Development of an approved learning analytics ethics position

ABSTRACT

Learning analytics promise significant benefit to online education providers through improved, better-targeted student services. Much has been written about the potential of analytics and how they might be technically implemented, and various ethical considerations are published highlighting the significant potential risk of gathering, manipulating and applying student data to education. Developing an ethical position provides institutions with an opportunity to critically appraise their assumptions and practice however how best to articulate one is far from clear. This case study outlines the development of an ethical framework at Open Polytechnic of New Zealand and demonstrates how international ethics guidelines for learning analytics have shaped practice and informed policy development. Four stages to developing an ethics position in education institutions were followed: 1) examining existing institutional policy, 2) categorising student data, 3) addressing ethics concerns in a structured way and 4) approving an ethics position and extending practice. The paper concludes with suggestions for those developing ethics positions for implementing learning analytics to help towards a successful outcome.

KEYWORDS:

• Learning analytics
• policy development
• data privacy
• data ethics
• student data

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The new Privacy Act 2020 commences 1 December 2020.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark Nichols

Mark Nichols is Executive Director of Learning Design & Development, Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. He is a member of the ICDE Board, an EDEN Fellow and former Executive Committee member of EDEN, Ascilite and FLANZ and is also on several journal editorial boards. In 2020 Mark’s book Transforming universities with digital distance education: The future of formal learning was published by Routledge. He is the co-founder and interviewer of the Leaders & Legends of Online Learning podcast. His research interests include all aspects of digital distance education and institutional development.