Developing tools to support students, educators, intuitions, and government in the educational environment has become an important task to improve the quality of education and learning outcomes. Information and communication technology (ICT) is adopted by educational institutions; one such instance is video interaction in flipped teaching.…

Libraries remain one of the last places on campus where the purging of usage data is encouraged and "tracking" is a dirty word. While some libraries have demonstrated the usefulness of analytics, opponents bring up issues of privacy and debate the feasibility of student-generated library data for planning and assessment. Using a study…

Students, families, colleges, and lawmakers need clearer information on postsecondary outcomes to make informed decisions. By leveraging data available at institutions and federal agencies, a nationwide student-level data network (SLDN) would close information gaps that persist in our higher education landscape to answer critical questions about…

The proliferation of information technology tools in higher education has resulted in an explosion of data about students and their contexts. Yet, current policies governing these data are limited in their usefulness for informing students, instructors, and administrators of their rights and responsibilities related to data use because they are…

Analyses of student data in post-secondary education should be sensitive to the fact that there are many different topics of study. These different areas will interest different kinds of students, and entail different experiences and learning activities. However, it can be challenging to identify the distinct academic themes that students might…

The Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) is used in thousands of universities across the United States and internationally, with a strong and growing presence in K-12 and higher education markets. Analyzing the development of the Canvas LMS, we examine 1) 'frictionless' data transitions that bridge K12, higher education, and workforce data 2)…

Digital data are transforming higher education (HE) to be more student-focused and metrics-centred. In the UK, capturing detailed data about students has become a government priority, with an emphasis on using student data to measure, compare and assess university performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the governmental and commercial…

Universities generate a mass of data related to students and the courses that they study. As such, "data work" using digital technologies and digital systems is integral to educational administration within higher education. Drawing on in-depth interviews with administrative and managerial staff in an Australian university, this article…

In this article, we argue that the contributions of documentation studies can provide a useful framework for analyzing the datafication of students due to emerging learning analytics (LA) practices. Specifically, the concepts of individuals being 'made into' data and how that data is 'considered as' can help to frame vital questions concerning the…

Legal, privacy and ethical concerns impacted data sharing among post-secondary institutions in academic collaboration in Ontario. The legal/ethical environment was embodied by FIPPA (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy) legislation, Research Ethics Board protocols and Institutional Acts enacted by the provincial parliament.…

The issue of student retention and graduation from postsecondary institutions has grown in stature over the past decade. While the last 40 years of federal and state policies have focused largely on access to college, there is now a very real interest in not only getting students into college but also helping them earn baccalaureate and other…

Depressive symptoms, a lack of close supportive relationships and suicidal ideation are important risk factors for suicidal acts. Previous studies have primarily focused on the additive effects of close relationships and depressive symptoms on suicide risk. Here we explored whether, in addition, close relationships moderated the impact of…

Phillip Henry is a semi-retired former U.K. Registrar and Secretary with almost 40 years' experience in higher education. He has been active in staff development in the United Kingdom (Association of University Administrators, Academic Registrars Council, and Association of Heads of University Administration), in the United States (AACRAO and a…

Many researchers who are interested in studying students' online self-regulated learning (SRL) have heavily relied on self-reported surveys. Data mining is an alternative technique that can be used to discover students' SRL patterns from large data logs saved on a course management system. The purpose of this study was to identify students' online…

This study investigates the effects of music ensemble participation during the freshman fall semester on the ongoing retention of college students. Retention of college students is a concern across the nation. The research question for the study was, "Is there a correlation between participation in music ensembles during college students'…