Week 7: Privacy & Ethics

Week 7: Privacy and ethics: principles for governing LA use and implementation

Introduction

The adoption of analytics in many sectors of society - business, government, medicine, and education - is driven by interest in improving efficiency and transparency in those sectors. In a world where data is an asset (strategically and economically), manipulation of that data also becomes an economic process. For example, an algorithm that allows a university to predict potential drop outs, thereby activating an intervention system, could potentially generate significant tuition revenue by increasing retention. That algorithm could also be sold/shared to other universities, generating IP revenue. It is possible that we are at the early stages of an IP boom in education where an ecosystem of analytics tools, methods/procedures, and algorithms are developed for revenue-generation by universities and corporations.

Critical questions arise, however, around ethics and privacy in analytics. Who owns learner-produced data? What are the conditions under which a university jumps data silos (i.e. blending analytics from student information systems with social media analytics?). Who has access to the analytics that a school or university conducts on learners? Or, for that matter, who owns the analytics (if it's my data as a student, but your proprietary algorithm, who owns the outcome?). This is a complex topic that will take years and decades for the education, policy/governance, and legal systems to work through. At best, this week we will raise a few issues related to ethics and consider principles that need to be preserved or honoured in developing and using analytics in education.

Readings and Videos

Learning Activities

1. Participate in the Week 7 Discussion Forum on privacy and ethics in analytics

2. Attend weekly sessions: Live Sessions & Guest Speakers (Stephanie Teasley on Monday, March 25 and Abelardo Pardo on March 28)

3. Continue working on your Concept Map and Analytics Project