Do They Even Care? Measuring Instructor Value of Student Privacy in the Context of Learning Analytics

Abstract

Learning analytics tools are becoming commonplace in educational technologies, but extant student privacy issues remain largely unresolved. It is unknown whether or not faculty care about student privacy and see privacy as valuable for learning. The research herein addresses findings from a survey of over 500 full-time higher education instructors. The findings detail faculty perspectives of their own privacy, students’ privacy, and the high degree to which they value both. Data indicate that faculty believe that privacy is important to intellectual behaviors and learning. This work reports initial findings of a multi-phase, grant-funded research project that will further uncover instructor views of learning analytics and its student privacy issues.