Bodong Chen,

1

Fan Ouyang,

1

Yu-Hui Chang,

1

& Wanying Zhou

2

1

Curriculum & Instruction, University of Minnesota

2

College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota

2016 MN eLearning Summit * Minneapolis * July 28, 2016

Fostering Engagement and Reflection through Social Learning Analytics

Context

● Fully online● Liberal education● Writing intensive

Instructor Researcher

● How to promote forum participation?● How to help students become more aware

and reflective of their participation?

(Kuh, 2003)

Social Learning Analytics● Learning Analytics

(Siemens, 2012, 2013)

● Social Learning Analytics

(Buckingham Shum & Ferguson, 2012)

○ Social learning

○ Analytics of/for learning

■ Social network analytics

■ Content analytics

■ …

○ Mostly built for instructors

CanvasNetfor students

1. Social engagement -- social network analytics2. Conceptual engagement -- lexical analytics

CanvasForums

GoogleDrive

Apps ScriptCavasNetWeb app

Shiny AppR

Google Sheets R API

Feedback Loop

Data Analytics

Sense-making

Student reflections

CanvasForums

Student interactions

CanvasForums

Canvas API

CanvasForums

GoogleDrive

Apps Script

Google Spreadsheet

CanvasNetdemo

A Pilot Study

● Useful?● Usable?

● Did it foster social interactions?● Did it facilitate quality of discussions?

Two sections (n = 39)

Data and Analyses

Questions Data AnalysesUseful?Usable?

Student reflection Coding of usage/usefulness and usability

Social interactions

Forum logs Social network analysis

Quality of discussions

Forum posts Coding of speaking behaviors

Results

Usefulnessmonitor posting behaviors

setting participation goals

did not find it useful

Non-use (esp. Class B)

“CanvasNet was actually interesting...

So in the network summary, I can

check how many [times I interacted]

with a person.”

“I figured out that I was the person

who got the most comments... So I

feel like I have to write comments to

others.”

“I really knew how much time,

thought and energy I had put [in].”

Usabilityneed for additional supports

(procedural & conceptual)

individual variation

“I did not really understand... The big

cloud [has] arrows pointing

everywhere... I [am] not really sure

about how those numbers are

calculated...”

S688: “In CanvasNet, I set up Date

Range ... and found my ID on the

Network map. This is really

interesting and I have 32 replies for

two months. My position on the

network map is in the middle. In

October period, my position is

somewhat changed… ”

Social Interactions

● A vs B, Phase 1: B had higher

degree but also variation

● B, Phase 1 vs 2: decrease--degree;

increase--reciprocity

Quality(in progress)

A single case: S688

● argumentation

● reflection on the group

Lessons Learned

Keep it simpleTiming

Pedagogical alignments

Students as agents(Slade, 2013)

Know. Make. Play.(Thomas & Brown, 2011)

● Instructors in the new cultures of learning

● Supports for instructors (e.g., “Learning Analytics Carpentry”)

Thank You!

chenbd@umn.edu@bod0ng