Universities are tracking their students. Is it clever or creepy?

Learning analytics are becoming increasingly popular for improving learning and cutting drop-out rates – but critics question the impact on privacy

Chris Jutting

Wednesday 3 August 2016 14.19 BST

What could be more normal that heading to the university library, swiping your card and logging in to a computer?

Most students wouldn’t think twice about it. But what they may not realise is that this mundane series of events leaves a unique data pattern that can be recorded, logged and reviewed, in a practice known as “learning analytics”. And now data analysts are using this information to predict whether students will struggle with their courses, or drop out.

“We’re trying to use data to improve our understanding of how students learn,” says Dr Bart Rienties, director of the learning analytics programme at the Open University. “We want to understand the story behind that data.”

Such techniques look set to become an integral part of university life in the future, much to the delight of advocates. “Learning analytics can provide a more personal learning experience, rather than a one-size-fits-all solution,” Rienties says. He was part of a new study – which analysed data from more than 113,000 students at the Open University – looking at drop-out rates and how usage patterns of online learning resources can be an early indicator of academic performance.

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Continua qui: https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2016/aug/03/learning-analytics-universities-data-track-students