Learning Analytics, Ethics and Participant Privacy

The field of Learning Analytics’ ultimate promise is that it can turn insights into action so as to improve learning experiences and outcomes. Efforts have been made to consider the ethical implications of this field such that learners are properly protected in such research. However, surprisingly little research has been conducted into how researchers in the field actually handle issues of ethics and participant rights as evidenced in published studies. In this paper we address this gap by conducting a literature review and analysis of Learning Analytics research. We analysed 104 papers and found that a majority (60) made no mention of ethics or ethical approval for the research. We found differences in opt-in and opt-out policies for learners in the published studies. It was not always clear that full learner consent had been given in many studies. We highlight considerable absence of details in ethical reporting and recommend that future learning analytics research studies clearly detail the ethical activities followed.