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Publications (102)
Computer programming is a skill of increasing importance in scientific and technological fields. However, in introductory computer science (CS1) courses in higher education, approximately one in every three students fails. A common reason is that students are overwhelmed by an accelerated and inflexible pace of learning that jeopardizes success. Ac...
Analytic actionability refers to the ways that information provided to students and educators affects what they do in learning environments and is a pressing issue for learning analytics to impact practice. As a way to achieve better actionability in our tools and their implementation, this poster describes the strategies of temporality and plurali...
This study describes a theory-informed application of data science methods to analyze the quality of reflections made in a health professions education program over time. One thousand five hundred reflections written by a cohort of 369 dental students over 4 years of academic study were evaluated for an overall measure of reflection depth (No, Shal...
Over the last ten years learning analytics (LA) has grown from a hypothetical future into a concrete field of inquiry and a global community of researchers and practitioners. Although the LA space may appear sprawling and complex, there are some clear through-lines that the new student or interested practitioner can use as entry points. Four of the...
Over the last ten years learning analytics (LA) has grown from a hypothetical future into a concrete field of inquiry and a global community of researchers and practitioners. Although the LA space may appear sprawling and complex, there are some clear through-lines that the new student or interested practitioner can use as entry points. Four of the...
Over the last ten years learning analytics (LA) has grown from a hypothetical future into a concrete field of inquiry and a global community of researchers and practitioners. Although the LA space may appear sprawling and complex, there are some clear through-lines that the new student or interested practitioner can use as entry points. Four of the...
The ongoing changes and challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated long-standing inequities in education, leading many to question basic assumptions about how learning can best benefit all students. Thirst for data about learning is at an all-time high, sometimes without commensurate attention to ensuring principles this commun...
Team learning has become an essential activity in both professional and educational contexts. Learning analytics offers promising opportunities to support team learning by making information about group processes available to teams in real time to help them learn how to interact more productively. The design of team analytics requires three sets of...
This mixed methods study examined the impact of two design strategies on interactional processes in a collaborative tangible-tabletop land-use planning simulation. Twenty pairs of fifth grade children used the simulation to create a world they would want to live in. To investigate the impact of positive interdependence half the pairs were assigned...
Teacher dashboards provide real-time information about students’ performance and progress, which help K-12 teachers to adjust feedback to student’ specific needs during learning. Prior research indicated two problems with respect to how teachers provide feedback: (i) teachers do not always select the most effective feedback to support student’ lear...
This paper puts forth the idea of a subversive stance on learning analytics as a theoretically-grounded means of engaging with issues of power and equity in education and the ways in which they interact with the usage of data on learning processes. The concept draws on efforts from fields such as socio-technical systems and critical race studies th...
Our 2019 editorial opened a dialogue about what is needed to foster an impactful field of learning analytics (Knight, Wise, & Ochoa, 2019). As we head toward the close of a tumultuous year that has raised profound questions about the structure and processes of formal education and its role in society, this conversation is more relevant than ever. T...
This paper is in response to the manuscript entitled “Student perceptions of privacy principles for learning analytics” (Ifenthaler and Schumacher, Student perceptions of privacy principles for learning analytics. Educational Technology Research and Development, 64(5), 923–938, 2016) from a practice perspective. Learning analytics (the use of data...
As Learning Analytics (LA) moves from theory into practice, researchers have called for increased participation of stakeholders in design processes. The implementation of such methods, however, still requires attention and specification. In this report, we share strategies and insights from a co-design process that involved university students in t...
Over 2019 the breadth of articles published in the Journal of Learning Analytics reflects the diversity of contributions to the field, including quantitative, qualitative and design-based studies and contributions through the different submission types (Research, Practical, Data and Tools, and Book Review). This year we have also published two spec...
The process of using analytic data to inform instructional decision-making is acknowledged to be complex; however, details of how it occurs in authentic teaching contexts have not been fully unpacked. This study investigated five university instructors’ use of a learning analytics dashboard to inform their teaching. The existing literature was synt...
