LA as Interpretive Practice
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The document discusses issues with interpreting learning analytics data and proposes an alternative framework based on hermeneutics. It argues that quantitative learning analytics data needs to be interpreted within the context of students' practices and activities. It suggests clustering analytic data by different practices students engage in and using techniques like structural equation modeling to understand relationships between latent factors. The goal is to move beyond positivism and reductionism to develop interventions that consider the human context of learning.
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LA as Interpretive Practice
- 1. Learning Analytics as Interpretive Practice Michael Atkisson and David Wiley Allen Communications and Brigham Young University
- 2. Download These Slides http://slideshare.net/opencontent/ http://woknowing.wordpress.com/
- 3. Interpretation ≠ Science Just the facts, ma ’am.
- 4. Confusion Science with positivism
- 5. Quantitative > Qualitative Numbers are objective
- 6. Educational Measurement What does s/he know?
- 7. Not Directly Observable So we create behavioral proxies and look for evidence
- 8. Online Learning Is Even Worse Proxies not available for direct observation
- 9. Impoverished Vocabulary “ Observable” behavior = clicks and key presses
- 11. Westerman ’s Argument Quantitative inquiry is interpretive
- 12. Operational Definitions Fundamental to social science research, including educational measurement
- 15. First, Define Constructs Then you can measure them
- 17. User ID Page Time 78 /lecture1.html 10:43 78 /lecture2.html 10:49 78 /lecture3.html 10:50 78 /lecture4.html 11:12 78 /quiz.html 11:23
- 18. “ Time on Task” Are different definitions possible? Are different results possible? If yes subjectivity
- 28. These observations need to be clustered by practice User ID Page Time 78 /lecture1.html 10:43 78 /lecture2.html 10:49 78 /lecture3.html 10:50 78 /lecture4.html 11:12 78 /quiz.html 11:23
- 32. Tasks nested within within practice B w Within tasks Between Tasks B b B t Total Practice Regression Task 1 Task 2 Task 3
- 36. Thank You michael.atkisson@gmail.com http://woknowing.wordpress.com/ [email_address] http://davidwiley.org/
Editor's Notes
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/ginnerobot/2523448766/
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiswango/120040030/
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/eeko/3337615282/
- Positivism doesn ’t provide a way to examine the meaning of phenomena Neither does It account for the the judgments that researchers need to make in scientific practice
- research is fundamentally about creating meaning through interpretation a tradition of interpreting biblical texts Today, the study of interpretation is applied to many fields Valuable because it couches observations in terms of meaningful social practice, what people are doing
- Hermeneutics is not… Assigning meaning through metaphor IP metaphor of cognitive science, becomes more real than the observed behavior Good for explaining potential overlaps between what humans and computers do Bad for explaining the mind in terms of creativity, play, exploration Before IP, the steam engine was a popular metaphor for the mind
- Another way of assigning meaning to phenomena is by removing it all together through reductionism. This means reducing a phenomena down to operationalized, fundamental components and “laws” Is the mind just the sum of its chemicals and the frequencies of its firing synapses? What meaning can be derived from frequency data out of context? Rorty said,…
- If not abstracting or reducing then what? Hermeneutics is for interpreting behavior in terms of what people are doing. Because behavior transpires within the real world, and not within the mind, it is concrete. A property of the world we live in. Where social practices take place. Why is this important? Behavior is nested with social practice!
- If behavior is concrete and nested within social practice, how do we observe and interpret behavior in virtual environments?
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/eeko/3337615282/ Again the point is what people are doing This matters whether we are observing in person or virtually
- If these are your measures, they need to be organized by what social practices they are a part of.
- Just as what people are trying to do gives meaning to their actions in the real world, so it does in the virtual world. We propose that observational data be clustered by the tasks and practices the they are a part of.
- “ testing and estimating causal relations using a combination of statistical data and qualitative causal assumptions”
- Between, within, and overall slopes
- Stewardship over these new capabilities to make, as we see, more reliable and valid recommendations.