Abstract
Is learning analytics a movement that seeks to rebalance the effects of higher education’s apparent blindness to privilege, its unequal access regimes and persistent retention and attainment gaps through a more skilful and strategic use of student data? Or is it part of a larger project to surveil students and staff in higher education, in pursuit of greater efficiency and control? Both perspectives are alive and well in debates surrounding higher education’s changing relationship with its students. The systematic institutional use of student-generated data known as learning analytics is raising practical, methodological and ethical questions, which are yet to be answered. However, a proposed framework for assessing and comparing the quality of learning and teaching in the UK is poised to use such data as one of its metrics. Learning analytics and its relationship to student engagement is explored through the first known research to utilise an adaptation of Kuh’s National Survey of Student Engagement with people studying Massive Open Online Courses. Contrasting perspectives are offered by Siemen’s theory of connectivist learning and Foucault’s notion of the panopticon. If the potential of analytics is to be realised in terms of meaningful quality improvement, questions remain concerning ethics, trust, its role in engagement in learning, and the ways in which policy might effectively safeguard the longer-term individual and collective interests of students.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abeysekera, L. and Dawson, P. (2015) ‘Motivation and cognitive load in the flipped classroom: definition, rationale and a call for research’, Higher Education Research and Development 34(1): 1–14.
Ashwin, P. (2014) ‘Knowledge, curriculum and student understanding in higher education’, Higher Education 67(2): 123–126.
Baepler, P. and Murdoch, C.J. (2010) ‘Academic analytics and data mining in higher education’, International Journal Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 4(2):17.
Barnett, R. (1997) Higher Education: A critical business, Buckingham: SRHE/OU Press.
Bayne, S. and Ross, J. (2014) The pedagogy of the Massive Open Online Course: The UK view, York: Higher Education Academy.
Bentham, J. (1843) The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Vol. 4, John Bowring/Harvard: Tait. http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/bentham-the-works-of-jeremy-bentham-vol-4, accessed 6 October 2016.
Boud, D., Cohen, R. and Walker, D. (1993) Using experience for learning, Buckingham: SRHE/OU.
Bovill, C., Cook-Sather, A. and Felten, P. (2011) ‘Students as co-creators of teaching approaches, course design, and curricula: implications for academic developers’, International Journal for Academic Development 16(2): 133–145.
Brown, R. and Carasso, H. (2013) Everything for Sale? The marketisation of UK Higher Education, London: Routledge.
Buckley, A. (2013) Engagement for Enhancement: Report of a UK survey pilot, York: Higher Education Academy.
Buckley, A. (2014) UK Engagement Survey 2014, York: Higher Education Academy.
Buckley, A. (2015) UKES 2015: Students’ Perceptions of Skills Development, York: Higher Education Academy.
Burn-Murdoch, J. (2013) ‘Data protection is in danger of lagging behind technological change’, The Guardian, 12 April, https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/apr/12/data-protection-law-lagging-behind-technology, accessed 29 September 2016.
Daries, J.P., Reich, J., Waldo, J., Young, E.M., Whittinghill, J., Ho, A.D., Seaton, D.T. and Chuang, I. (2014) ‘Privacy, anonymity, and big data in the Social Sciences’, Communications of the ACM 57(9): 56–63.
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (2014) National Strategy for Access and Student Success in Higher Education, London: HMSO.
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (2015) Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, London: HMSO.
Dewey, J. (1916/2007) Democracy and Education, Middlesex: The Echo Library.
Dickey, M.D. (2005) ‘Three-dimensional virtual worlds and distance learning: two case studies of Active Worlds as a medium for distance education’, British Journal of Educational Technology 36(3): 439–451.
Downes, S. (2008) Connectivism and its Critics: What Connectivism is not, http://www.downes.ca/post/53657, accessed 21 September 2016.
Downes, S. (2015) From MOOC to Personal Learning, http://www.downes.ca/post/64556, accessed 29 September 2016.
