Facilitating development of research ethics and integrity leadership competencies

To build a culture of integrity in a HE institution, innovative approaches are needed to enhance education of research ethics and integrity (REI). In addition to educating students, understanding is needed on how to facilitate for those who lead others. The focus is on early-career researchers (ECRs) as future REI leaders. The current study sheds light on how learning and REI leadership competencies evolve during scaffolded collaborative research ethics training for this target group. The study combines new instruments as part of holistic DBR. Data was collected from 3 groups of experienced researchers attending 3 training sessions in the form of written group reports and group discussion recordings. Qualitative deductive analysis was utilised for monitoring the learning process, scaffolding patterns, and display of REI leadership principles. Also, quantitative analysis was applied to group discussion data, displaying the nature of collaboration. Results imply that collaborative case-based role play format is effective in training future REI leaders. All groups displayed high levels of understanding. Combining ECRs and researchers with leadership experience supported knowledge building in the groups by bringing in various perspectives. Even though groups required different amounts of scaffolding, the nature was similar: maintaining goal orientation, highlighting critical features and redirecting learners. Learning analytics of collaboration indicated that the person with leadership experience was not necessarily the most active participant nor took the role of a 'group leader'. Still, it was mostly that person who displayed leadership competencies thus supporting other group members to develop leadership aspects.Peer reviewe

Scaffolding Collaborative Case-Based Learning during Research Ethics Training

As development of research ethics competencies is in the focus in higher education (HE) institutions, it is crucial to understand how to support the learning process during such training. While there is plenty of research on how to scaffold children's learning of cognitive skills, there is limited knowledge on how to enhance collaborative case-based learning of research ethics competencies in HE contexts. Our aim was to identify whether, how and when scaffolding is needed with various expertise levels to support development of ethics competencies. To identify and evaluate scaffolding during collaborative case-based ethics training we synthesised a scaffolding framework consisting of three levels: techniques, mechanisms and process. We organised 5 training sessions where 46 participants (including bachelor, master and PhD students as well as junior and senior academics) were involved. Data was collected as part of action research from group-work recordings and transcribed verbatim. Deductive qualitative analysis was implemented on transcripts based on the scaffolding framework. Our analysis revealed that structural scaffolding alone (learning material) is not always efficient with bachelor level students, they also require oral scaffolding when the need becomes apparent. Master's level students benefited most from wording the issues they needed to focus on. Doctoral students and senior academics needed scaffolding to maintain goal orientation. We end our article with some recommendations for facilitators of ethics education, and encourage using the scaffolding framework also in complex problem-solving beyond ethics training.Peer reviewe

Knowledge building process during collaborative research ethics training for researchers : experiences from one university

While research ethics and developing respective competencies is gaining prominence in higher education institutions, there is limited knowledge about the learning process and scaffolding during such training. The global health crisis has made the need for facilitator-independent training materials with sufficient support even more pronounced. To understand how knowledge building takes place and how computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) supports research ethics learning, we analysed: 1) how the participants' understanding was displayed during the collaborative learning process utilising the developed ethics resource; and 2) whether the scaffolding provided by the resource supported the learning process. Epistemic evidence was collected during design-based research (DBR) involving 36 PhD students and researchers with supervisory experience divided into 11 groups. Data (from written group reports, group discussion recordings and self-reflection questionnaires) was analysed qualitatively utilising the SOLO taxonomy. The results revealed that: 1) participants displayed high levels of understanding and the need for the facilitator support decreased with the use of the online ethics resource; 2) the learners were able to evaluate their learning outcomes with satisfactory accuracy; 3) when used linearly, the online ethics resource helped learners to achieve high levels of understanding even when the scaffolding gradually faded. Based on the lessons learnt, design principles were extracted to develop research ethics competencies in higher education, and also recommendations for research ethics training were outlined.Peer reviewe

Towards Novel Researcher Tooling Based on Multimodal Analytics

Much of educational research today employs a complex mixture of qualitative and quantitative analyses, both during the exploratory and confirmatory phases. However, researchers are still stuck with tools that were developed mainly for single-perspective research. The problem is even more acute in emergent areas with complex, high-frequency data, such as multimodal learning analytics (MMLA). In this position paper, we posit that a new generation of researcher tools are needed to account for this new complexity of research processes. We also anticipate that such new wave of tools should leverage recent advances in computing technology, while keeping humans in the loop. The paper presents a proof-of-concept ongoing study focusing on one of the main points of friction in social sciences research: the manual coding of audio/video. The results of this study, to be presented in the workshop, will illustrate some of the advantages and unsolved challenges in the development of computationally-enhanced researcher tools that can lead to MMLA solutions usable in the real world

