1st Workshop on
Bootstrapping Learning Analytics (BLA’12)

Held at the 12th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning
Technologies (ICALT) in Rome, Italy – July 4-6, 2012

Rationale

Today, learning inevitably leaves digital traces. With the increasing pervasion of society and education with technology, data become available that can help improve both formal and informal learning by supporting monitoring, analysis, and decision-making when fitted with novel and web-based instruments. Research and practice collaborate in the emerging field of ‘Learning Analytics’ to investigate “the use of intelligent data, learner-produced data, and analysis models to discover information and social connections, and to predict and advise on learning” [1]. Rooted in Web Analytics [2], Visual Analytics [3], and Educational Data Mining [4], the main objectives of this field are to enable learners to monitor, reflect and improve learning with respect to resources, activities, outcomes, actors, and environments.

As a consequence of Web technologies and social media platforms, a lot of user-related data-sets, i.e. the digital traces of learners, are collected within a distributed and heterogeneous ICT landscape. Following a dataset-driven research [5], methods of data and text mining, statistical analysis, and predictive analytics can be applied to develop performance indicators and measurement systems for supporting learners. Possible applications can be found in monitoring individual and group activity, providing feedback, and fostering reflection: e.g., in form of key performance indicators, visualizations, predictions, and recommendations.

This workshop specifically addresses researchers and practitioners in the field of technology-enhanced learning (TEL), who analyze and explore existing data-sets in order to measure the outcomes and quality of learning, to foster reflection, or to predict needs of learners in their educational contexts. Research work to be presented covers a range of topics:   the usefulness of learning analytics, obstacles for its uptake in the wider TEL community, success measurement in web-based learning environments, analysis and visualization techniques in the scope of learning analytics, performance indicators and measurement systems for learning, possibilities and limitations of applying Educational Data Mining for learning analytics, and other appropriate ones.

Topics of Interest (but not limited to)

• Data-driven research
• Educational data mining
• Scope of applications of learning analytics
• SWOT analysis of learning analytics
• Performance indicators and measurement systems
• Analysis and visualization techniques for decision-making
• Predictive applications for learning
• Challenges in deploying learning analytics
• Studies and experiences from real-world test-beds

Format and Submission Procedure

Authors are invited to submit papers on original unpublished research (2 pages), being presented according to the author guidelines of the ICALT conference (http://www.scuolaiad.it/ICALT2012/). Papers should be submitted via the EasyChair platform (http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=bla12) and will be peer-reviewed by at least three members of the program committee for originality, significance, clarity, and quality. The accepted papers will be published as part of the ICALT proceedings. For further questions or concerns, please contact us via e-mail: bla12@easychair.org.

Important Dates

• February 15, 2012: Submission of workshop papers (2 pages)
• March 5, 2012: Notification of acceptance
• March 15, 2012: Authors’ registration
• April 1, 2012: Camera-ready paper (up to 2 pages) for the conference proceedings
• July 4-6, 2012: ICALT 2012 Conference

Organizers

• Felix Mödritscher, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
• Claudia Brauer, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
• Fridolin Wild, Open University, United Kingdom
• Effie Lai-Chong Law, University of Leicester, United Kingdom

Program Committee (to be confirmed)

• Andreas Harrer, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany
• Carlo Giovanella, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy
• Denis Gillet, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
• Dragan Gasevic, Athabasca University, Canada
• Hendrik Drachsler, CELSTEC Heerlen, The Netherlands
• Johannes Ruhland, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany
• Katrien Verbert, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
• Luis de la Fuente Valentín, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
• Maurizio Talamo, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy
• Ralf Klamma, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
• Sabine Graf, Athabasca University, Canada

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