Stakeholder Perspectives (Staff and Students) on Institution-Wide Use of Learning Analytics to Improve Learning and Teaching Outcomes

Abstract

While learning analytics (LA) developments and applications remain promising, the systematic application and value of such technology and applications have yet to be fully realised. Proposed reasons why these initiatives are not adopted across entire institutions include a lack of understanding among academic staff and students regarding the potential usefulness of LA, concerns regarding ethics and privacy and a range of resourcing and professional development issues. This chapter draws on three separate but related studies, two of which were undertaken by the Australian Innovative Research Universities (IRU) network exploring the views of staff (n = 393) and students (n = 2017) regarding the use of LA to support and improve learning and teaching. The IRU institutions share some common traits but are at different stages of online delivery and LA adoption, and they all have their own contextual considerations. These studies therefore provide insights across a broad cross-cut of the sector with a diversity of staff, students and programs. This research identified concerns raised by both students and staff; many are known (such as the concerns regarding ethics and privacy) while others are less commonly discussed (particularly those from staff and related to pedagogical approaches). Results from these studies provide important and potentially beneficial perspectives from these significant stakeholders (staff and students) regarding the use of LA. The findings offer unique insights across a broad spectrum of stakeholders to identify both roadblocks and opportunities to inform institutional LA development beyond localised practice. The insights include a mismatch across staff and student perspectives where students’ LA needs and concerns are at times given lower priority, an increased need for leadership and policy development regarding the transparency of data collection and greater opportunities for both staff and students to use and gain insights into how they can leverage data to improve teaching and learning outcomes.