Safeguarding student privacy in an age of analytics

Abstract

In this special issue, we have collected three responses from scholars who are currently doing work in learning analytics to react to, better explain, and expound upon the Ifenthaler and Schumacher's findings in their own settings as researchers and practitioners.

Trends and Topics in Educational Technology, 2022 Edition

“…For instance, terms relating to universal design ( n = 0), accessibility ( n = 4), privacy ( n = 8), ethics ( n = 12), security ( n = 8), equity ( n = 6), justice ( n = 1), and (digital and participatory) divides ( n = 1) were all very uncommon. Though “ethics” was the most common of these terms, it only was represented in 1-in-200 article titles, and though current “practices with student data represent cause for concern, as student behaviors are increasingly tracked, analyzed, and studied to draw conclusions about learning, attitudes, and future behaviors” (Kimmons, 2021 , para. 2; cf., Rosenberg et al, 2021 ) and proctoring software becomes increasingly ubiquitous (Kimmons & Veletsianos, 2021 ), “privacy” was only mentioned in 1-in-333 article titles and “proctor*” was only in 1-in-600 titles.…”

Privacy in LA Research

“…Privacy has been reported to be one of the key obstacles that hinders the implementation and adoption of learning analytics (LA) in various educational contexts (e.g., Pardo & Siemens, 2014;Li et al, 2021;Tsai et al, 2020). Privacy issues are of increasing concern to multiple stakeholders in LA settings (Kimmons, 2021;Mutimukwe et al, 2021). There are concerns regarding how student data are collected, used, and analyzed to draw conclusions about learning, attitudes, and behaviours for improved learning in the context of LA.…”