A Critical look at Educational Technology from a Distance Education Perspective

This article focuses on educational technology as applied in the context of programs and institutions that offer completely distance education courses. All education in the 21st century is digital education in that the use of networking, text and image creation and editing and search and retrieval of information punctuates the life of almost every teacher and student. However, the context of distance education - where all the interactions are mediated, creates a unique and heightened context of digitalization. This paper focuses on two questions: (1) What aspects have not been completely satisfactory in the transit and transformation that education has undergone, from its more traditional, campus-based conception, towards its new configuration marked by the continuous use of digital technologies and environments? (2) In order what are the future challenges that distance education must deal with to support sustainability of this teaching model? From a theoretical and interpretative analysis, based on the review of relevant articles and documents on distance education, some critical dimensions (limitations, unkept promises and future challenges) the use of digital technologies in distance education is identified and subsequently analyzed. These dimensions evidence how the initial (sometimes excessive) enthusiasm about the insertion of digital technologies in distance education has not (yet?) been fully reflected in reality

Barriers, enablers, and motivations for staff adoption of learning analytics: Insights for professional learning opportunities from an Australian university

Understanding the capabilities and motivations of academics towards adopting and using Learning Analytics (LA) to support their development of technology-enhanced learning is an important first step in designing an effective and flexible adoption plan. Situated in a regional university, this paper reports on the initial data-gathering stage of an on-going study aimed at designing and trialing an adoption plan to support individual staff to engage deeply with LA to inform and enhance their teaching practice and their students’ experiences. This paper analyses a staff survey (N=74) and transcripts from 28 semi-structured interviews conducted over 22 months with eight academics. Survey respondents reported low levels of knowledge about, and use of, LA, as well as a lack of confidence in accessing, interpreting, and acting on, data. Inductive and deductive thematic analyses of interview transcripts support these findings. Analysis further identified three main themes of indicators of successful LA adoption: effective learning design and enhanced teaching practice; improved student experience; and academic recognition. Based on these results, this paper proposes elements that can be included in a suite of professional learning opportunities that will enable academic developers and institutions to support individual staff to successfully adopt of LA

The Syllabus as a Student Privacy Document in an Age of Learning Analytics

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reveal how instructors discuss student data and information privacy in their syllabi. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected a mixture of publicly accessible and privately disclosed syllabi from 8,302 library and information science (LIS) courses to extract privacy language. Using privacy concepts from the literature and emergent themes, the authors analyzed the corpus. Findings Most syllabi did not mention privacy (98 percent). Privacy tended to be mentioned in the context of digital tools, course communication, policies and assignments. Research limitations/implications The transferability of the findings is limited because they address only one field and professional discipline, LIS, and address syllabi for only online and hybrid courses. Practical implications The findings suggest a need for professional development for instructors related to student data privacy. The discussion provides recommendations for creating educational experiences that support syllabi development and constructive norming opportunities. Social implications Instructors may be making assumptions about the degree of privacy literacy among their students or not value student privacy. Each raises significant concerns if privacy is instrumental to intellectual freedom and processes critical to the educational experience. Originality/value In an age of educational data mining and analytics, this is one of the first studies to consider if and how instructors are addressing student data privacy in their courses, and the study initiates an important conversation for reflecting on privacy values and practices

Exploring instances of Deleuzian rhizomatic patterns in student writing and online interactions at an open distance eLearning institution in South Africa

This study aimed to explore and make visualisations of Deleuzian Rhizomatic Patterns in first-year students’ writing samples of academic writing. Online interactions on myUnisa’s online discussion forums and the Microsoft (MS) Teams virtual classes of 2020 in Academic Language and Literacy in English (ENG53) were examined rhizomatically. Traditionally, academic literacy studies employ linear models of studying students’ academic writing. However, recent academic literacy studies advocate that student writing be studied from multiple perspectives. One such approach is the Deleuzian Rhizomatic Approach to writing. The Deleuzian Rhizomatic Approach to writing employs writing analytics that can be applied to the academic writing samples in terms of key themes (concordances). Therefore, in investigating linking adverbials in online interactions of students and lecturers, writing analytics were applied. Writing analytics as a part of learning analytics entails, in this case, various data related to student writing that could be computationally analysed using writing software tools. The writing samples were analysed using rhizoanalysis by means of the AntConc, AntMover, and AntWordProfiler software applications. Rhizomatic patterns in students’ writing samples drawn from interactions on the 2020 ENG53 MS Teams virtual classroom and myUnisa’s ODF were visualised using social network analysis (SNA), online tools MS Power BI and Gephi. In addition, a readability index of the writing samples was assessed through the AntWordProfiler multiplatform tool and was visualised rhizomatically. The student writing samples revealed sectional rhizomatic patterns in various forms, as well as visualizations of MS Power BI and Gephi which portrayed rhizomatic patterns bearing various degrees of interaction nodes between students and lecturers. Furthermore, the AntWordProfiler revealed that readability levels of the writing samples were comprehensible but varied rhizomatically between students.English StudiesPh. D. (Applied English Studies