Epstein, M. (2006) ‘Why effective consent presupposes autonomous authorisation: a counterorthodox argument’, Journal of Medical Ethics 32(6): 342–345.
Ferguson and Shum (2013) FutureLearn Workshop: Learning Analytics, https://r3beccaf.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/futurelearn-workshop-learning-analytics/, accessed 19 June 2015.
Freeman, C. and Plassman, P. (2015) ‘Using technology to monitor first year student attendance in their academic studies’, Brookes eJournal of Learning and Teaching 7(1), http://bejlt.brookes.ac.uk/paper/using-technology-to-monitor-first-year-student-attendance-in-their-academic-studies/, accessed 27 April 2016.
Forstenzer, J. (2016) What is the Purpose of the Teaching Excellence Framework? Council for the Defence of British Universities, http://cdbu.org.uk/what-is-the-purpose-of-tef/, accessed 21 September 2016.
Foucault, M. (1975) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, London: Penguin.
Gibbs, G. (2012) Dimensions of Quality, York: Higher Education Academy.
Giroux, H.A. (2011) On critical Pedagogy, New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Gomer, R.C. and Schraefel, M.C. (2016) Consentful surveillance: supporting user understanding and control. Everyday Surveillance Workshop, CHI 2016; 8 May, San Jose, USA. http://everydaysurveillance.com/ accessed 1 December 2016.
Greatbatch, D. and Holland, J. (2016) ‘Teaching quality in Higher Education: Literature review and qualitative research’, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/524495/he-teaching-quality-literature-review-qualitative-research.pdf, accessed 21 September 2016.
Hall, R. (2012) ‘The Profit Motive is Threatening Education’, University World News, 18 November.
Havergal, C. (2016a) ‘Tracking Student Emotions ‘Could Improve Online Retention’, Times Higher Education, 21 April, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/tracking-student-emotions-could-improve-online-retention, accessed 21 September 2016.
Havergal, C. (2016b) ‘Mock TEF Results Revealed: A New Hierarchy Emerges’, Times Higher Education, 23 June, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/mock-teaching-excellence-framework-tef-results-revealed-a-new-hierarchy-emerges, accessed 21 September 2016.
Home Office (2016) Tier 4 of the Points Based System: Guidance for Sponsors, Document 3: Tier 4 Compliance, London: HMSO.
HM Government (2014) Prevent Duty Guidance: A Consultation, London: HMSO.
Hunter Revell, S.M. and McCurry, M.K. (2012) ‘Effective pedagogies for teaching math to nursing students: A literature review’, Nurse Education Today 33(2013): 1352–1356.
Kuh, G. (2001) ‘Assessing what really matters to student learning: inside the National Survey of Student Engagement’, Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning 33(3): 10–17.
Kuh, G., Kinzie, J., Schuh, J. and Whitt, E. (2010) Student Success in College: Creating the Conditions that Matter, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Long, P. and Siemens, G. (2011) ‘Penetrating the fog: Analytics in learning and education, Educause Review 46(5): 31–40, http://er.educause.edu/~/media/files/article-downloads/erm1151.pdf, accessed 21 September 2016.
Moore, J., Sanders, J. and Higham, L. (2013) A Literature Review of Research into Widening Participation to Higher Education: Report to HEFCE and OFFA, Bristol: HEFCE, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/524495/he-teaching-quality-literature-review-qualitative-research.pdf, accessed 21 September 2016.
O’Neill, O. (2003) ‘Some limits of informed consent’, Journal of Medical Ethics 29(1): 4–7.
Macfarlane, B. (2015) ‘Student performativity in higher education: converting learning as a private space into a public performance,’ Higher Education Research and Development 34(2): 338–350.
Mann, S. (2005) ‘Alienation in the learning environment: a failure of community’, Studies in Higher Education 30(1): 43–55.
National Data Guardian (2016) National Data Guardian for Health and Care, Review of Data Security, Consent and Opt-Outs, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/535024/data-security-review.PDF, accessed 29 September 2016.
