Data Doubles: Student Perceptions of Privacy and Learning Analytics in Higher Education

The Data Doubles research project is a student-centered, IMLS-funded project that seeks to understand student perspectives on privacy issues associated with academic library participation in learning analytics (LA) initiatives. In this project briefing, we will be reporting on the results of the first phase of the project which entailed 112 qualitative interviews with undergraduate students across 8 institutions and discussing the creation and validation of a survey to be deployed during the project’s second phase in spring 2020. The phase I interviews uncovered that students lacked awareness of educational data mining and analytic practices and the data necessary for these initiatives. Students see potential in learning analytics but also thought about when and where data should be shared and the value of informed consent and expressed nuanced opinions on the acceptability of personal data collection and use. Notions of institutional trust were also discovered, as well as what actions by institutional actors might violate that trust. The phase II survey builds on these findings by developing a quantitative instrument to evaluate these issues in a statistically-representative format and to examine demographic differences that may affect students’ opinions. All data collection protocols and instruments from the Data Doubles projects will be published open access via the Open Science Framework.

http://datadoubles.org/