This study explores the application of computational techniques to extract information about dental students' developing conceptions of their profession from digital reflective journal entries. Top concept networks were created for two cohorts of students at the beginning and end of their four-year program. A shift from a collection of general noti...
Reflection is a key activity in self-regulated learning (SRL) and a critical part of health professions education that supports the development of effective lifelong-learning health professionals. Despite widespread use and plentiful theoretical models, empirical understanding of and support for reflection in health professions education remains li...
This chapter describes three characteristics of Learning Analytics work that distinguish it from prior educational research to give readers a concise overview of what makes learning analytics a unique and especially promising technology to improve teaching and learning. Data used in learning analytics relate to the process of learning, can come fro...
Learning Analytics as a field of inquiry and community is distinct in the way that it brings together in shared pursuit, the research and practice of a particular kind of educational technology. At times this relationship approaches symbiosis: the annual LAK conference offers opportunities to learn both about the latest theoretical, methodological,...
The importance of temporality in learning has been long established, but it is only recently that serious attention has begun to be paid to the precise identification, measurement, and analysis of the temporal features of learning. From 2009 to 2016, a series of temporality workshops explored temporal concepts and data types, analysis methods for e...
The importance of temporality in learning has been long established, but it is only recently that serious attention has begun to be paid to the precise identification, measurement, and analysis of the temporal features of learning. From 2009 to 2016, a series of temporality workshops explored temporal concepts and data types, analysis methods for e...
This mixed method study used social network analysis (SNA) and inductive qualitative analysis to compare social relationships and the underlying interactions they represent in discussions related and unrelated to the learning of course content in a statistics MOOC. It additionally examined the impact of how social relationships are conceptualized (...
This study examined the relationship between discussion forum contributions and course assessment results in a statistics MOOC. An important feature of the study is that it distinguished between discussions that were related to the learning of course material ("content-related") and those which were not ("non-content"). Another contribution is that...
With the implementation of competency based medical education (CBME) in emergency medicine, residency programs will amass substantial amounts of qualitative and quantitative data about trainees’ performances. This increased volume of data will challenge traditional processes for assessing trainees and remediating training deficiencies. At the inter...
This study extends previous research studying students' listening and speaking behaviors in online discussions with a particular focus on processes of self-regulated learning and task type as an external facilitator of regulation. 105 undergraduate students participated in a week-long small-group online discussion to address real-world business cha...
The field of CSCL is at a critical moment in its development. Internally we face issues of fragmentation and questions about what progress is being made. Externally the rise of social media and a variety of research communities that study the interactions within it raise questions about our unique identity and larger impact on the world. To illumin...
In the last 7 years, since the first LAK conference, Learning Analytics has grown rapidly as a field from a small group of interested scholars and practitioners to one of the most scientifically successful and institutionally accepted areas of Learning and Educational Technologies. Learning Analytics is often referred as a "Middle-Space" where expe...
Learning is a process that occurs over time: We build understanding, change perspectives, and develop skills over the course of extended experiences. As a field, learning analytics aims to generate understanding of, and support for, such processes of learning. Indeed, a core characteristic of learning analytics is the generation of high-resolution...
This second issue of the Journal of Learning Analytics in 2017 is the first edited by the full new journal editorial team. As the baton is passed on, we would like to thank the founding editors for their work initiating the journal and nurturing its development over the past several years. We look forward to continuing that tradition of excellence....
The symposium focuses on the analysis of the knowledge building process e.g. idea improvement conversations by which students get to a high quality of knowledge and understanding. Learning Analytics (LA) focuses on the collection, measure and analysis of data about learners and their contexts (Long & Siemens, 2011). LA tools are normally rooted in...
The Handbook of Learning Analytics is designed to meet the needs of a new and growing field. It aims to balance rigor, quality, open access and breadth of appeal and was devised to be an introduction to the current state of research. The Handbook is a snapshot of the field in 2017 and features a range of prominent authors from the learning analytic...
