"Co-designing for privacy, transparency, and trust in k-12 learning analytics"

​Associate Professor June Ahn is lead author of an article in Proceedings of the 11th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference – LAK21 exploring human-centered design components of Learning Analytics.
 
The title of the article is “Co-designing for privacy, transparency, and trust in k-12 learning analytics.”
 
Co-authors are doctoral scholar Fabio Campos (New York University), third-year doctoral student Ha Nguyen, research assistant Maria Hays (University of Washington), and project coordinator Jan Morrison (Vanderbilt University).
 
Ahn’s research interests include learning technologies, research-practice partnerships, human-computer interaction, educational technology, and data use and analytics. His core research interest is understanding how technology, information, and co-designing solutions with the community, can enhance the way we learn and deliver education. Ahn co-designs technology with community partners for diverse learning contexts. He has engaged in research-practice partnerships around emerging technologies including social media, alternate reality games, and data visualization platforms. 

June Ahn

Ahn serves as faculty director of Orange County Educational Advancement Network (OCEAN) and a member of the Connected Learning Lab (DLL) at UCI. Currently, he is editor of Educational Researcher.

Nguyen is specializing in Teaching, Learning, and Educational Improvement (TLEI) for her doctoral work. Her research interests include design of STEM learning experiences and multimodal assessment to study collaboration and conceptual understanding. She is advised by Professors Mark Warschauer and Rossella Santagata.    
 
Abstract
 
The process of using Learning Analytics (LA) to improve teaching works from the assumption that data should be readily shared between stakeholders in an educational organization. However, the design of LA tools often does not account for considerations such as data privacy, transparency and trust among stakeholders. Research in human-centered design of LA does attend to these questions, specifically with a focus on including direct input from K-12 educators. In this paper, we present a series of design studies to articulate and refine conjectures about how privacy and transparency might influence better trust-building and data sharing within four school districts in the United States. By presenting the development of four sequential prototypes, our findings illuminate the tensions between designing for existing norms versus potentially challenging these norms by promoting meaningful discussions around the use of data. We conclude with a discussion about practical and methodological implications of our work to the LA community.