Output list
Book chapter
The application of games to engage citizens in climate change policy development
Published 29/09/2023
Proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Games Based Learning, ECGBL 2023, 17, 1, 887 - 895
This paper introduces the Games Realising Effective and Affective Transformation (GREAT) research and Innovation project. The project will examine the emerging ways Applied Games could be used to facilitate the social engagement of European citizens in determining future policy priorities and policy interventions to the existential challenge of climate change. This full paper is a provides detail of the work in progress but moreover provides a a conceptual analysis of the methodologies applied to this emerging domain of study. The project is funded by the EU Horizon programme with UK Associate partners funded through UKRI and coordinated by the DIPF, Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Frankfurt and involves seven partners located across Europe, Serious Games Interactive (SGI) Denmark, Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) Austria, International University of Rioja (UNIR) Spain, Frederick University, Cyprus, Playmob and The University of Bolton (UoB) as UK associate partners. The project incorporates collaborative design and citizen science methods and brings together researchers with expertise in the areas of games, data analytics, and policy development. This integrated investigation will be articulated by case studies of the use of games in facilitating dialogue between citizens and policy stakeholders including policy makers, policy implementers, political parties, campaigning organisations and affected citizens. This will be achieved by leveraging the central role of games in contemporary culture by combining academic studies with practical experimentation of novel applications of games. The context for the research is the global challenge of climate emergency, and each case study incorporates a research cycle addressing a policy issue and research questions, using multiple pilots to generate both quantitative and qualitative and data to further inform research activity.
Book chapter
The ethical issues of learning analytics in their historical context
Published 15/05/2020
Radical Solutions and Open Science, An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education, 39 - 55
The ethical context of Learning Analytics is framed by two related processes. Firstly, the amount of personal data available to organisations has been transformed by the computerisation and the subsequent development of the Internet. Secondly, the methods and ethical assumptions of Operations Research have been extended into new areas. Learning Analytics can be conceptualised as the extension of Operations Research methods to educational institutions, in a process facilitated by technological and social changes in the early twenty-first century. It is argued that the ethical discourse has viewed Learning Analytics as a discrete field, and focused on its internal processes, at the expense of its connections with the wider social context. As a result, contradictions arise in the practice of research ethics, and a number of urgent issues are not given due consideration. These include the partial erosion of the consensus around the Nuremberg code; the use of ethical waivers for quality improvement; the coercive extraction of data; the use of analytics as an enabling technology for management; and the educational implications of the relationship between surveillance and trust.
Book chapter
Published 11/2017
New Horizons for Second-Order Cybernetics, 60, 242 - 246
Book chapter
The influence of data protection and privacy frameworks on the design of learning analytics systems
Published 03/2017
Proceedings of the Seventh International Learning Analytics & Knowledge Conference on - LAK '17LAK '17: Proceedings of the Seventh International Learning Analytics & Knowledge Conference, 243 - 252
Learning analytics open up a complex landscape of privacy and policy issues, which will influence how learning analytics systems and practices are designed. Research and development is governed by regulations for data storage and management, and by research ethics. Consequently, when moving solutions out the research labs implementers meet constraints defined in national laws and justified in privacy frameworks. This paper explores how the OECD, APEC and EU privacy frameworks seek to regulate data privacy, with significant implications for the discourse of learning, and ultimately, an impact on the design of tools, architectures and practices that now are on the drawing board. A detailed list of requirements for learning analytics systems is developed, based on the new legal requirements defined in the European General Data Protection Regulation, which from 2018 will be enforced as European law. The paper also gives an initial account of how the privacy discourse in Europe, Japan, South-Korea and China is developing and reflects upon the possible impact of the different privacy frameworks on the design of LA privacy solutions in these countries. This research contributes to knowledge of how concerns about privacy and data protection related to educational data can drive a discourse on new approaches to privacy engineering based on the principles of Privacy by Design. For the LAK community, this study represents the first attempt to conceptualise the issues of privacy and learning analytics in a cross-cultural context. The paper concludes with a plan to follow up this research on privacy policies and learning analytics systems development with a new international study.
Book chapter
An Ethical Waiver for Learning Analytics?
