Facebook is widely used and researched. However, though the data generated by educational technology tools and social media platforms other than Facebook have been used for research purposes, very little research has used Facebook posts as a data source--with most studies relying on self-report studies. While it has historically been impractical…

We draw on our experiences with mentoring two students to develop a framework for undergraduate research projects with Twitter data. Leveraging backward design principles, we share our learning objectives and rubric for summative assessments. To illustrate the value of Twitter as a data source, we detail methods for collecting and analyzing…

This article is the third installment in a series regarding the conduct, dissemination, and consumption of large-scale secondary research. See Part 1 on conducting secondary analysis (Sullivan et al., 2020) (EJ1239445) and Part 2 on practitioners' use of this research (Kulkarni et al., 2020) (EJ1248185). The purpose in this final installment is to…

Recent advances in computational linguistics and the social sciences have created new opportunities for the education research community to analyze relevant large-scale text data. However, the take-up of these advances in education research is still nascent. In this article, we review the recent automated text methods relevant to educational…

Recent advances in computational linguistics and the social sciences have created new opportunities for the education research community to analyze relevant large-scale text data. However, the take-up of these advances in education research is still nascent. In this article, we review the recent automated text methods relevant to educational…

Revisiting the seminal 2010 Nolan and Temple Lang article on the role of computing in the statistics curricula, we discuss several trends that have emerged over the last ten years. The rise of data science has coincided with a broadening audience for learning statistics and using computational packages and tools. It has also increased the need for…

This article describes a flipped classroom activity that requires students to integrate research and audience analysis. The activity uses Twitter as a data source. In the activity, students identify a sample, collect customer tweets, and analyze the language of the tweets in an effort to construct knowledge about an audience's values, needs, and…

There is an increasing interest in developing learning analytic techniques for the analysis, and support of, high-quality learning discourse. This paper maps the terrain of discourse-centric learning analytics (DCLA), outlining the distinctive contribution of DCLA and outlining a definition for the field moving forwards. It is our claim that DCLA…

This chapter provides examples of innovative methods and tools to collect, analyze, and report both quantitative and qualitative data in student affairs assessment.

This chapter aims to answer some of the questions that emerge when carrying out educational ethnography in a blended learning environment. The authors first outline how Virtual Ethnography (VE) has been developed and applied by other researchers. Then, to better illustrate the approach, they describe a doctoral research project that implemented…

Distance learning programs across the country continue to grow and evolve. In order to support these programs, librarians are often expected to convert face-to-face classes and reference sessions to the online environment. Due to the necessity of explaining information literacy concepts and demonstrating the access and use of library resources,…

This commentary reflects on the contributions to learning analytics and theory by a paper that describes how multiple theoretical frameworks were woven together to inform the creation of a new, automated discourse analysis tool. The commentary highlights the contributions of the original paper, provides some alternative approaches, and touches on…

Communicators create clear engagement strategies and compelling messages, relentlessly reaching out using the latest tools, tactics and techniques. But many communicators are not sure whether those efforts are penetrating or engaging key audiences, particularly with the fire hose of information flooding through emails and mainstream and social…

Within the landscape of educational data, textual natural language is an increasingly vast source of learning-centered interactions. In natural language dialogue, student contributions hold important information about knowledge and goals. Automatically modeling the dialogue act of these student utterances is crucial for scaling natural language…

This paper updates earlier work in which we defined three generations of distance education pedagogy. We then describe emerging technologies that are most conducive to instructional designs that evolve with each generation. Finally we discuss matching the pedagogies with learning outcomes. (Contains 3 figures.)