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Putting an ethical lens on learning analytics

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Abstract

As learning analytics activity has increased, a variety of ethical implications and considerations have emerged, though a significant research gap remains in explicitly investigating the views of key stakeholders, such as academic staff. This paper draws on ethics-related findings from an Australian study featuring two surveys, one of institutional leaders (n = 22) and one of academic staff (n = 353), as well as a set of follow-up interviews (n = 23) with academic level staff. A self-selecting sample of participants was asked about the ethical issues they see as important in learning analytics and about the types of ethical principles or considerations they thought should guide learning analytics use. Data showed participants’ views did tend to align with established ethical principles, though the language used to express this varied widely. Building on, and in response to, both the data and the literature review the paper proposes an ethical decision making framework that encourages institutional leaders and those involved in implementing learning analytics to consistently apply and document ethical decision making processes as part of an overall approach to developing well-aligned and transparent institutional policies and broader ethical literacy.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Office of Learning and Teaching, Charles Darwin University, Ellengowan Drive, Darwin, NT, 0909, Australia

    Deborah West & David Heath

  2. Academic Enhancement Centre, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), Office 1160, Central Building, No. 111 Ren’ai Road, Dushu Lake Higher Education Town, Suzhou Industrial Park, 215123, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China

    Henk Huijser

  3. Batchelor Institute, Batchelor, NT, Australia

    Henk Huijser

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  1. Deborah West
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Correspondence to Deborah West.

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West, D., Huijser, H. & Heath, D. Putting an ethical lens on learning analytics. Education Tech Research Dev 64, 903–922 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-016-9464-3

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