Page - 39 - in Radical Solutions and Open Science - An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education

3 TheEthical IssuesofLearningAnalytics… 41 ReadersaredirectedtoarecentpaperbyKittoandKnight(2019)whichcogently analyzestheseethical initiativesanddiscussesthepractical implicationsforbuilding LAsystems. The extent of the discussion of ethics in theLAcommunity is testament to the importancewhichithasbeengiven,andthedesireoftheparticipants toactethically, and to create systemswhichwill not be rejected by stakeholders. Important issues havebeenidentified,thepossiblecoursesofactionanalyzedindepth,andrecommen- dationsaremade.ThedesignersofLAsystemsare taskedwithprovidingparticular functionality, and theyneedguidanceonhowtogoabout this inanethicallydefen- sibleway, andwithout alienating stakeholders.These are importantmatters,which havebeenaddressed in the literaturewhich I cite above. In this chapter, however, I amconcerned lesswith the internalworkingsof thefieldofLA, andmorewith the ethical implicationsof the connectionsbetweenLAand thewider social context in which it is situated. In response to theethicalconsiderationswhichIhavedescribedabove,anumber of institutionshaveestablishedcodesofpractice forLA, tomakeexplicitwhatwill andwillnotbedonewithstudentdata,andtherolesof those involved.Suchpolicies include, in theUK, Jisc (2015) andTheOpenUniversity (2014c); inCanada, The UniversityofBritishColumbia(undated);andinAustralia,CharlesStuartUniversity (2015).Thesecodesofpracticehave thegreatmeritofmakingexplicit thebasis for LAdesign, and they are the results ofmany person-years of reflection by experts in the field.Nevertheless, contradictions can arise between ethical practices inLA and those prevailing in academic research. TheOpenUniversity (OU) of theUK providesagoodexample,becauseoftheexemplaryclarityof itspoliciesonresearch ethics and on LA. TheOUFAQs on LA inform students that in order to have “a complete dataset” available to the University “…it is not possible, at present, to haveyourdataexcluded”(TheOpenUniversity,2014b).At thesametime, theOU’s EthicsPrinciples forResearch InvolvingHumanParticipants assert that “Except in exceptional circumstances, where the nature of the research design requires it, no research shall be conductedwithout the opt-in valid consent of participants.” and that “Participants… have a right to withdraw their consent at any time up to a specifieddate” (TheOpenUniversity,2014a).LAat theOUis intended to“identify interventions which aim to support students in achieving their study goals” (The OpenUniversity,2014c),anaimwhichhastraditionallybeenaddressedbymeansof academic educational research. From these documents, it inescapably appears that anOUPhD studentwho is researching into teaching and learning outside theOU wouldneedtoobtainethicalapprovalandconsentfromparticipantsbeforegathering anydata,while thestudent’sparentorganisationcarriesout thesameresearchon its ownstudentswithoutanysuchconstraint.All threeOUdocuments that Ihavecited aredated2014, andso this contradiction isnot acaseofoutdatedpolicies failing to keep trackof recentdevelopments. TheOUisbynomeansalone inviewingverysimilar researchactivities through quitedifferent ethical lenses.To takeanother example, theCharlesSturtUniversity LearningAnalyticsCodeofPractice states thatdata is collectedwithout consent: