What is rigour in learning analytics, and how can we foster it?

The challenge: Over a little more than a decade, the field of learning analytics (LA) has grown. LA has always been characterised as a multidisciplinary field. As the field continues to grow, fuelled by research from multiple perspectives, the question of rigor has become increasingly critical. How can we characterize “quality” in LA work with reference to the confluence of other domains that make up the field? Are there additional features that are distinctive to LA? In their 2019 editorial the editors wrote about this issue, and held a followup 2020 SoLAR webinar to continue these discussions (recording available here). Now, we want your input.

We want to hear from you! Your voice is important to help develop this work, and contribute to the policies and guidelines the Journal of Learning Analytics (JLA) adopts to foster rigour in our field. Here in Australia, we would like to invite you to participate in a workshop on the topic.

About this workshop: This Australian-hosted event is a 90-minute workshop that will be held on Friday, 5 November. The workshop is conducted in cooperation with the JLA editors, to feed into an evaluation of ways we can foster rigour in the field. During this workshop you will hear first-hand from leaders in the field about the current state of LA research, as well as contribute to a discussion to distil principles of rigor in learning analytics publications. The discussions will be focused on four sub-areas of LA research:

1. quantitative research
2. computational research
3. design research
4. qualitative research.

If you are interested in participating please register via Eventbrite. If you have any questions about this event, please email simon.knight@uts.edu.au and lisa-angelique.lim@uts.edu.au.

We look forward to your participation!