Affordances of Learning Analytics for Mediating Learning

Learning analytics acceptance and adoption is a socio-technological endeavour. Understanding how learning analytics impact practice is an important part of demonstrating their value. In the study presented in this thesis, "Mediated Learning" provides a framework through which to describe how learning analytics can impact psychological, social and material aspects of learning, from the perspective of educators and learners. It also offers a structure through which to make recommendations for improving the mediatory effects of learning analytics. A qualitative research design, based on "Grounded Theory" was implemented and 10 educators from 3 European universities were recruited through convenience and purposive sampling for exploratory interviews. A subsequent case study of the Open University provided critical perspectives from both educators (n=18) and learners (n=22) about the institutional, departmental, domain-related and epistemological factors that broadly influence perceptions of learning analytics. The study applied "Affordance Theory" to identify what participants were most easily able to recognise as beneficial to their own practice. Participant contributions were open-coded to uncover emerging themes and then organised into thematic categories and subcategories. Respondent validation, as well as triangulation of data between the exploratory interviews and focus groups support the validity of the study. Findings suggested that domain-related epistemological assumptions and previous experience influence how and why an individual could make use of learning analytics insights. Gaining stakeholder acceptance involves targeting the right training and opportunities at the appropriate disciplines. Findings also indicate that learning analytics has the strongest mediatory effect for learners when the technology is capable of exposing them to other learners' strategies, or when it assists them personally, and continually in goal orientation adoption. The implications of the study are important for higher education institutions looking to implement large-scale learning analytics initiatives, in particular, those with a diverse student body

Residential Faculty Members’ Differential Use of Blackboard Tools: A Case Study

The purpose of this single instrumental case study was to understand the differential use of Blackboard tools for residential faculty members at a large private nonprofit university in the Southeastern part of the United States. The differential use of Blackboard tools was generally defined as the tendency of residential faculty members in universities to use certain Blackboard tools over others available to them. The theory that guided this study was the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) by Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, and Davis (2003) as it explained factors influencing faculty members’ use of Blackboard tools. The central research question for this study was: Why do residential faculty members select certain Blackboard tools to integrate into their courses more than others? Participants were residential faculty members, information technology administrators and designers, and faculty support coordinators drawn from a large private nonprofit university in the Southeastern part of the United States. Data was collected using interviews, focus groups, and document analysis. Data were analyzed both manually and using NVivo computer software to find codes and themes that explained the causes of the phenomenon. The key themes answering the central question of this study are time, Blackboard, requirements, social support, and fear. Sub-question one was answered by Blackboard and motivation themes. Social support, technical team and support, and requirements are addressed in the second sub-question. The third sub-question was answered by the following themes: Blackboard, requirements, and technical team and support. Theoretical, empirical, and practical implications and recommendations are offered

Learning Analytics for the Formative Assessment of New Media Skills

Recent theories of education have shifted learning environments towards student-centred education. Also, the advancement of technology and the need for skilled individuals in different areas have led to the introduction of new media skills. Along with new pedagogies and content, these changes require new forms of assessment. However, assessment as the core of learning has not been modified as much as other educational aspects. Hence, much attention is required to develop assessment methods based on current educational requirements. To address this gap, we have implemented two data-driven systematic literature reviews to recognize the existing state of the field in the current literature. Chapter four of this thesis focus on a literature review of automatic assessment, named learning analytics. This chapter investigates the topics and challenges in developing new learning analytics tools. Chapter five studies all assessment types, including traditional and automatic forms, in computational thinking education. Computational thinking education, which refers to the teaching of problem-solving skills, is one of the new media skills introduced in the 21st century. The findings from these two literature reviews categorize the assessment methods and identify the key topics in the literature of learning analytics and computational thinking assessment. Studying the identified topics, their relations, and related studies, we pinpoint the challenges, requirements, and opportunities of using automatic assessment in education. The findings from these studies can be used as a guideline for future studies aiming to enhance assessment methods in education. Also, the literature review strategy in this thesis can be utilized by other researchers to develop systematic data-driven literature reviews in future studies