Presented by Rosanna De Rosa (Università di Napoli Federico II) and Chiara Ferrari (Ipsos Group) at <a>The International Data Science & Social Research (DSSR) Conference</a> was held in Naples from 17 to 19 February 2016.

1. 11111111
GOVERNING BY DATA
1 © 2016 Ipsos.
Considerations on the role of
learning analytics in education
Rosanna De Rosa
(Università di Napoli Federico II)
Chiara Ferrari
(Ipsos Group)

2. 2
Teaching in the digital era is characterized
by a predominance of complexity

3. Physical vs. digital spaces
Production vs. consumption
Formal vs. informal
just to name a few…
LEARNING HAS BECOME AN INTERCONNECTED EXPERIENCE
In this scenario, the concept of MOOCs
and of the learning data attached to them,
offer invaluable materials to reflect on how we will need to
adapt practices and policies to the changing learning process

4. THE ROLE OF ANALYTICS IN EDUCATION
Not only
an educational application of web analytics
LEARNING ANALYTICS
Which allows to
• Profile learners
• Analyse students interactions
• Measure learning uptake
But, also
a tool for measuring operational excellence
ACADEMIC ANALYTICS
“ … the evidence of how the
training /learning organisation is
aligning with and meeting the
goals of the broader organisation”
(van Barneveld, Campbell – 2012)
And
a source of insights aimed at identifying trends to
forecast and plan future strategies
PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS

5. LEARNING
ANALYTICS
One of the most powerful,
disruptive and relevant
innovations in the field of
education
BIG DATA
A new type of corporate
asset, working to leverage
competition
DISTANCE
EDUCATION
No longer an institutional accessory,
BUT it needs funding
Will benefit from the results of the
analysis, which will testify of the
success of the learning experience and
therefore will drive political and social
approval
=
MONEY
THE GAME CHANGER EFFECT: the education industry
THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DATA

6. THE GAME CHANGER EFFECT: the accountability challenge
THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DATA
The Italian case
• The academic sector needs a re-organization
• An assessment system is put in place re. the research production
essentially based on peer reviewing
• The mono-dimensional nature of the tool – among other weaknesses –
appears unsuitable to cover the complexity of the academic activity
The risk of taking political decisions (e.g. cost reductions and
investments) based on a mono-dimensional evaluation is obvious
Institutions accountability must be based on the wealth of data available:
students success, research production, organisational work, and so on

7. THE GAME CHANGER EFFECT: efficiency
THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DATA
Data governance can be efficiently managed by the combination of
• Data stewardship
• Reporting
• Query
• Analytic tools
which, efficiently connected, will be able to deploy the descriptive and the
predictive powers of analytics and to inform strategies

8. THE GAME CHANGER EFFECT: from descriptive to predictive
THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DATA
DESCRIPTION
The usage of Learning Analytics
in the context of online
education is being piloted in
various European projects
• Course design
• Retention rates
• Completion rates
Real time - Retrospective analysis

9. THE GAME CHANGER EFFECT: from descriptive to predictive
THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DATA
PREDICTION / PRESCRIPTION
Using data mining on datasets of
millions of students records
PARframework*, uses descriptive,
inferential and predictive analyses
to identify variables that should
have direct impact on success
*PARframework.org, adopted by 35 US academic institutions and leveraging on datasets from 350 campuses
THE CHALLENGES
 PRIVACY
• Records are de-identified
 GOVERNANCE
• Who translates data into policies?
(and, with what kind of expertise?)
• Who sets the objectives?
• Who governs the results?

10. The percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds in the U.S. who have completed an associate's degree or higher
69,3%
18,1%
26,5%
45,8%
38,8%
0 20 40 60 80
ASIAN
HISPANIC
BLACK
WHITE
TOTAL US
Who governs the results?
Depending on how this data are looked at and by whom, one might conclude that some groups of
students are not doing well enough and are not worth investing in, which may reproduce /perpetuate
social inequalities

11. THE GAME CHANGER EFFECT: governance
THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DATA
THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
Ben Williamson, in the World
Yearbook of Education 2014,
identifies ‘public policy labs’ as a
new actor in educational
governance scene and highlights
the inherent risks
• Not only they diagnose problems but
they also translate ideas and processes
into educational policy proposals
• They transform education into a
‘problematic object’
• They re-configure learners into
‘calculable governing resources’
Individual learners’ data used to inform policies on
which pedagogies and practices work best.
Education as a self-regulating system using database
driven processes

12. THE GAME CHANGER EFFECT: governance
THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DATA
A WAY OF OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES*
*FERGUSON, 2012
The Learning Analytics community needs to
• Build strong connections with the learning
sciences
• Develop methods of working with a wide
range of datasets in order to optimise
learning environments
• Focus on the perspectives of the learners
• Develop and apply a clear set of ethical
guidelines
BIG DATA need to be deeply rooted in
institutional and organisational practices
and to be supported by
• Strong leadership commitment
• A genuine culture of evidence,
intertwined with
• a discipline of interpretation
(assumption, description, interpretation,
prediction, implication)

13. BIG DATA implications
FOOD FOR THOUGHT AND FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION
What is the social impact of big data and analytics, on standardisation or on social control ?
• the realisation of Clarke’s digital persona “a model of the individual established
through the collection, storage and analysis of data about that person”,
• the ‘dataveillance1’ potential,
• the ‘dataspace2’ influence on our life,
• the data as a ‘meme3’ and the risk of their “naïve or nefarious uses, to restrict
access or to punish”,
• the ‘hidden curriculum4’ effect, …
1 Roger Clarke, 1987
2 Perry, 2011
3 Ellen Wagner, 2014
4 Edwards, 2015

14. 14
Thank you!!
Rosanna De Rosa
Università di Napoli Federico II
rderosa@iunina.it
Chiara Ferrari
Ipsos Group
chiara.ferrari@ipsos.com