Review on Critics of Learning Analytics

As usual, I woke up to see long list of inbox messages from the LAK11 course. Out of the long list or replies from every member, I merely picked 1 to read, and George's new topic to venture. After all that, I still find George's questions more inviting, and thus I answered...

Critiques of learning analytics? by George Siemens - Sunday, 16 January 2011, 05:50 PM
	What are your concerns with analytics when applied to learning and knowledge? What types of critiques and concepts should we explore/consider? I've started with a few quick thoughts on the topic here: http://www.learninganalytics.net/?p=101

My honest response is as follows:

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I think I've mentioned before in one of my replies or reviews that this learning analytics is becoming more and more of 'education management' area. Yes, we can still use it to measure performance and understand the situation in classroom scenes, but what is the point if only a few classes (or facilitators) use it, and the result of overall system cannot be tabulated?

I guess I'm talking on behalf of 'small lecturers' in an establishing university that is yet to understand and realise the power of learning analytics.

My concerns are more on measurement, whether the results meet the initial objectives we want (because we tend to 'drown' in the pool of data overflow), and what's next...

I mean, we can analyse all we want from the stats and figures we retrieve, but do we really know what to do with it, or what difference can we make out of it? Because again, this is education management level, and the results may say that "this is for registrar dept to change, not me" or "this is my faculty board's responsibility, not me".

Honest opinion,
Shazz
Kuala Lumpur 6:13AM 17Jan2011

Hope to be in the right track on this,

- Shazz @ LAK

17 Jan 2011