LAK16: Guideline guidelines

There was a joke in discussion at LAK16 that you can easily repurpose evidence-based medicine literature in to learning analytics or educational technology by a simple replacement process: doctor or clinician > teacher, patient > student or learner, clinical > educational or pedagogical.

So here’s a guideline about guidelines,  originally developed for evidence-based medicine, but repurposed for learning analytics by simple replacement, with changed words underlined:

• Pedagogical guidelines are systematically developed statements designed to help teachers and learners decide on appropriate learning activities for specific educational situations and/or circumstances.
• Good guidelines can change pedagogical practice and influence learner outcome.
• The way in which guidelines are developed, implemented and monitored, influences the likelihood that they will be followed. [No changes!]
• Guidelines should provide extensive, critical and well-balanced information on the benefits and limitations of various diagnostic and educational interventions so that the teacher can carefully judge individual cases.
• Applying guidelines to individual learners is always likely to require judgement, even when recommendations are properly linked to evidence.

Author: dougclow

Data scientist, tutxor, project leader, researcher, analyst, teacher, developer, educational technologist, online learning expert, and manager. I particularly enjoy rapidly appraising new-to-me contexts, and mediating between highly technical specialisms and others, from ordinary users to senior management. After 20 years at the OU as an academic, I am now a self-employed consultant, building on my skills and experience in working with people, technology, data science, and artificial intelligence, in a wide range of contexts and industries. View all posts by dougclow