This paper presents a thread characterization method that compares categorization results for thread starters and replies made by a previously-developed natural language model, using human judgment to resolve discrepancies. In an example application using the complete discussion forum data from a MOOC on medical statistics, the method increased the...
This paper explores the potential of using naïve topic modeling to support instructors in navigating MOOC discussion forums. Categorizing discussion threads into topics can provide an overview of the discussion, improve navigation of the forum, and support replying to a representative sample of content related posts. We investigate four different a...
This study examines the impact of content-based network partitioning and tie definition on social network structures and interpretation for MOOC discussion forums. Using dynamic interrelated post and thread categorization [5] based on a previously developed natural language model [27], 817 threads containing 3124 discussion posts from 567 learners...
Learning and assessment have traditionally occurred as distinct activities, where engaging in one takes time away from the other. This grand challenge explores how advances in data collection and analysis can be leveraged to integrate learning and assessment in one single process. Developing assessment during learning within technology enhanced lea...
Online discussions offer exciting potential for educational dialogue, but too often result in disjointed conversations with low levels of interactivity. One contributing cause is the traditional text-based interface, which presents posts in a long list, leaving students overwhelmed and without useful navigational cues. To address this problem, we u...
This study addresses overload and chaos in MOOC discussion forums by developing a model to categorize threads based on whether or not they are substantially related to course content. A linguistic model was built based on manually-coded starting posts in threads from a statistics MOOC, and tested on the second offering of the course, another statis...
This paper addresses a relatively unexplored area in the field of learning analytics: how analytics are taken up and used as part of teaching and learning processes. Initial steps are taken towards developing design knowledge for this “middle space,” with a focus on students as analytics users. First, a core set of challenges for analytics use iden...
Interest in temporal analytics---analytics that probe temporal aspects of learning so as to gain insights into the processes through which learning occurs---continues to grow. The relationships of temporal patterns to learning outcomes is a central area of interest. However, while the literature on temporal analyses is developing, there has been le...
This study addresses the issues of overload and chaos in MOOC discussion forums by developing a model to categorize and identify threads based on whether or not they are substantially related to the course content. Content-related posts were defined as those that give/seek help for the learning of course material and share/comment on relevant resou...
It is an exhilarating and important time for conducting research on learning, with unprecedented quantities of data available. There is a danger, however, in thinking that with enough data, the numbers speak for themselves. In fact, with larger amounts of data, theory plays an ever-more critical role in analysis. In this introduction to the special...
This study investigated the extent to which students asked and instructors answered content-related questions in MOOC discussion forums; subsequently a classification model was built to identify such questions based on extracted linguistic features. Results showed content-related threads were a minority and underaddressed by instructors. However, l...
Interest in analyses that probe the temporal aspects of learning continues to grow. The study of common and consequential sequences of events (such as learners accessing resources, interacting with other learners and engaging in self-regulatory activities) and how these are associated with learning outcomes, as well as the ways in which knowledge a...
Twenty pairs of 5 th grade children used a tangible tabletop sustainability game to create a world they would want to live in to share with the rest of the class. Half of the pairs were assigned particular roles with associated game controls (positive interdependence condition) while the other half were not (control condition). Results showed that...
Many studies suggest that tangibles and digital tabletops have potential to support collaborative interaction. However, previous findings show that users often work in parallel with such systems. One design strategy that may encourage collaboration rather than parallel use involves creating a system that responds to co-dependent access points in wh...
This paper describes an application of learning analytics that builds on an existing research program investigating how students contribute and attend to the messages of others in asynchronous online discussions. We first overview the E-Listening research program and then explain how this work was translated into analytics that students and instruc...
Games for Change (G4C) is a movement and community of practice dedicated to using digital games for social change. However, a common model of persuasion built into most G4C, called Information Deficit, assumes that supporting children to learn facts will result in behavior change around social issues. There is little evidence that this approach wor...
Theoretical models of collaborative learning through online discussions presuppose that students generally attend to others’ posts. However, a succession of studies over the last decade has shown this assumption to be unwarranted. Instead, research indicates that learners attend to others’ posts in diverse and particular ways—an activity we have co...
