Skip to content
Skip to main content

About this free course

Author

Become an OU student

Share this free course

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in STEM
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in STEM

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

5.4 Influence of learning analytics on SoTL practice

Learning analytics data has broadened the evidence base for reflective practice in SoTL. SoTL and learning analytics have a symbiotic relationship and are interrelated processes that are continually seeking to improve learning and teaching (van Barneveld et al., 2012). Learning analytics help to enhance the understanding of teaching and learning, while SoTL is informing the learning analytics community on important areas to focus on. Both learning analytics and SoTL are inquiry-based disciplines that go beyond content knowledge and into the broader realm of student learning (van Barneveld et al., 2012).

As big data and learning analytics are both embraced and challenged in SoTL research, new possibilities for SoTL inquiries will emerge that will use large-scale data sets and will run across internal and external institutional boundaries. Such SoTL inquiries will extend the impact of SoTL beyond a module or a department and help to align SoTL projects with both institutional and national expectations (Rehrey et al., 2019).

Activity 8 Learning analytics in a SoTL inquiry

Timing: Allow approximately 5 minutes

For a SoTL inquiry that you are designing to conduct in the near future, write down some of the learning analytics that could help shape your SoTL inquiry and the ethical considerations of using them.

If you are not planning to conduct a SoTL inquiry in the near future, reflect on some of the ethical considerations that have most shaped your understanding about ethics of learning analytics after studying this session.

To use this interactive functionality a free OU account is required. Sign in or register.
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).