More than figures on your laptop: (Dis)trustful implementation of learning analytics

Yi Shan Tsai, Alexander Whitelock-Wainwright, Dragan Gašević

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The adoption of learning analytics (LA) in complex educational systems is woven into sociocultural and technical challenges that have induced distrust in data and difficulties in scaling LA. This paper presents a study that investigated areas of distrust and threats to trustworthy LA through a series of consultations with teaching staff and students at a large UK university. Surveys and focus groups were conducted to explore participant expectations of LA. The observed distrust is broadly attributed to three areas: the subjective nature of numbers, the fear of power diminution, and approaches to design and implementation of LA. The paper highlights areas to maintain existing trust with policy procedures and areas to cultivate trust by engaging with tensions arising from the social process of LA.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)81-100
Number of pages20
JournalJournal of Learning Analytics
Volume8
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Dec 2021

Keywords

  • Datafication
  • Human-computer interaction
  • Institutional adoption
  • Learning analytics
  • Trust

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