This article addresses a relatively unexplored area in the emerging field of learning analytics, the design of learning analytics interventions. A learning analytics intervention is defined as the surrounding frame of activity through which analytic tools, data, and reports are taken up and used. It is a soft technology that involves the orchestrat...
Learning Analytics sits at the intersection of the learning sciences and computational data capture and analysis. Analytics should be grounded in the existing literature with a view to data 'geology' or 'archeology' over 'mining'. This workshop explores how analytics may extend the common notion of activity trace data from learning processes to enc...
This study investigated whether students exhibited different new-post reading behaviors when using a graphical discussion forum rather than a traditional text-based linear forum. Detailed examination of clickstream patterns in seven case studies showed several differences in reading strategies between the two forums. Most notably, in the graphical...
Youtopia is a hybrid tangible and multi-touch land use planning activity for elementary school aged children. It was implemented on a Microsoft Pixelsense digital tabletop. The main method of interaction is through physical stamp objects that children use to "stamp" different land use types onto an interactive map. Youtopia was developed to investi...
This paper describes an application of learning analytics that builds on an existing research program investigating how students contribute and attend to the messages of others in online discussions. A pedagogical model that translates the concepts and findings of the research program into guidelines for practice and analytics with which students a...
Many researchers have suggested that tangible user interfaces (TUIs) have potential for supporting learning. However, the theories used to explain possible effects are often invoked at a very broad level without explication of specific mechanisms by which the affordances of TUIs may be important for learning processes. Equally problematic, we lack...
Time plays a fundamental role in both the benefits and challenges of using online discussions as a pedagogical tool. This makes temporal considerations critical both for conducting analyses of how learning takes places through online discussions and for designing effective structures to support discussion activity. However, despite the importance o...
Studying time with statistics can help shed light on cause-effect relationships in large online data sets and address three sets of research questions regarding sequences, time periods, and influences of phenomena across different time-scales. As such studies face many analytic difficulties (related to the data, dependent variables, or explanatory...
This study investigated relationships between how students "listen" (access existing posts) and "speak" (contribute posts) in asynchronous online discussions. Ten variables indexing four dimensions of students' listening (breadth, depth, temporal contiguity and revisitation) and five variables indexing three dimensions of students' speaking (discur...
Sixty-seven undergraduates taking either a Blended Business Course (BBC) or an Online Education Course (OEC) were surveyed about factors influencing their listening behaviors in asynchronous online course discussions. These are the ways they attend to the posts made by others: which posts they open, how they engage with open posts, and which posts...
Low-cost laptop programs attempt to address gaps in access to computers in developing countries. However, the translation of computing access from intention to actuality is mediated by many situational factors. This research presents a case study of how access to a set of laptops donated to a school for socially disadvantaged children in India was...
This study presents three case studies of students' participation patterns in an online discussion to address the gap in our current understanding of how individuals experience asynchronous learning environments. Cases were constructed via microanalysis of log-file data, post contents, and the evolving discussion structure. The first student was Th...
While a great deal of research has studied the messages students contribute to electronic discussion forums, productive participation in online learning conversations requires more than just making posts. One important pre-condition for productive interactivity and knowledge construction is engagement with the posts contributed by others. In this s...
While assigning student roles is a popular technique in online discussions, roles and the responsibilities allocated to them
have not been consistently assigned. This makes it difficult to compare implementations and generate principled guidance for
role design. This study critically examined frequently assigned student roles and identified a set o...
Assigning roles to individual students can influence the group's knowledge construction (KC) process during online discussions. Twenty-one students were divided into two groups and assigned rotating roles for eight one-week asynchronous online discussions. The KC contributions of all 252 posts in the discussion were coded using a five phase scheme...
Collaborative participation in online discussions requires interacting with the ideas posted by others, yet many students do so ineffectually. This study conceptualizes these actions as online "listening" behaviors and proposes six prototypical behavioral patterns. To test these prototypes, microanalytic case studies were conducted. Five cases with...
