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Conference Papers - Networked Learning Conference Symposia Symposium Number Symposium Details

While generic web analytics tend to focus on easily harvested quantitative data, Learning Analytics will often seek qualitative understanding of the context and meaning of this information. This is critical in the case of dialogue, which may be employed to share knowledge and jointly construct understandings, but which also involves many superficial exchanges. Previous studies have validated a particular pattern of "exploratory dialogue" in learning environments to signify sharing, challenge, evaluation and careful consideration by participants. This study investigates the use of sociocultural discourse analysis to analyse synchronous text chat during an online conference. Key words and phrases indicative of exploratory dialogue were identified in these exchanges, and peaks of exploratory dialogue were associated with periods set aside for discussion and keynote speakers. Fewer individuals posted at these times, but meaningful discussion outweighed trivial exchanges. If further analysis confirms the validity of these markers as learning analytics, they could be used by recommendation engines to support learners and teachers in locating dialogue exchanges where deeper learning appears to be taking place.

Assessing learning dispositions/academic mindsets Mar 01 2014 2 A few years ago Ruth and I spent a couple of days with the remarkable Larry Rosenstock at High Tech High, and were blown away by the creativity and passion that he and his team bring to authentic learning. At that point they were just beginning to conceive the idea of a Graduate School of Education (er… run by a high school?!). Yes indeed. Screen Shot 2014-02-28 at 16.56.56Now they're flying, running the Deeper Learning conference in a few weeks, and right now, the Deeper Learning MOOC [DLMOOC] is doing a great job of bringing practitioners and researchers together, and that's just from the perspective of someone on the edge who has only managed to replay the late night (in the UK) Hangouts and post a couple of stories. Huge thanks and congratulations to Larry, Rob Riordan and everyone else at High Tech High Grad School of Education, plus of course the other supporting organisations and funders who are making this happen. Here are two of my favourite sessions, in which we hear from students what it's like to be in schools where mindsets and authentic learning are taken seriously, and a panel of researcher/practitioners

"SYDNEY LEARNING ANALYTICS RESEARCH GROUP About The Sydney Learning Analytics Research Group (LARG) is a joint venture of the newly established Quality and Analytics Group within the Education Portfolio, and the new Centre for Research on Learning and Innovation connected to the Faculty of Education and Social Work. The key purposes in establishing the new research group are: Capacity building in learning analytics for the benefit of the institution, its students and staff To generate interest and expertise in learning analytics at the University, and build a new network of research colleagues To build a profile for the University of Sydney as a national and international leader in learning analytics LARG was launched at ALASI in late November 2015. The leadership team is actively planning now for the 2016 calendar year and beyond, with several community-building initiatives already in the pipeline, the first being a lecture by George Siemens, and the second is a new conference travel grant (see details below)."

Assessment and analytics, supported by information technology, can change institutional culture and drive the transformation in student retention, graduation, and success. U.S. higher education has an extraordinary record of accomplishment in preparing students for leadership, in serving as a wellspring of research and creative endeavor, and in providing public service. Despite this success, colleges and universities are facing an unprecedented set of challenges. To maintain the country's global preeminence, those of us in higher education are being called on to expand the number of students we educate, increase the proportion of students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and address the pervasive and long-standing underrepresentation of minorities who earn college degrees-all at a time when budgets are being reduced and questions about institutional efficiency and effectiveness are being raised.

Learning networks, crowds and communities Full Text: PDF Author: Caroline Haythornthwaite University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC Who we learn from, where and when is dramatically affected by the reach of the Internet. From learning for formal education to learning for pleasure, we look to the web early and often for our data and knowledge needs, but also for places and spaces where we can collaborate, contribute to, and create learning and knowledge communities. Based on the keynote presentation given at the first Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference held in 2011 in Banff, Alberta, this paper explores a social network perspective on learning with reference to social network principles and studies by the author. The paper explores the ways a social network perspective can be used to examine learning, with attention to the structure and dynamics of online learning networks, and emerging configurations such as online crowds and communities.