Page - 45 - in Radical Solutions and Open Science - An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education

3 TheEthical IssuesofLearningAnalytics… 47 that the resolution of these ethical contradictions can only be achieved through an understandingof the implicationsof thesechanges foreducational systems, institu- tions and thepeoplewhowork and study in them, and then takingdecisions in the lightof thatunderstanding. In the remainderof this chapter, Iwill consider someof theissueswhichwillneedtobeaddressedinordertoachievesuchanunderstanding. 3.4 Ethical IssuesRaisedbytheExtensionofOperations ResearchtoEducation 3.4.1 TheErosionof theNurembergTradition Themultiple issues and challenges of the ethics ofLAmaybe summarised in this quandary: isLAacademic research (as it appears tobe fromitsobjectsof study)or is itOR(as it appears tobe fromits institutionalpurpose)? This quandary is easy to name, but hard to resolve. A resolution in favour of either alternative implies consequences that areunacceptable tomanyactors. IfLA is research,and isgovernedbytheNurembergcode, theneducation institutionswill be required toseekconsent fromstudentsand teachers foranyanalyticalactivity, in advance, and to specify the purpose of the data gathering.Aswehave seen above, thisflies in thefaceofuniversaleducationpractice inmaintainingrecordsofstudent attendanceandachievement,andwouldruleoutmanyoftheactivitiesofLA.Itwould alsohavesignificantconsequencesforcommercialsuppliersofservicestoeducation. On the other hand, if, as I have argued, LA ismost usefully conceptualised as the extension of OR to the institution, then there is a prospect that the entire ethical framework for educational research could become irrelevant. There are twoways inwhich thismay take place. Firstly, in themedium term the availability of data on the systemsof institutions and their commercial partners, and theeaseof access and ethical approval through LA, will inevitably be an attraction to educational researchers, andacause for cynicismabout researchethicsprocedures. It is hard to seehowthis couldnotundermine theauthorityof researchethicsprocedures. Secondly, educational research could simplymove out of the academic sector. To take an example, researchers fromPearson presented a paper at theAmerican EducationalResearchAssociationAnnualMeeting(Belenky,2018)whichdescribed a randomised control trial in differentmessages thatwere embedded in theMyLab Programmingapplication, inorder to seewhichwould leadstudents toattempt and complete more problems. Five thousand students were unknowingly involved in theexperiment.According toHerold (2018)“the researchpromptedafiercedebate over issues of ethics, privacy and consent” leading to a fall in stockvalue. Pearson thendescribedtheexperimentasa“relativelyminorproductupdate”(Herold,2018) No related research has been published by Pearson, but institutionswho use their