Privacy in Learning Analytics – Implications for System Architecture

This paper explores the field of ICT standardisation related to learning analytics, a new class of technologies being introduced to schools, universities and further education as a consequence of increased access to data from learning activities. Learning analytics has implication for how the individual manages data and knowledge about herself and her learning, highlighting issues of privacy, ownership of data, and consent to share and use data, – issues that are not yet been fully discussed in the field of learning technology development in general, and standardisation of learning technologies in particular. What do these issues mean for standardisation and design of LA architectures? Based on requirements of open architecture, transparency and trust, and ownership and consent this paper proposes a search architecture for learning analytics based on open and linked data. The proposed middle layer highlights dynamic usage agreements and student agency and represents an alternative approach to the LA architectures now being developed in international standardisation fora.