Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Learning analytics as data ecology: a tentative proposal

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Learning analytics can be understood as a "data ecosystem with dynamic interdependencies and interrelationships," write the authors, but the question needs to be asked about "the extent to which learning analytics takes cognizance of the reality, the potential and the risks of being part of a broader data ecology." And, they conclude, it mostly doesn't. This conclusion is based on a definition of a data ecology, which the article offers, and a list of the roles or actors involved. These are compared against a set of 11 analytics frameworks drawn from the literature. "Most of the frameworks analysed here do acknowledge LA as part of institutional ecosystems, and to a lesser extent, as part of intra-institutional ecosystems. There is, however, a lack of understanding of LA as part of an increasingly commercial data ecology, directly impacting on students' privacy and their right to data sovereignty."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 10, 2024 12:21 a.m.

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