The CIC team is heavily involved in this international conference, coming to the Southern Hemisphere for the first time…

THE 8TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LEARNING ANALYTICS & KNOWLEDGE

Towards User-Centred Analytics

5-9 March 2018, Sydney, Australia

http://lak18.solaresearch.org | #LAK18

The International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge moves to the southern hemisphere for the first time, convening in the centre of historic, vibrant Sydney. LAK18 is organised by the Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR) and is hosted by The University of Sydney, one of Australia’s leading research universities.

We extend invitations to researchers, practitioners, leaders, administrators, government and industry professionals interested in the field of learning analytics and related disciplines. LAK provides a forum to address critical issues and challenges confronting the education sector today, by harnessing the power of data science in combination with learner-centred design.

An important feature of the LAK community that attracts diverse delegates is our interest in the human factors in learning analytics systems. As learning analytics tools move out of the lab into the real world, their success or failure must be judged not only on technical criteria, but also by their adoption and effectiveness in schools, universities and workplaces. Often this is where the gulf between hype and reality becomes apparent. The complexities of embedding innovative technology in authentic contexts open a range of critical challenges for the field.

While LAK has always encouraged contributions dealing with issues related to adoption, LAK18 will place particular emphasis on how various stakeholders can, or must, be engaged in the design, deployment and assessment of learning analytics if they are to be successful and sustainable. We welcome theoretical, methodological, empirical and technical contributions addressing topics including:

• Which design processes involve learners, educators and other users effectively in the co-design of analytics tools?
• Which techniques are effective in assessing how end-users make sense of, interact with, and act on analytics feedback?
• In what ways can learning analytics systems be biased, and can they be made more transparent and accountable to different stakeholder groups?
• How are educational leaders creating the conditions for learning analytics systems to take root and grow?
• How strong is the evidence that the adoption of learning analytics benefits stakeholders?

LAK18 encourages contributions from the Schools sector, which has been under-represented at previous conferences. We will be proactive in welcoming and connecting researchers and practitioners working in the K-12 levels. Please contact the Program Chairs to learn more.