Understanding Student Perspectives on Learning Analytics to Enable Privacy Advocacy and Policy Design

Abstract

The rise of computing infrastructure and data collection in higher education has opened the door for colleges and universities to begin large-scale data analytics projects, commonly known as learning analytics (LA). These initiatives are defined as the “measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of [student and other data] for the purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs.” Historically, academic libraries have collected data, such as circulation statistics, without reference to specific users. The extensive data collected by library and higher-education programs and networks now regularly include personal information. More academic libraries are being asked to engage in learning analytics projects or to share data with campus units to demonstrate how library use may correlate with student success measures such as GPA, retention, and time to graduation. Literature in 2018 at the time of the team’s grant application showed a distinct lack of research around student perceptions of LA and library participation. This gap was the driving goal of the research team’s project to understand student perceptions through an IMLS-funded study of undergraduate students at eight institutions. While the researchers hold expertise in the areas of data ethics and privacy, data management, library assessment, qualitative and quantitative research methods, and survey design, they were not involved in the practical application of learning analytics at their various universities. To begin, the team conducted a literature review that brought together the ethical challenges of library participation in LA with respect to librarianship’s professional values, especially privacy. This informed the overall design of the study, which was conducted in three phases: semi-structured interviews, a survey, and finally a series of LA scenario-based focus groups. The initial literature review was used as the basis for the interview protocol of the first phase. The findings from the interviews were then used to develop the survey instrument for the second phase. The results of the survey were subsequently leveraged to develop the focus group scenarios. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project was extended to May 2022 and focus groups were conducted virtually rather than in person.

While the goal of this research project has been to give voice to student perceptions of privacy and trust related to LA and library participation, the findings should also be useful to librarians being asked to collect or provide data, library administrators being asked to participate in campus-level initiatives, or campus leaders designing those initiatives. This chapter outlines each of the three research phases with an overview of the methodology and findings as well as the challenges in conducting that research. While the findings represent a variety of campus contexts, it is often important that institutions conduct local research, especially when the results will inform advocacy. The research team has made our tools and findings openly available to enable others to explore what students think about LA, privacy, and academic libraries on their own campuses. Finally, this chapter discusses how some members of the research team have engaged their own campuses via project data and findings as well as the potential value of using these methods to understand more specific local issues. We hope this can lead libraries that choose to participate in LA initiatives to ensure that their participation reflects professional values and actively engages with students regarding their privacy and autonomy as it relates to the use of their student data.

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