Glad you found it useful, and for the further links. Rebecca has also linked to work Simon is involved in too.

Sheila

The follow-up session by Simon Buckingham Shum at the OU dovetails nicely with Gardner’s session outlining the idea of an Open Learning Analytics ecosystem where the community can deposit and reuse analytics data which should help research explore ways to surface things like positive intervention http://lak12.wikispaces.com/Recordings

[You can also see parallels to this with the recent Value and benefits of text mining report http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2012/03/textmining.aspx

Martin

That’s odd – I thought everything was open to anyone. Here is the main website for the course http://lak12.mooc.ca/ – maybe navigating to the course recordings that way will work – it did for me.

Sheila

Totally agree and that’s kind of what I was getting at. We need to ensure people get the chance to be involved in the process of gathering and using data, not just presented with “stuff” other thing are useful. If we only measure part of the picture we could end up in the ‘teaching to data’ trap like the teaching to the test trap. I think initially we just have to let people join the conversation.

S

“Invite-Only Wiki
This wiki has restricted membership. Contact the wiki organizers for details.”

Any suggestions for getting access?

Thanks, Stephen.

It’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you do with it that counts… how do we support a moral framework around decision making?

Sheila

s

Thanks for you comments.

I can see that there does need to be some reductive processes involved, however I think what I (and indeed Gardner conveys far more eloquently ) is that there isn’t just one map and you can only see the directions needed for driving to you destination when you are walking. Or indeed you don’t have to take the most direct route – an indirect one might be much more valuable in terms of and educational experience.

Sheila

The terminology issue points at the question of audience: is it for managers, teachers or learners? I’m sure we’ll settle on a good term for the application of analytical methods to learning in general, but it’ll always be crucial to bear in mind who the audience is.

The question of reductionism is more fundamental: I think analytics has to be reductive to work. A map that faithfully reproduces the full complexity of reality is useless. A map must simplify so that people can find the interesting and rich parts they’re looking for.

In that sense, I think there might be a tendency to over-estimate what analytics can do; If there are no clear quantifiable dependent variables, then the techniques we refer to by the name of ‘analytics’ are the wrong tool for the problem at hand. Al we can hope for is that it points at that problem.

S

Dear talented researchers,
There is a really interesting, continually emerging research situation very close to home.
Whether participative or illustrative, your methods and findings could make a real difference to the experience and outcomes of the learning community that surrounds you.
The good news is that there’s probably a network of people in your institution willing to work with you to design and build research instruments.
A label of “Learning Analytics” may ring some alarm bells and probably calls to mind the Einstein quote “Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted” but that’s why this project needs you!