A presentation by Niall Sclater, consultant and director, Sclater Digital.

1. Leadership conference 2018

2. Niall Sclater, Consultant and director, Sclater Digital
Promoting an ethical and GDPR-compliant
approach to learning analytics

3. » If a student is allowed to opt out of data
collection and analysis could this have a
negative impact on their academic progress?
» What should a student do if the suggestions are
in conflict with their study goals?
» How can institutions avoid overly simplistic
metrics and decision making which ignore
personal circumstances?
Available from Effective learning analytics blog:
analytics.jiscinvolve.org
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86 issues in 9 groups
Group Name Question Main type Importance Responsibility
2 Consent Adverse impact
of opting out on
individual
If a student is allowed to opt
out of data collection and
analysis could this have a
negative impact on their
academic progress?
Ethical 1 Analytics
Committee
7 Action Conflict with
study goals
What should a student do if
the suggestions are in conflict
with their study goals?
Ethical 3 Student
8 Adverse
impact
Oversimplificati
on
How can institutions avoid
overly simplistic metrics and
decision making which ignore
personal circumstances?
Ethical 1 Educational
researcher

5. jisc.ac.uk/guides/code-of-practice-for-learning-analytics
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7. Invasion of privacy
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8. Predicting your private future
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9. Invalid algorithms
US unemployment figures were correlated with the use
of certain words on social media such as “jobs” and
“unemployment”. A sudden spike in late 2011 appeared
to predict an imminent rise in unemployment.
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10. Confusing correlation with causation
“A correlation was identified
between logins on day one of a
course and subsequent student
success. An assumption was made
from this finding that if students
were encouraged to log in on their
first day they would be more likely
to succeed. A welcome email was
consequently sent to a future cohort
of students, recommending that
they log into the course website.”
Johnson, J. A., 2014, The Ethics of Big Data
in Higher Education, International Review of
Information Ethics, Volume 21
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Rio Salado College, Arizona

11. Exaggerated significance
Significance is a key statistical measure of validity.
All variables show significance with a large
enough sample.
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12. Gaming the system
Workplace data analysts Evolv discovered in 2013 that
people who kept their browsers up to date performed
better at their jobs, but as soon as the metric was
widely known it became useless as job-hunters altered
their behaviour.
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13. Loss of autonomy
Brightspace Degree
Compass
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14. Self-fulfilling prophecy
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15. Prejudicial treatment
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17. General Data Protection Regulation
»Applies across the whole of the EU and replaces individual
national data protection legislation
»Came into force in May 2018
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18. General Data Protection Regulation
» The right to be informed
» The right of access
» The right to rectification
» The right to erasure
» The right to restrict processing
» The right to data portability
» The right to object
» Rights related to automated decision making and profiling
Individuals’ rights
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Should we ask students for
their consent for learning
analytics?

20. Using consent as the basis for processing data requires:
» Clear affirmative action
» Records kept of how and when consent was provided
» Right to withdraw consent at any time
» Consequences of providing or withholding consent must be made explicit to student
» Can’t then change purpose, add new types of analysis or intervention
“Legitimate interests” - or “necessary for the performance
of a contract with the data subject” still permissible
grounds for processing
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21. »Not ask for consent for the use of non-sensitive data for
analytics (our current understanding is that this can be
considered as of legitimate interest or public interest)
»Ask for consent for use of sensitive data (which, under the
GDPR, is called “special category data”)
»Ask for consent to take interventions directly with students on
the basis of the analytics
Advice from Jisc: institutions should:
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22. Niall Sclater
Consultant and director, Sclater Digital
@sclater
analytics.jiscinvolve.org
“Learning Analytics Explained”
- Routledge