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.

LAK16: Monday

Liveblog notes from the Sixth International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge LAK16, 25-29 April 2016, University of Edinburgh. Monday is the first day of pre-conference workshops, and I’m in, Cross-LAK: Workshop on learning analytics across physical and digital spaces.

The workshop is in St Leonard’s Hall, University of Edinburgh, which is an amazing building: a Scots baronial former school, St. Trinnean’s School for Girls, the inspiration for the fictional St Trinian’s – and this workshop is in a room named after it.

St Leonard's Hall
Cross-LAK

Roberto Martinez-Maldonado, Davinia Hernandez-Leo, Abelardo Pardo, Dan Suthers, Kirsty Kitto, Sven Charleer, Naif Aljohani and Hiroaki Ogata

Continue reading “LAK16: Monday”

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.