Learning Analytics Current Stand and Perspectives in IFI

Kairit Tammets13th May, 2015

Background – how did I meet LA

• I met EMMA:– LA for supporting facilitators and learners;– LA analyzing MOOC experience and usage of EMMA;– xAPI standard and Learning Record Store;– Collaboration with three developer teams between Italy

and Estonia• I met HoTEL project (Holistic Approach to

Technology Enhanced Learning) – expert meeting in London March 2014;

• I met LACE project

LACE

• LACE – Learning Analytics Community Exchange

• EU funded community building project;• Aims:– Promote knowledge creation and exchange of LA;– Increase the evidence base;– Contribute to the definition of future directions;– Build consensus on interoperability and data

sharing

LACE partners

• Partners:– Open Universiteit Nederland, NL; – Cetis, the Centre for Educational Technology and Interoperability

Standards at the University of Bolton, UK; – Institute for Educational Technology at the Open University, UK; – Infinity Technology Solutions, IT; – Skolverket, the Swedish National Agency for Education, SE;– Kennisnet, NL;– Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus, NO; – ATiT, Audiovisual Technologies, Informatics and Telecommunications,

BE; – EDEN, the European Distance Education Network, UK

• TLU: Associated partner (around 40 associated partners)

Joint actions with LACE

• Learning analytics Summer Institute, Utrecht;• Learning Analytics Data Sharing Workshop @ EcTel

conference, Graz 2014;• Open Learning Analytics Network - Summit, Amsterdam,

December 2014;• LAK15 presentation – European perspective of LA;• LACE briefing on learning analytics, Brussels, April 2015;• Eramus+ PiPA (Privacy in Policy & Action) – not submitted

because of the bureaucracy;• COST Action proposal;• Contribution to their deliverable on Data sharing in LA;

Learning Analytics Summer Institute, Utrecht (1)

• Stefan Mol and Gábor Kismihók from the University of Amsterdam:– practical experience with xAPI and Learning Record

Store (developing own LRS, not using existing one);– experiences with LA tools (UvA Mirror (Coach), qDNA)– data is everywhere, but accessibility is the issue and

legal and ethical issues are on the agenda;– In Netherlands the LA is national level important

direction and funds are available for the R&D activities .

Learning Analytics Summer Institute, Utrecht (2)

• Hendrik Draschler and Maren Scheffel from Open University of Netherlands:– Demonstrated their studies among LA stakeholders in

Netherlands:• 70% of the teachers/educators are sure that students are not

able to learn from the learning analytics;• Study on LA quality indicators demonstrated that LA experts

consider LA important mainly because it provides the learning and outcome support and raises the students’ awareness of learning.

• Interesting method: group concept mapping and point mapping• http://www.ifets.info/journals/17_4/8.pdf

Learning Analytics Summer Institute, Utrecht (3)

• Workshop guided by Dr Jeroen Donkers from WatchMe project;• MOOC about educational management is being conducted for

the second time. Drop-out of the course is high, small groups do not work optimal way and participants complain that content does not fit to their actual situation;

• Ideas:– find out in the early stages the background of the participants (pre-

screening of the participants); – monitor the progress and redesign the course including recommending

the suitable materials based on the history and background, relevant study peers and study groups;

– post-evaluate the course.

Learning Analytics Summer Institute, Utrecht (4)

• Dr Ulriche Hoppe (University Essen-Duisburg): “Beyond the obvious – advanced analytics tools and applications in educational contexts”

• Obvious LA: frequencies of the activities, participation, enrollment;

• Non-obvious LA: analysis of sequences and paths that users are stepping on;

• LA methodologies: activity analysis, artefact analysis and network analysis;

• It is not important to visualize everything to the users –complex SNAs or patterns is relevant for the researchers.

Learning Analytics Summer Institute, Utrecht (5)

• Alan Berg (APEREO), Hendrik Draschler (OuNL) and Sander Latour – Experiences with xAPI and LRS similar what we

planned for eDidaktikum: dashboard that provides overview of activities, comparison with others and recommendations;

– LTI protocol - allows to embed application to existing LMS and which works well with the xAPI standard;

– Caliper – framework and its relation with the xAPI.

LADS Workshop @ Ec-tel

• Organized by Adam Cooper, Tore Hoel and Hendrik Draschler

• Presentation of EMMA LA approach;• Group work about one data sharing scenario

with the possible challenges, risks, possibilities;• Informal learning – how to collect data in

different systems and use it for supporting me and for data sharing to support the LA

Open Learning Analytics Network - Summit, Amsterdam

• the most obvious aspect of open in the context of LA is the reuse of code (and documentation) that others have created;

• open APIs in LA products;• interoperability of different systems;• vibrant community of people and institutions

who are willing to share.

Open Learning Analytics Network - Summit, Amsterdam

• Aim:– Work of different problems around OLA;– Define research questions of OLA in distributed

learning environment;– Identify possible funding schemas:• H2020;• Eramus+• COST• Local funds

LACE Spring briefing• Policies for Educational Data Mining and Learning Analytics Briefing;• Target group: policy makers and LA research community;• Opened by representatives of EC – data protection, LA as a method of

improving learning• Ward, Julie - If we can use big data for better advertising, we should also

be able to use it for better education • A lot of representatives on data protection, security• Keynote: Dragan Gašević• Projects:

– LACE;– Lea’s Box;– PELARS;– WatchME

LACE Spring briefing

• Dragan Gašević:– LA is not about measurement– WHY – to optimize learning and the environment it

happens;– LA mainly addressed for non-traditional learners

(workplace, MOOCs, informal) – 21. cent. learners;– Lack of LA large scale implementations;– Study in 2012 – big interest in LA, only few initiatives that

are systematically implemented in organization;– Researchers do not focus on scalability – a lot of cool work,

scaling not in focus

LACE Spring briefing

• Workshops on policy recommendations in the field of K12, HE and workplace learning:– LA to become more research questions centered, WHY is

important– Democratic control:

• Consents – what data by whom for what purpose;• Ownership of data – who owns data, who thinks he owns data;• Transparency – algorithms, analysis, dashboards;• Privacy

– Need for best practices and living labs – evidences why and how LA works!

SoLAR

• Society of Learning Analytics Research;• Chair: Dragan Gašević;• Organizer of:– Learning Analytics Summer Institutes;– Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference;– SoLAR Flare

• Initiatives:– Journal of Learning Analytics;– Open Learning Analytics

LA in IFI

• More or less all the projects have planned LA element:– Learning Layers – semantic relations, scaffold of workplace learning– Learnmix, LePlanner - analyses the interaction between users and

learning content– eDidaktikum - feedback to learners and course designers and to

conduct retrospective analysis of users’ engagement with the system– Edufeedr – social network analysis, progress based on performance– Dippler - connects assignments with learning outcomes through the

use of domain taxonomy based keywords, enabling contextualised analysis of learning interactions.

– …

LA interests

• “Non-obvious” learning analytics techniques;• Learning analytics in MOOCs;• How to give control of data to users –

technical and policy level;• How to integrate LA to policy-making and

educational research;• …

What next?

• Initiating Estonian Learning Analytics Special Interest Group (under SoLAR) - Name?

• LA Summer Institutes start next months– shall we organize ours?

• We need national level implementation – e.g. eDidaktikum;

• Initiating policy discussions;• PhD students – with technical background;• Twinning, Era Chair, Cost

Thank you!Kairit Tammetskairit@tlu.ee