Nelson, S. (2014) ‘Blog: Measuring Our First Eight Courses’, https://about.futurelearn.com/blog/measuring-our-first-eight-courses/, accessed 19 June 2015.
Robinson, C. (2012) ‘Student engagement: what does this mean in practice in the context of higher education institutions?’ Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education 4(2): 94–108.
Rose-Adams, J. (2012) Leaving University Early: A Research Report from the Back on Course Project, Back on Course, Milton Keynes: The Open University:
Rosen, M. (2016) The Secret’s Out: Improve a Failing School by Throwing Out ‘Poor Quality’ Pupils!, http://michaelrosenblog.blogspot.fr/2016/04/the-secrets-out-improve-failing-school.html, accessed 24 April 2016.
Saunders, M. (2011) ‘Setting the scene: the four domains of evaluative practice in Higher Education’, in M. Saunders, P. Trowler, and V. Bamber (eds.) Reconceptualising Evaluation in Higher Education: The Practice Turn, Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press, pp. 1-17.
Sclater, N. (2014) Learning Analytics: The Current State of Play in UK Higher and Further Education, Bristol: JISC, http://repository.jisc.ac.uk/5657/1/Learning_analytics_report.pdf, accessed 24 April 2016.
Sclater, N. and Bailey, P. (2015) Code of Practice for Learning Analytics, Bristol: JISC, https://www.jisc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/jd0040_code_of_practice_for_learning_analytics_190515_v1.pdf, accessed 19 June 2015.
Sclater, N., Webb, M. and Danson, M. (2016) The Future of Data-Driven Decision Making, Bristol: JISC, https://www.jisc.ac.uk/reports/the-future-of-data-driven-decision-making, accessed 12 July 2016.
Senge, P.M. (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation, New York: Doubleday.
Sharples, M., Adams, A., Alozie, N., Ferguson, R., Fitzgerald, E., Gaved, M., McAndrew, P., Means, B., Remold, J., Rienties, B., Roschelle, J., Vogt, K., Whitelock, D. and Yarnall, L. (2015) Innovating Pedagogy 2015: Open University Report 4, Milton Keynes: The Open University.
Siemens, G. (2005) Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, http://www.itdl.org/journal/jan_05/article01.htm, accessed 21 September 2016.
Simon, C. (2016) ‘Colleges Can Now Figure Out Which Students will be Successful–Even Before Classes Start’, Business Insider UK, 28 June, http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-colleges-use-big-data-2016-6, accessed 21 September 2016.
Stevenson, J. (2012) Black and Minority Ethnic Student Degree Retention and Attainment, York: Higher Education Academy.
Tinto, V. (1975) ‘Dropout from higher education: a theoretical synthesis of recent research’, Review of Educational Research 45(1): 89–125.
Tinto, V. (1998) ‘Colleges as communities: taking research on student persistence seriously’, Review of Higher Education 21(2): 167–177.
Weinstein, C.E., Husman, J. and Dierking, D.R. (2000) Self Regulation Interventions with a focus on Learning Strategies, Handbook of Self Regulation, San Diego: Academic Press.
Wintrup, J., Wakefield, K. and Davis, H. (2015a) Engaged Learning in MOOCs: A Study Using the UK Engagement Survey, York: Higher Education Academy.
Wintrup, J., Wakefield, K., Morris, D. and Davis, H. (2015b) Liberating Learning: Experiences of MOOCs, York: Higher Education Academy.
Yorke, M. (2013) Do cross-sectional student assessment data make a reasonable proxy for longitudinal data? Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 38(8): 957–967
Young, L. (2016) ‘Academies are Excluding ‘Poor Quality Students’–Yet More Social Cleansing from the Conservative Government’, Independent, 20 April.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wintrup, J. Higher Education’s Panopticon? Learning Analytics, Ethics and Student Engagement. High Educ Policy 30, 87–103 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-016-0030-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-016-0030-8