This article explores potential uses, misuses, beneficiaries, and tensions of learning analytics in higher education. While those promoting and using learning analytics generally agree that ethical practice is imperative, and student privacy and rights are important, navigating the complex maze of ethical dilemmas can be challenging, particularly…

We live in a data-driven world. The voluminous scale of data gathered can lead to diminished consciousness of ethics whilst economic interests are prioritised. Across recent decades education has come to be heavily data driven and datafied. We have witnessed the dehumanising and increased labour impacts of school datafication. In search for…

This study conducted a systematic literature review of articles on learning analytics published between 2004 and January 2024. A total of 1,064 articles, identified using the keyword "learning analytic*" in the Scopus database, were analyzed. The study integrated systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis approaches to…

The last decade has seen a rise in big data approaches, including in the humanities, whereby large quantities of data are collected and analysed. In this paper, we discuss long-form audio recordings that result from individuals wearing a recording device for many hours. Linguists, psychologists and anthropologists can use them, for example, to…

Engaging with primary researchers during qualitative secondary analysis is a practice much recommended but rarely written about. In this article, I reflect on my experience of crossing an imagined boundary between the discrete textual dataset and its creators, of acknowledging and engaging with those researchers who invested in constructing the…

Data literacy is the ability to collect, manage, evaluate, and apply data, in a critical manner. It is a relatively new field of study, dating only from the 2010s. It includes the skills necessary to discover and access data, manipulate data, evaluate data quality, conduct analysis using data, interpret results of analyses, and understand the…

The benefits of government administrative data are well-established, but research has not examined processes by which these data can be identified, organised and governed in line with ethical considerations. This is an important undertaking given the potential benefits of robust administrative data, especially at a time when the collection of…

While violence against children (VAC) has been a long-established global concern, more recently attention has been drawn to how violence occurs in and around schools (VACS) and the role of education in preventing and responding to violence. Whilst awareness about VACS is growing, more robust data are needed to inform policy and practice. Concerns…

Engaging and motivating students in undergraduate statistics courses can be enhanced by using topical peer-reviewed publications for analyses as part of course assignments. Given the popularity of on-campus therapy dog stress-reduction programs, this topic fosters buy-in from students whilst providing information regarding the importance of mental…

Over recent decades, higher education infrastructures have become increasingly digitized and datafied. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated adoption of online learning platforms, trading the walls of the classroom for digital systems. Yet the surveillance, privacy, and discrimination issues that such systems raise are minimally understood by those…

This paper critically examines the use of the photostories method adapted from Photovoice in research with children, exploring its effectiveness in enabling decision-making and influencing change while addressing potential challenges. Specifically, it investigates the extent to which the photostories method enables children to make decisions and…

This case discusses how scenario-based interviews can be used to develop research into policy and practice. Based on data collected from U.K. further education management settings, it shows how and why scenario-based interviews were used. It also explains how the data collected were then used to illustrate and analyze the implementation of a…

The ongoing 'datafication' of contemporary society has a number of implications for schools and schooling. One is the increasing calls for schools to help develop young people's understandings about the role that digital data now plays in their everyday lives -- especially in terms of the 'data economy' and 'surveillance capitalism'. Reporting on…

The use of social media platforms as a means of data collection for researchers is increasing. With the number of active users of Facebook across the globe exceeding two billion, the platform offers a means to reach and hear from diverse populations and gather information-rich data. Despite an increase of researchers utilising Facebook and…

Research data services--support offerings which enable and improve data-intensive research--have garnered sustained attention from library research support service providers for nearly two decades. Libraries have played a leading role in developing research data services, and on most university campuses they provide the largest and most diverse…