The Student Expectations of Learning Analytics Questionnaire

Abstract

Student engagement within the development of learning analytics services in Higher Education is an important challenge to address. Despite calls for greater inclusion of stakeholders, there still remains only a small number of investigations into students’ beliefs and expectations towards learning analytics services. Therefore, this paper presents a descriptive instrument to measure student expectations (ideal and predicted) of learning analytics services. The scales used in the instrument are grounded in a theoretical framework of expectations, specifically ideal and predicted expectations. Items were then generated on the basis of four identified themes (Ethical and Privacy Expectations, Agency Expectations, Intervention Expectations, and Meaningfulness Expectations), which emerged after a review of the learning analytics literature. The results of an exploratory factor analysis and the results from both an exploratory structural equation model and confirmatory factor analysis supported a two‐factor structure best accounted for the data pertaining to ideal and predicted expectations. Factor one refers to Ethical and Privacy Expectations, whilst factor two covers Service Feature Expectations. The 12‐item Student Expectations of Learning Analytics Questionnaire (SELAQ) provides researchers and practitioners with a means of measuring of students’ expectations of learning analytics services.

Assessing the validity of a learning analytics expectation instrument: A multinational study

“…In the event that misfit is identified, it is then important to consider whether a respecification of the model, which allows for correlated errors between the problematic variable pair, is theoretically justified. As shown in the previous work, both scales of the SELAQ (ideal and predicted expectations) showed local misfits between Items 2 and 5 and Items 11 and 12 (Whitelock‐Wainwright et al, ). However, based on the content of these items, there was no justification for the respecification of the model that allowed the errors of these aforementioned items to correlate.…”

“…Students, as a stakeholder group, have remained largely absent from LA implementation discussions, which can lead us to question the value and appropriateness of those service that are eventually offered (Tsai et al, ). To resolve the issue of unequal stakeholder engagement from the student population, the Student Expectations of Learning Analytics Questionnaire (SELAQ; Whitelock‐Wainwright, Gašević, Tejeiro, Tsai, & Bennett, ), was created. By using the SELAQ, higher education institutions have a means of gauging what students expect from LA services, with data being used to influence implementation decisions (e.g., what services to emphasize; Tsai et al, ).…”

“…The initial items of the SELAQ were generated on the basis of four themes that were identified from a review of the LA literature: “Ethical and Privacy Expectations,” “Agency Expectations,” “Intervention Expectations,” and “Meaningfulness Expectations” (Whitelock‐Wainwright, Gašević, & Tejeiro, ; Whitelock‐Wainwright et al, ). Each of these four themes are well captured by the items of the SELAQ (Whitelock‐Wainwright et al, ) and thereby offers higher education institutions a wide‐ranging insight into student expectations of LA services. In order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the theoretical basis for the SELAQ, each theme, along with their representative factor, will be discussed in turn.…”

“…The development and validation of the SELAQ led to 12 items being retained (Table ), which are explained by a purported two‐factor structure (Whitelock‐Wainwright et al, ; Figure ). These two factors correspond to Ethical and Privacy Expectations and Service Feature Expectations, which can refer to student beliefs towards the ethical procedures involved in LA services (e.g., the university will obtain consent for the collection and analysis of any educational data) and how they would like to benefit from such services (e.g., students receiving regular updates about their learning progress), respectively.…”

“…Consequently, this means that the SELAQ is restricted in its use as the cross‐cultural validation of the instrument is yet to be explored. The current study seeks to address the limitation of the SELAQ by investigating whether the original factor structure (see Figure , Whitelock‐Wainwright et al, ) can be recovered and validated in three European contexts (Spain, Netherlands, and Estonia). In doing so, this will enable a greater number of institutions to use the SELAQ in their pursuit of implementing LA services.…”