Using Learning Analytics at School: a Go-Lab Study

Go-Lab is an European project devoted to promote STEM education by means of pedagogical guidelines based on blended Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL), authoring tools for rich open educational resources, and online labs. In such a framework, we have analysed the orchestration needs of expert teachers in inquiry learning and STEM, and provided a set of Learning Analytics (LA) apps to address them. This document reports on three LA apps -Online Users, Student Time Spent, and Submitted Reports- which, based on the context description, provide visualisations of the student activity to support teacher awareness and reflection

How to Aggregate Lesson Observation Data into Learning Analytics Datasets?

The technological environment that supports the learning process tends to be the main data source for Learning Analytics. However, this trend leaves out those parts of the learning process that are not computer-mediated. To overcome this problem, involving additional data gathering techniques such as ambient sensors, audio and video recordings, or even observations could enrich datasets. This paper focuses on how the data extracted from the observations can be integrated with data coming from activity tracking, resulting in a multimodal dataset. The paper identifies the need for theoretical and pedagogical semantics in multimodal learning analytics, and examines the xAPI potential for the multimodal data gathering and aggregation. Finally, we propose an approach for pedagogy-driven observational data identification. As a proof of concept, we have applied the approach in two research works where observations had been used to enrich or triangulate the results obtained for traditional data sources. Through these examples, we illustrate some of the challenges that multimodal dataset may present when including observational dat

Collaborative case-based learning process in research ethics

The increasing concern about ethics and integrity in research communities has brought attention to how students and junior academics can be trained on this regard. Moreover, it is known that ethical behaviour and integrity not only involve individual but also group norms and considerations. Thus, through action research and participant observation, this research investigates the learning processes through which 64 students collaboratively develop research ethics and integrity competencies. The aim was to understand how bachelor, master and PhD students approach ethical dilemma cases through a collaborative process. The data consisted of recorded group work on ethics cases, student group reports, and post-training questionnaires. Later, the analyses considered groups as the unit of analysis. These data were analysed through content analysis utilizing the SOLO taxonomy to identify levels of understanding and assess evolvement of ethical sensitivity during a casebased training session. The results show that all groups reached the level of understanding where the groups demonstrated that concepts had been understood appropriately, but occasionally struggled to make connections between them. Students perceived working collaboratively as beneficial. The results help teachers of research ethics and integrity to make pedagogically justified choices in their teaching. Drawing on the results of this study, we propose a tool for the formative assessment of student learning of research ethics and integrity.Peer reviewe

Learning Analytics in action: ethics and privacy issues in the classroom

The field of learning analytics (LA) is working on the definition of frameworks that structure the legal and ethical issues that stakeholders have to take into account regarding LA solutions. While current efforts in this direction focus on institutional and development aspects, this paper reflects on small-scale classroom oriented approaches that aim at supporting teachers in their practice. This reflection is based on three studies where we applied our teacher-led learning analytics approach in higher education and primary school contexts. We describe the ethical issues that emerged in these learning scenarios, and discuss them according to three dimensions: the overall learning analytics approach, the particular solution to learning analytics adopted, and the educational contexts where the analytics are applied

Applying Learning Analytics to a Primary School Classroom: Benefits and Barriers

There are numerous proposals and solutions that aim to apply Learning Analytics (LA) in authentic scenarios. Many of them have been applied successfully in learning contexts where adults are involved. However, when we try to transfer such proposals to underage students, the application may not be straightforward. This paper reports on a case where a LA approach, which had been already applied to a university context with success, was applied to a primary school classroom. The case shows how the main barriers that had to be faced in the new educational context were legal and ethical issues related to identity and data ownership. The case also serves to illustrate the potential benefit that an apparently simple LA approach can bring to these educational contexts

Design-aware analytics supporting teachers’ monitoring of blended learning scenarios: Two experiences in higher education

From the conceptualization to the evaluation of blended learning scenarios, teachers address multiple tasks, sometimes being overwhelmed on account of the required time and associated burden. To support teachers in this endeavor, we propose to connect the pedagogical decisions made at design time with the analysis of the participants’ interactions. In this paper, we evaluate the proposal in two authentic scenarios where we analysed whether the script-aware monitoring process provided the participant teachers with relevant information for the orchestration of blended learning scenarios. The participant teachers valued the proposal positively in terms of representativeness, novelty, relevance, required effort, and perceived usefulness. Additionally, they stated that it was helpful for the orchestration of the learning scenarios