Week 1 - Introduction

CI 5330 Section 001
Learning Analytics in the Knowledge Age

Bodong Chen
January 19, 2016

Five Things About the Course

  • One of the first courses in Learning Analytics (LA)
  • Second iteration at the U
  • Three departments represented last year (C&I, Ed Psych, CS)
  • May the 4th (force) be with you :)

About Myself

  • Beijing Normal -> Peking U -> U of Toronto
  • Joined The U in January 2015
  • Research areas
    • computer-supported collaborative learning
    • learning analytics
    • online learning (MOOCs)
    • social media
  • (An R hacker + a fan of reproducible research)
More on http://meefen.github.io/

Introduction

Learning Analytics as a (Young) Field

  • First academic conference: 2011, Banff, Canada
  • First summer institute: 2013, Stanford University
  • First issue of its journal: 2014

Learning Analytics as a Field (cont'd)

Google Scholar search - exact phrase

Year Count
- 2010 201
2010 - 2011 342
2011 - 2012 1,060
2012 - 2013 2,250
2013 - 2014 3,950
2014 - 2015 5,160
2015 - 2016 2,300*

*: Explanations?

Learning Analytics as a Field (cont'd)

Scopus search: TITLE-ABS-KEY ( “learning analytics” )

Learning Analytics as a Field (cont'd)

Learning Analytics as a Field (cont'd)

Learning Analytics as a Field (cont'd)

Learning Analytics as a Field (cont'd)

Source

Unpacking LA

Collaborative Drawing (5 min)

Unpacking LA - Results

Alert: Traces you just left in G Drive...

  • Were you aware of?
  • What questions you may answer with them?
  • How might you analyze them?
  • How might some “researcher” not present interept them?

Important Distinctions

  • learning analytics vs. analysis of learning data
  • analytics vs. quantitative
  • big vs. small / rich vs. poor
  • analytics vs. objective

Course Portal

A Knowledge Building Class

What does it mean?

  • collective responsibility
  • community discourse
  • solving authentic problems (vs. acquiring some knowledge)
  • production of something new

So…

  • You're in the driver's seat
  • You're responsible to each other

Possible Themes for SIGs

  • Assessment of Domain Knowledge
  • Social Networks
  • Mining of Text and Discourse
  • Temporality in Learning
  • Prediction and Intervention
  • Recommender Systems
  • Visual Analytics
  • Educator Practice
  • …

WG Projects

Examples:

  • xAPI/Tin Can (Recording traces of corporate learning)
  • The “Bridge” (Bridging Stackoverflow with RStudio)
  • Data Visualization
  • LA & Pre-Service Teacher

Knowledge Forum demo

  • Link: http://bit.ly/kf-6
  • New account
  • Register for our community
  • Views
  • Notes: posting, scaffolds, building on, referencing, annotation
  • Personal workspace
  • (Google Chrome is the recommended browser)

Week 2: A Brief Overview

Readings

Activities

  • KF Discussion: What is (or are) learning analytics? What isn't?
  • Start to explore WG group ideas