This paper introduces an approach to analyzing temporal patterns of knowledge construction (KC) in online discussions, including
consequences of role assignments. The paper illustrates the power of this approach for illuminating collaborative processes
using data from a semester-long series of discussions in which 21 university students were assign...
We describe a tangible user interface-based learning environment for children called Towards Utopia. The environment was designed to enable children, aged seven to ten, to actively construct knowledge around concepts related to land use planning and sustainable development in their community. We use Towards Utopia as a research prototype to investi...
Recent studies of learning have involved concurrent collection of multiple types of data (e.g., computer activity logs and online discussion) or have applied multi-dimensional coding, resulting in related data streams. These data highlight the dynamic nature of learning and require analyses from a temporal perspective. This workshop explores issues...
This mixed‐methods study probed the effectiveness of three kinds of objects (video, theory, metaphor) as common reference points for conversations between online learners (student teachers). Individuals’ degree of detail‐focus was examined as a potentially interacting covariate and the outcome measure was learners’ level of tacit knowledge related...
In this article, the authors provide a brief overview of the emerging field of nanoscience and why it is an important area of education. They next explain the science behind the new nanoparticulate sunscreens, describe the different elements of the unit, and reflect on some of the opportunities and challenges of teaching nanoscience at the high sch...
This experimental study probed the effectiveness of three kinds of objects (videos, theories, metaphors) as common reference points for conversations between online learners. Outcome measures were learners' levels of tacit-knowledge (TK) of specific concepts related to their practice (teaching). Learners' level of detail-focus was examined as a med...
This chapter comments on a paper by Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark (see record
2006-06011-001). In this chapter we attempt to reframe the debate surrounding instructional guidance in a way that may be more productive than the one pursued recently. Up till now, the conversation between constructivists and instructionists has largely centered on the...
This experimental study probed the effectiveness of three kinds of objects (videos, theories, metaphors) as common reference points for conversations between online learners. Outcome measures were learners' levels of tacit-knowledge (TK) of specific concepts related to their practice (teaching). Learners' level of detail-focus was examined as a med...
In this chapter, we discuss the design and refinement of the Learning to Teach with Technology Studio, an online professional
development environment for teachers who are interested in learning how to use technology to support inquiry-based approaches
to teaching and learning. We specifically focus on our initial design commitments of flexibility a...
In this article, the authors argue that online learning conversations need to go beyond the common "information exchange" to a deeper level of interaction in order to help learners build situated knowledge that is useful in their local contexts. The article begins by looking at the commonly-used framework of a Community of Practice (CoP) and, in pa...
In this chapter, a model for the design of a conversation space to support knowledge-building is presented. While online environments are focused on, the model has much greater generality. The model, an expansion and adaptation of Nonaka's work, considers knowledge as consisting of complementary explicit and tacit dimensions. It argues that these t...
This research experimentally manipulated the social presence cues in instruc-tor's messages to students. The context was an online professional development one-credit course with one-to-one mentoring of students. Additionally, student learning intentions and levels of trust were examined as factors that may mitigate the effects of social presence....
Online teaching and learning is making a significant impact on the fabric of higher education. In particular, online MBA programs have seen a rapid rise in student enrollments in recent years while the student enrollments in traditional in-residence MBA programs are in decline (Hayward, 2004; Lorenzo, 2004). This appears to be due, in part, to the...
The noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonist phencyclidine (PCP) and the neuronal cannabinoid receptor agonist delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are two agents shown to have psychotomimetic properties in humans. Both drugs increase dopamine release and utilization in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region thought to be dysfunctional in schizophrenia....
Conducting learning conversations through online discussion forums differs from face-to-face conversations as learners can be selective in what comments they choose to "listen" to, when they chose to do so, and how long they spend attending to them. Using cluster analysis of learners' click-stream data from an online discussion forum, this study id...
AERA 2010 Content Analysis Symposium Commentary Paper This commentary paper briefly describes the development and testing of a content analysis scheme to assess the presence of conversational functions in online asynchronous discussion forums. The scheme expands on and refines the previously developed Analysis Scheme Identifying Message Characteris...
