to do in the paper, and what their main findings were. The authors Dawson et al. (2014) aimed to discover a framework of sorts to make sense of the many methodologies and approaches to studying learning analytics. They found divergence in the computing and education approaches to analytics research as reflected in the published works form the LAK conferences. The abstract also highlights the conceptual nature of the commonly references research works. * Now…

Read More Read More

Try creating your own social network diagram. Take a recent thread in the tutor group forum, which includes six or more postings, and sketch it as a network diagram. Note who appears to be central to the discussion. It’s quite frustrating that the SNAPP project is defunct so there seems to be no opportunity to actually acquire the tool. I can’t find a code repository but there may be one somewhere. The best I could do was get a waybackmachine…

Read More Read More

Read this short paper that provides an introduction to social network visualisations and to the SNAPP tool: Bakharia et al. (2009), Social networks adapting pedagogical practice: SNAPP. In your learning journal, or blog, make a note of the things that can be revealed by a network diagram of students’ discussions. The authors identify six – you may be able to think of more. Use these as headings and, under each one, note how this information could be used to support…

Read More Read More

* Prepare slides for a ten-minute presentation that can be used to explain to staff what social learning analytics are, why they are becoming more important and the benefits they may offer. Use suitable software, such as PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi or something else you know well. [ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”2″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_thumbnails” override_thumbnail_settings=”1″ thumbnail_width=”120″ thumbnail_height=”80″ thumbnail_crop=”1″ images_per_page=”0″ number_of_columns=”4″ ajax_pagination=”0″ show_all_in_lightbox=”0″ use_imagebrowser_effect=”0″ show_slideshow_link=”1″ slideshow_link_text=”[Show slideshow]” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]My target audience for this presentation would be lecturing and professional development staff in my…

Read More Read More