Big Data offers opportunities and challenges in all aspects of human life. In relation to research ethics, Big Data represents a normative difference in degree rather than a difference in kind. Data are more messy, rapid, difficult to predict, and difficult to identify owners; but the principles of informed consent, confidentiality, and prevention…

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…

Higher education has faced increased pressure to prove its quality through 'economic efficiency' and 'value for money', thrusting institutions into what researchers call an 'audit culture'. This study explores whether and how the audit culture has impacted educational developers in Canadian post-secondary institutions. Results include a summary of…

Institutions of higher education are asked to consider how their work can advance equity in institutional outcomes. Assessment, too, has been asked to consider the ways in which traditional student assessment "privileges and validates certain types of learning and evidence of learning over others" (Montenegro and Jankowski 2017, p. 5).…

In today's digital world, higher education institutions collect and use more data than ever. However, institutional silos create barriers for stakeholders who need data for daily operations and strategy. This article presents a vision of a unified, collaborative future for data governance and actionable steps stakeholders can take.

Research-intensive institutions rely on specialized central offices to support research administrators and investigators through various processes and requirements. This helps researchers successfully and compliantly conduct and manage research. However, when these support offices communicate their processes and resources from disparate locations,…

Understanding students' learning of knowledge components (KCs) is an important educational data mining task and enables many educational applications. However, in the domain of computing education, where program exercises require students to practice many KCs simultaneously, it is a challenge to attribute their errors to specific KCs and,…

Interactive learning is a two-way learning method of learners independently by using computer and network technology. In the interactive relationships, interactive learning plays a role for learners to achieve the learning purpose, interactive learning has become an important effect of online learning, but it also has many problems that need to be…

Traditional student information systems were designed primarily to collect and manage records of course enrollment and credit hours earned, as well as other data elements needed to monitor each student's progress to graduation. Now, institutions want to monitor and improve the quality and equity of students' learning experiences in courses and the…

Wichita State University (WSU) began the SEM process in 2015 with a steering committee co-chaired by the university registrar and the chief data officer (CDO). Work leading up to and undertaken throughout that process and the implementation of the SEM plan it produced helped to form an extraordinary partnership between these two professionals.…

Digital learning environments are becoming increasingly ubiquitous as a wide range of EdTech products and services enter classrooms and households across the globe. One salient attribute of these environments is their capacity to generate large amounts of data as students interact with the technology. These data logs can help construct a detailed…

Across the international higher education sector, existing studies highlight that student evaluations of courses and teaching are biased and prejudiced towards academics and can cause mental distress. Yet student evaluation data is often used as part of faculty hiring, firing, promotion, award and grant decisions. That a data source known to be…

Student privacy is a critical area of higher education that deserves greater focus, particularly as student data digitalization increases. Many colleges and universities use data literacy as a way to prepare students, sometimes from different disciplines, to work with others' data postgraduation. Data literacy can be an avenue for helping all…

Since 2010, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association's (SHEEO) Strong Foundations survey has reported on the evolution and value of postsecondary student unit record systems (PSURSs) by illuminating the condition of state postsecondary data in the U.S. In the "Strong Foundations 2023" survey, which was administered from…

Purpose: As one of the buzzwords in the present age with considerable impacts in tertiary institutions, social media use in online teaching, learning and information dissemination have been extensively discussed in extant literature. This paper aims to explore the existing campus sustainability appraisal (CSA) tools to identify the length at which…