Data Interoperability for Learning Analytics and Lifelong Learning

D ATA I N T E R O P E R A B I L I T Y F O R L E A R N I N G A N A LY T I C S A N D L I F E L O N G L E A R N I N G

Kirsty Kitto Queensland University of Technology [email protected] @KirstyKitto www.beyondlms.org

L E A R N I N G A N A LY T I C S ?

Learning analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their

contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimising learning and the environments in which it occurs.

SoLAR definition

But very little emphasis upon LA for learners at present

L E A R N E R S P E R S P E C T I V E

http://www.elearning.ac.uk/mle.html

W H Y D O N ' T E - P O R T F O L I O S E V E R TA K E O F F ?

T H A T S F R O M 2 0 0 6

N O I N T E R O P E R A B I L I T Y

W H AT H A P P E N S AT O N E P O I N T I N T H AT L E A R N I N G J O U R N E Y ?

A D AY I N M Y L I F E W H E N D O I N G L E A R N I N G A N A LY T I C S …

• jump for joy because you finally got ethics approval for your current research project

• spend ages trying to interface with different APIs for different systems

• extract data that is somehow always in slightly different form

• spend most of your time trying to get it to look like your other data sets so you can use existing tools

• give up and develop a new bespoke solution

http://datascience.la/data-science-toolbox-survey-results-surprise-r-and-python-win/

T H E R E H A S T O B E A B E T T E R W AY

xAPI could be it

but it would need to scale up fast

L I F E L O N G P E R S O N A L I S E D L E A R N I N G

the holy grail of education

a growing obsession with EdTech

impossible without data interoperability

A S A C O M M U N I T Y W E N E E D T O D E S I G N F O R D ATA I N T E R O P E R A B I L I T Y

The killer app of xAPI

H O W ?

H I G H L E V E L P R O F I L E S A N D R E C I P E S

• Analysis across different platforms made easier with early planning

• Recipes are essential! - Microblogging - Content Creation - Collaborative Content

Authoring - Content Curation - Association with Course, Team

and Instructor

Bakharia, Kitto, Pardo, Gašević, Dawson (In press). Recipe for Success — Lessons Learnt from Using xAPI within the Connected Learning Analytics Toolkit, Learning Analytics and Knowledge 2016 (LAK16)

O N E R E P O S I T O R Y T H AT I S P U B L I C LY AVA I L A B L E !

I N T E R E S T I N G A N A LY T I C S W I L L E N C O U R A G E I N T E R O P E R A B I L I T Y

C L A T O O L K I T D A S H B O A R D SReports generated about

- Activity

- Social Networks

- Content Analysis

www.beyondlms.orgOpen dashboards and learning analyticsAnyone could use them if they have the same data structures…

L E S S O N S F R O M T H E C L A T O O L K I T P R O J E C T

• Context is not optional

‣ the more details the better for learning analytics

‣ it gets complicated!

• Recipes are essential for keeping context under control and reusable

• Same thing with timestamps (time series common in LA)

https://github.com/kirstykitto/CLRecipe/blob/master/microblogging/microblogging-tweetwithhashtagsandmentions.json

L I S T E N T O T H E L A C O M M U N I T Y

http://www.laceproject.eu/d7-4-learning-analytics-interoperability-requirements-specifications-and-adoption/

T H I S P R O J E C T I S S U P P O R T E D B Y T H E A U S T R A L I A N G O V E R N M E N T ’ S O F F I C E F O R L E A R N I N G A N D T E A C H I N G

Q U E E N S L A N D U N I V E R S I T Y O F T E C H N O L O G Y:

Kirsty Kitto (Lead Investigator), Mandy Lupton, John Banks, Dann Mallet, Peter Bruza, Aneesha Bakharia

U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H A U S T R A L I A

Shane Dawson, Dragan Gašević (Uni of Edinburgh)

U N I V E R S I T Y O F T E C H N O L O G Y, S Y D N E Y

Simon Buckingham Shum

U N I V E R S I T Y O F S Y D N E Y

Abelardo Pardo

U N I V E R S I T Y O F T E X A S ( A R L I N G T O N )

George Siemens

I D 1 4 - 3 8 2 1 : E N A B L I N G C O N N E C T E D L E A R N I N G V I A O P E N S O U R C E A N A LY T I C S I N T H E W I L D : L E A R N I N G A N A LY T I C S B E Y O N D T H E L M S

www.beyondlms.org