Outstanding community work award

I was honoured to receive the Outstanding Community Work Award from the Society for Learning Ananlytics Research (SoLAR) at the Learning Analytics and Knowledge conference.

Outstanding Community Work Award recipients are recognised for their outstanding community work in the field of learning analytics through engagement with researchers and/or practitioners to train or disseminate initiatives in the area of learning analytics and for fostering the exchange of knowledge around learning analytics.

Capacity building for digital education

Our special section on capacity building for digital education was published in ‘Open Learning’ in March. This work builds on our experience on the Skills for Prosperity Kenya project. The four papers in the section, and accompanying editorial, look at some of the lessons that can be learned from putting capacity building into practice in different Higher Education contexts.

Abstract

The paper’s editorial begins:

Building capacity for digital education can be a daunting prospect because digital education – also known as technology-enhanced learning or TEL – is a complex system. Such systems are difficult to model because of the ways in which their different elements – including people, technologies, and resources – relate to each other and depend upon each other. In the context of Higher Education, this complex includes interconnected information technology resources that can function as a unit, digital content, various forms of student feedback, not forgetting the various technologies and human actors involved. In this special collection, we argue that managing the growth of this complex system with all its interdependencies is crucial to its success. Through mapping these interdependencies, essential processes become clearer. These, in turn, illustrate how information/data is transferred between different parts of the ecosystem. This mapping should also reveal which parts of the system are not connected and therefore unable to exchange knowledge/data. One of the salient findings from work on ‘Covid challenges and opportunities driving the research agenda’ (Whitelock et al., Citation2021) was the need for specialised introductions to new devices and pedagogies, resulting in capacity building initiatives leading to managed growth.

Whitelock, Denise; Goshtasbpour, Fereshte; Pitt, Rebecca; Ferguson, Rebecca and Cross, Simon (2024). Capacity building for digital education. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 39(2) pp. 105–111. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2024.2317894

JLA: Applications of Learning Analytics: Applications in Latin America

A new issue of the Journal of Learning Analytics (Volume 11, Number 1) was published on 15 February 2024.  This included a special section on learning analytics in Latin America, as well as another four research papers.

The special section’s guest editors were:

• Isabel Hilliger, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile
• Héctor G. Ceballos, Tecnológico de Monterrey, México
• Jorge Maldonado Mahuad, Universidad de Cuenca, Ecuador
• Rafael Ferreira Mello, CESAR School, Brazil

Topics of interest

Topics of interest mentioned in the call for papers for this special section included:

• Adoption and implementation of LA solutions: There is a growing interest in understanding how learning analytics technologies can be used in the region to improve education quality and equity.
• Learning data: There is concern about the lack of high-quality data and the ability to collect and analyze learning data in the region.
• Using LA solutions to improve equity and inclusion in education: LA can be used to identify inequalities and barriers to learning and develop strategies to improve equity and inclusion in education.
• Using LA solutions to improve educational quality: Studies about the adoption of LA solutions to identify curriculum elements to be improved, such as assessment methods, teaching practices, and learning resources, among others.
• Policies and regulations for LA solutions: There is a need for clear and consistent policies and regulations for the use of LA in the region.
• Training and education in the use of LA: There is concern about the lack of training and education in the use of learning analysis technologies in the region.
• Integration of learning analytics technologies with other educational technologies: There is an interest in understanding how learning analytics technologies can be integrated with other educational technologies to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of learning.

Leverhulme Lecture: Understanding Learning in the World of AI

On 21 February 2024, I hosted a CALRG (Computers and Learning research group)  and OpenTEL event with Professor David W Shaffer, Sears Bascom Professor of Learning Analytics and Vilas Distinguished Achievement at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  

In this talk, Dr Shaffer looked at what AI is (and isn’t), its impact on what and how we learn, and how AI can change what it means to do research. 

This was followed in the afternoon by a Leverhulme workshop on epistemic network analysis.

This hands-on workshop introduced participants to the principles of Quantitative Ethnography (QE), an approach to analysing Big Data that goes beyond the old dichotomy of qualitative and quantitative methods and past simple mixtures of methods. The workshop focused on Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA), a tool for modelling complex and collaborative thinking within a QE framework. ENA models how humans make meaning of events in the world using in large- and small-scale datasets on many kinds, including logfiles, transcripts of structured and semi-structured interviews, simulations, chat, email, and social media. A

Interdisciplinarity in Open Technology-Enhanced Learning – special issue

Eileen Scanlon and I collaborated on a special collection for the Journal of Interactive Media in Education (JIME) that went live on 15 February 2024.

Interdisciplinarity in Open Technology-Enhanced Learning brings together work by researchers both inside and outside the Open Technology Enhanced Learning (OpenTEL) group that relate to themes explored over the last five years and demonstrating how they can be applied across disciplines. Together, the papers highlight major barriers to learning – lack of resources, unequal access to resources, limited access for people with disabilities, growing recognition of the scale of mental health issues – and identify ways of reducing these barriers in TEL contexts.

The collection begins with an editorial, authored by Eileen and I, introducing this special issue on interdisciplinarity in open technology-enhanced learning andexplaining its roots in the work of the OpenTEL group.

Generative AI anD large language Models In higher educaTion (ADMIT)

A new year, and we’re starting work on a European project on generative AI and large language models, funded by Europe’s Erasmus scheme.

The overarching project objective is to establish the necessary educational and ethical conditions that enable the utilization of large language models (LLM) and generative AI as a means of enhancing teaching and learning in higher education.

