Learning Analytics as a Service for Empowered Learners: From Data Subjects to Controllers

As Learning Analytics (LA) in the higher education setting increasingly transitions from a field of research to an implemented matter of fact of the learner's experience, the demand of practical guidelines to support its development is rising. LA Policies bring together different perspectives, like the ethical and legal dimensions, into frameworks to guide the way. Usually the first time learners get in touch with LA is at the act of consenting to the LA tool. Utilising an ethical (TRUESSEC) and a legal framework (GDPR), we question whether sincere consent is possible in the higher education setting. Drawing upon this premise, we then show how it might be possible to recognise the autonomy of the learner by providing LA as a service, rather than an intervention. This could indicate a paradigm shift towards the learner as empowered demander. At last, we show how this might be incorporated within the GDPR by also recognising the demand of the higher education institutions to use the learner's data at the same time. These considerations will in the future influence the development of our own LA policy: a LA criteria catalogue.

[1]  M. Cannarsa.  Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI , 2021, The Cambridge Handbook of Lawyering in the Digital Age.

[2]  The Marketisation of Higher Education , 2021 .

[3]  Kyle M. L. Jones.  Learning analytics and higher education: a proposed model for establishing informed consent mechanisms to promote student privacy and autonomy , 2019, International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education.

[4]  Paul Prinsloo,et al.  Learning analytics at the intersections of student trust, disclosure and benefit , 2019, LAK.

[5]  Alan Tait,et al.  Global guidelines : Ethics in Learning Analytics , 2019 .

[6]  Dragan Gasevic,et al.  The SHEILA Framework: Informing Institutional Strategies and Policy Processes of Learning Analytics , 2018, Journal of Learning Analytics.

[7]  P. Prinsloo,et al.  Student Consent in Learning Analytics , 2018, Learning Analytics in Higher Education.

[8]  Edith Braun,et al.  Student Engagement , 2018 .

[9]  Niall Sclater,et al.  The complexities of developing a personal code of ethics for learning analytics practitioners: implications for institutions and the field , 2018, LAK.

[10]  Siân E. Jones,et al.  The student-as-consumer approach in higher education and its effects on academic performance , 2017 .

[11]  Dai Griffiths,et al.  The influence of data protection and privacy frameworks on the design of learning analytics systems , 2017, LAK.

[12]  Martin Ebner,et al.  Learning Analytics in Higher Education—A Literature Review , 2017 .

[13]  Leah Macfadyen,et al.  What Does a Learning Analytics Practitioner Need to Know? , 2017, MLA/BLAC@LAK.

[14]  Joel A. Howell,et al.  Student Attitudes toward Learning Analytics in Higher Education: “The Fitbit Version of the Learning World” , 2016, Front. Psychol..

[15]  Niall Sclater,et al.  Developing a Code of Practice for Learning Analytics , 2016, J. Learn. Anal..

[16]  Christina M. Steiner,et al.  LEA in Private: A Privacy and Data Protection Framework for a Learning Analytics Toolbox , 2016 .

[17]  Martin Ebner,et al.  De-Identification in Learning Analytics , 2016 .

[18]  Andrew Cormack,et al.  A Data Protection Framework for Learning Analytics , 2016, J. Learn. Anal..

[19]  Paul Prinsloo,et al.  Student perspectives on the use of their data: between intrusion, surveillance and care , 2015 .

[20]  George Siemens,et al.  Ethical and privacy principles for learning analytics , 2014, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[21]  Austin Gibbons,et al.  Learning Analytics , 2014, Encyclopedia of Social Network Analysis and Mining.

[22]  Fred H. Cate,et al.  Notice and consent in a world of Big Data , 2013 .

[23]  Paul Prinsloo,et al.  An evaluation of policy frameworks for addressing ethical considerations in learning analytics , 2013, LAK '13.

[24]  Dear Mr Sotiropoulos.  ARTICLE 29 Data Protection Working Party , 2013 .

[25]  George Siemens,et al.  Learning analytics: envisioning a research discipline and a domain of practice , 2012, LAK.

[26]  M. Molesworth,et al.  The Marketisation of Higher Education and the Student as Consumer , 2011 .

[27]  A. McCulloch.  The student as co‐producer: learning from public administration about the student–university relationship , 2009 .