governing by data: considerations on the role of learning analytics in education
TRANSCRIPT
11111111
GOVERNING BY DATA
1 © 2016 Ipsos.
Considerations on the role of learning analytics in education
Rosanna De Rosa (Università di Napoli Federico II)Chiara Ferrari(Ipsos Group)
2
Teaching in the digital era is characterized by a predominance of complexity
Physical vs. digital spaces Production vs. consumption
Formal vs. informal just to name a few…
LEARNING HAS BECOME AN INTERCONNECTED EXPERIENCE
In this scenario, the concept of MOOCs
and of the learning data attached to them,
offer invaluable materials to reflect on how we will need to adapt practices and policies to the changing learning process
THE ROLE OF ANALYTICS IN EDUCATION
Not only an educational application of web analyticsLEARNING ANALYTICS
Which allows to • Profile learners• Analyse students interactions• Measure learning uptake
But, alsoa tool for measuring operational excellenceACADEMIC ANALYTICS
“ … the evidence of how the training /learning organisation is aligning with and meeting the goals of the broader organisation”(van Barneveld, Campbell – 2012)
And a source of insights aimed at identifying trends to forecast and plan future strategiesPREDICTIVE ANALYTICS
LEARNING ANALYTICS
One of the most powerful, disruptive and relevant
innovations in the field of education
BIG DATA
A new type of corporate asset, working to leverage
competition
DISTANCE EDUCATION
No longer an institutional accessory, BUT it needs funding
Will benefit from the results of the analysis, which will testify of the
success of the learning experience and therefore will drive political and social
approval =
MONEY
THE GAME CHANGER EFFECT: the education industry THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DATA
THE GAME CHANGER EFFECT: the accountability challengeTHE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DATA
The Italian case
• The academic sector needs a re-organization• An assessment system is put in place re. the research production
essentially based on peer reviewing• The mono-dimensional nature of the tool – among other weaknesses –
appears unsuitable to cover the complexity of the academic activity
The risk of taking political decisions (e.g. cost reductions and investments) based on a mono-dimensional evaluation is obvious
Institutions accountability must be based on the wealth of data available: students success, research production, organisational work, and so on
THE GAME CHANGER EFFECT: efficiencyTHE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DATA
Data governance can be efficiently managed by the combination of
• Data stewardship
• Reporting
• Query
• Analytic tools
which, efficiently connected, will be able to deploy the descriptive and the predictive powers of analytics and to inform strategies
THE GAME CHANGER EFFECT: from descriptive to predictiveTHE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DATA
DESCRIPTION
The usage of Learning Analytics in the context of online
education is being piloted in various European projects
• Course design
• Retention rates
• Completion rates
Real time - Retrospective analysis
THE GAME CHANGER EFFECT: from descriptive to predictiveTHE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DATA
PREDICTION / PRESCRIPTION
Using data mining on datasets of millions of students records
PARframework*, uses descriptive, inferential and predictive analyses
to identify variables that should have direct impact on success
*PARframework.org, adopted by 35 US academic institutions and leveraging on datasets from 350 campuses
THE CHALLENGES
PRIVACY
• Records are de-identified
GOVERNANCE
• Who translates data into policies? (and, with what kind of expertise?)
• Who sets the objectives?
• Who governs the results?
The percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds in the U.S. who have completed an associate's degree or higher
69,3%
18,1%
26,5%
45,8%
38,8%
0 20 40 60 80
ASIAN
HISPANIC
BLACK
WHITE
TOTAL US
Who governs the results?
Depending on how this data are looked at and by whom, one might conclude that some groups of students are not doing well enough and are not worth investing in, which may reproduce /perpetuate social inequalities
THE GAME CHANGER EFFECT: governanceTHE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DATA
THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
Ben Williamson, in the World Yearbook of Education 2014,
identifies ‘public policy labs’ as a new actor in educational
governance scene and highlights the inherent risks
• Not only they diagnose problems but they also translate ideas and processes into educational policy proposals
• They transform education into a ‘problematic object’
• They re-configure learners into ‘calculable governing resources’
Individual learners’ data used to inform policies on which pedagogies and practices work best.
Education as a self-regulating system using database driven processes
THE GAME CHANGER EFFECT: governanceTHE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DATA
A WAY OF OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES*
*FERGUSON, 2012
The Learning Analytics community needs to
• Build strong connections with the learningsciences
• Develop methods of working with a wide range of datasets in order to optimise learning environments
• Focus on the perspectives of the learners
• Develop and apply a clear set of ethical guidelines
BIG DATA need to be deeply rooted ininstitutional and organisational practicesand to be supported by
• Strong leadership commitment
• A genuine culture of evidence,
intertwined with
• a discipline of interpretation (assumption, description, interpretation, prediction, implication)
BIG DATA implicationsFOOD FOR THOUGHT AND FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION
What is the social impact of big data and analytics, on standardisation or on social control ?
• the realisation of Clarke’s digital persona “a model of the individual established through the collection, storage and analysis of data about that person”,
• the ‘dataveillance1’ potential,
• the ‘dataspace2’ influence on our life,
• the data as a ‘meme3’ and the risk of their “naïve or nefarious uses, to restrict access or to punish”,
• the ‘hidden curriculum4’ effect, …
1 Roger Clarke, 19872 Perry, 20113 Ellen Wagner, 20144 Edwards, 2015
14
Thank you!!
Rosanna De Rosa Università di Napoli Federico II
Chiara FerrariIpsos Group