• Conduct ongoing assessments of the impact of LLM on education
• keeping track of the latest research and innovations in the use of LLM and generative AI in higher education over the project lifetime (2023-2026) (WP2).
• Identify and map practices related to the use of LLM and generative AI
• including leadership in this area
• and compile annual curated reports on the findings (WP3).
• Develop evidence-based models and guidelines for integrating LLM and generative AI into teaching and learning design
• based on current research and good practices (WP2
• WP3)
• and tailored to different types of learning activities at the micro level. This will involve institutional conditions and frameworks for integrating LLM and generative AI to be created by the leadership at the macro-level
• while teaching and learning and IT services fulfil a pivotal function between policy and design at the meso-level (WP4).
• Develop recommendations and guidelines for the ethical use of LLM and generative AI in education at all levels
• including issues of academic integrity;
• Organize continuing professional development programmes for staff and leadership on the use of LLM and generative AI in teaching and learning design
• as well as on educational and ethical conditions in this area. This will include developing open licensed CPD course modules based on project outcomes.

We’re working on this with open universities across Europe: UNED, Open University of Catalonia, University of Hagen, Open University of the Netherlands, Open University of Cyprus, UniNettuno University, Jyväskylä Univerity, Hellenic Open Universtiy, Anadolu University and EADTU.

Generative AI and Learning Analytics

The final edition of the 2023 Journal of Learning Analytics (volume 10) was published on 21 December.

It included an editorial that focused on generative AI – and also at the costs involved in publishing an open-access journal.

Abstract

This editorial looks back at the Journal of Learning Analytics (JLA) in 2023 and forward to 2024. Considering the recent proliferation of large language models such as GPT4 and Bard, the first section of this editorial points to the need for robust Generative AI (GenAI) analytics, calling for consideration of how GenAI may impact learning analytics research and practice. The second section looks back over the past year, providing statistics on submissions and considering the cost of publication in an open-access journal.

Khosravi, H., Viberg, O., Kovanovic, V., & Ferguson, R. (2023). Generative AI and Learning Analytics. Journal of Learning Analytics, 10(3), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2023.8333

FLAN tenth anniversary

The first meeting of the FutureLearn Academic Network (FLAN) took place in London on 26 September 2013 with speakers from Glasgow, Exter and The Open University. Since then, the network has held around four events a year, in the UK, Ireland, Spain and Australia. These have included 247 presentations given by 201 different speakers.

The 33rd FLAN meeting, celebrating its Tenth Anniversary, took place at the University of Leeds on 23 October 2023. The talks (other than institutional updates) are all available in this YouTube playlist.

• Ayşe Sunar: Where we have progressed or stopped on the way to a personalised MOOC experience
• Keynote – Mike Sharples: ‘The changing pedagogy of FutureLearn, from “massive open social learning” to “professional progression with tailored learning”
• Duncan Kemp, FutureLearn Partnerships Director, FutureLearn update from
• Matt Cornock, Latest work at Digital Education Service, University of Leeds
• Monty King: Doing MOOCs in Dili
• Barbara Conde & Napat Jitpaisarnwattana: Bridging the gaps in language learning through LMOOCs.
• Michael Meaney: A Framework for Considering the Matthew Effect in MOOCs
• Fereshte Goshtasbpour & Katy Jordan (Katy was unable to attend): The Decade of the MOOC

Viva: Stephen Foster

On 20 September 2023, I was internal viva examiner at The Open University for Stephen Foster, who presented his thesis: An exploration of how automated immediate formative feedback might help students overcome some of the challenges of academic writing.

The external examiner was Maria Limniou from the University of Liverpool and the chair was Martin Weller. Supervisors were Denise Whitelock, Karen Kear and Simon Cross.

Start of thesis abstract

One of the challenges many students face with their assignment writing is presenting a coherent argument. It has long been recognised that the best way for students to improve their assignment writing is to receive formative feedback on it. Students can then amend their writing based on that feedback and repeat the process until they are confident that they have constructed a coherent argument which meets the criteria set for them. At many universities, it is common for students to receive feedback on assignments after they have been marked. That feedback should then help them feedforward to their next assignment; however, the feedback is received too late to help with the assignment on which it was provided. This thesis reports on the extent to which immediate automated writing evaluation (AWE) feedback received whilst drafting an assignment, might help students overcome some of the challenges they have with assignment writing.

 

ADMIT project

In September 2023 we got the good news that we’d been successful in our application for Erasmus funding for the project Generative AI anD large language Models In higher educaTion, which goes under the rather contrived acronym of ADMIT.

The overarching project objective is to establish the necessary educational and ethical conditions that enable the utilization of large language models (LLM) and generative AI as a means of enhancing teaching and learning in higher education.

• Conduct ongoing assessments of the impact of LLM on education
• keeping track of the latest research and innovations in the use of LLM and generative AI in higher education over the project lifetime (2023-2026) (WP2).
• Identify and map practices related to the use of LLM and generative AI
• including leadership in this area
• and compile annual curated reports on the findings (WP3).
• Develop evidence-based models and guidelines for integrating LLM and generative AI into teaching and learning design
• based on current research and good practices (WP2
• WP3)
• and tailored to different types of learning activities at the micro level. This will involve institutional conditions and frameworks for integrating LLM and generative AI to be created by the leadership at the macro-level
• while teaching and learning and IT services fulfil a pivotal function between policy and design at the meso-level (WP4).
• Develop recommendations and guidelines for the ethical use of LLM and generative AI in education at all levels
• including issues of academic integrity;
• Organize continuing professional development programmes for staff and leadership on the use of LLM and generative AI in teaching and learning design
• as well as on educational and ethical conditions in this area. This will include developing open licensed CPD course modules based on project outcomes.