Published 2017
Data Driven Approaches in Digital Education. EC-TEL 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer ScienceData Driven Approaches in Digital Education - 12th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2017, Tallinn, Estonia, September 12-15, 2017, Proceedings., 10474, 557 - 560
It is argued that education institutions are awarding them- selves an implied ethical waiver for learning analytics. This unexamined practice is elucidated as the coming together of two contrasting research traditions academic research and operations research.
Book chapter
Development of a VLE Recipe for xAPI: process and implications
Published 2017
Learning & Student Analytics Conference (LSAC) 2017: Implementation, Institutional Barriers and New Developments - Book of Abstracts, 42 - 47
The Jisc Effective Learning Analytics Initiative is “working in collaboration to build a learning analytics service for the sector”, with “over 50 universities and colleges signed up to the initial phases of the implementation” (Jisc, 2017). Cetis LLP was awarded a contract by Jisc to support the development of xAPI recipes for the Initiative. This paper describes the work carried out and its implications.
Book chapter
The influence of data protection and privacy frameworks on the design of learning analytics systems
Published 2017
LAK '17 Proceedings of the Seventh International Learning Analytics & Knowledge Conference, 243 - 252
Learning analytics open up a complex landscape of privacy and policy issues, which, in turn, influence how learning analytics systems and practices are designed. Research and development is governed by regulations for data storage and management, and by research ethics. Consequently, when moving solutions out the research labs implementers meet constraints defined in national laws and justified in privacy frameworks. This paper explores how the OECD, APEC and EU privacy frameworks seek to regulate data privacy, with significant implications for the discourse of learning, and ultimately, an impact on the design of tools, architectures and practices that now are on the drawing board. A detailed list of requirements for learning analytics systems is developed, based on the new legal requirements defined in the European General Data Protection Regulation, which from 2018 will be enforced as European law. The paper also gives an initial account of how the privacy discourse in Europe, Japan, South-Korea and China is developing and reflects upon the possible impact of the different privacy frameworks on the design of LA privacy solutions in these countries. This research contributes to knowledge of how concerns about privacy and data protection related to educational data can drive a discourse on new approaches to privacy engineering based on the principles of Privacy by Design. For the LAK community, this study represents the first attempt to conceptualise the issues of privacy and learning analytics in a cross-cultural context. The paper concludes with a plan to follow up this research on privacy policies and learning analytics systems development with a new international study.
Book chapter
The iTEC technical artefacts, architecture and educational cloud
Published 2015
Re-engineering the Uptake of ICT in Schools, 59 - 78
This chapter introduces the technical artefacts of the iTEC project in the context of a cloud architecture. The rationale for the technology developed in the iTEC project follows from its overall aim to re-engineer the uptake of ICT in schools. To that end, iTEC focused (a) on some important barriers for the uptake of ICT such the effort that teachers must make in redesigning their teaching and fi nding the right resources for that, and (b) on enablers for the uptake of ICT, such as providing engaging experiences both for the learner and teacher. The technical innovations are centred around three themes: innovations in the support of learning design, innovations by using a-typical resources, and innovations in the integration and management of learning services and resources. Next this chapter presents the cloud architecture adopted by all technology providers, including a shared user management and control system, the shared data models and interoperability solutions.
The technical artefacts and then further elaborated in the ensuing chapters.
Book chapter
Published 2015
Fusion of Smart, Multimedia and Computer Gaming Technologies, 84, 115 - 135
In the current panorama of education across Europe we find that technology is increasingly present in the classroom. On the one hand, we have government programs that provide classrooms with a technological infrastructure. On the other hand, students themselves, usually have mobile devices—such as smartphones and tablets—and carry them everywhere, including the classroom. In this context, it is born the Innovative Technologies for an Engaging Classroom (iTEC) project, which is the flagship FP7 project in the education area, financed by the European Commission with 12 million Euros. The iTEC tries to contribute to the conception of the classroom of the future, in which technology is complemented with the most innovative pedagogical approaches, which entail a major level of dynamism in the educational practice. Thus, the iTEC promotes an educational practice, in which students interact in small projects including a participation in events, speeches with experts, and all that seasoned with the use of technology. In the iTEC, The Eduteka is a toolkit of technologies for advanced learning activity design. The components of the Eduteka provide support for the iTEC pedagogical approach. Those are thoroughly presented in this chapter.
Book chapter
Why has IMS Learning Design not led to the advances which were hoped for
Published 2015
The Art & Science of Learning Design, 9, 121 - 136