A project to develop the institutional understanding of what Warwick students think about learning analytics and how those analytics might be used to support an individual student's learning journey and engagement. The project aims to develop our understanding of the student perspective on learning analytics and the use of ‘big data’ to personalise their higher education experience. We are organising a series of student workshops to explore attitudes to the use of data and analytics.

Workshops

We're organising a series of workshops during the 2017/18 academic year to develop our understanding of how students understand the current use of data in society and within the university. We also aim to understand how existing technology and interventions support their learning experiences, and whether there is the potential to expand these interventions further. We're particularly interested in the attitudes to privacy and underlying ethical issues of the use of data in teaching and learning.

The questions and methodology were formulated by the project team following a review of relevant academic literature and through consultation with the Students' Union.

Questionnaires

The workshops aim to ask open-ended questions to small groups of students. The team is also exploring the possibility of a more structured and widely distributed on-line questionnaire.

Results & Further work

The outcome of the workshops will be published on the WIHEA website and at WIHEA events at Warwick. The project team also aims to publish the results in a peer-reviewed journal to contribute to the wider discussion about learning analytics.

This project will contribute to the university's wider learning analytics initiative.

Project team

Russell Boyatt (IT Services)

Margaret Low (WMG)

Phil Young (Life Sciences)

Jane Sinclair (Computer Science)

Liam Jackson (Students' Union)