Exploring the What, Why, & How of Social Learning Analytics OR Annotation-Centric Assessment of Blogging in Higher Education Laura Gogia Academic Learning Transformation Lab Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond VA

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Hello. My Name Is... Do you teach online? Blog and tweet with student- participants? In public? To what end? How do you know if you are achieving your goals?

VCU is exploring the intersection of connected learning & open education Photo Credit:

Rampages.us (VCU Community) Rampages.us (VCU Community) Personal Blog Sites

Emerging-Evolving Course Experience: Public – Open Course Website Public and Aggregated Student Blogging Public Discourse

By introducing students to this sort of loosely structured, flexible, open digital learning experience, we hope to promote certain learning dispositions, including connectivity.

Connectivity Creating, recognizing, understanding, and acting on connections made across content, disciplines, living spheres, people, space and time. Interdisciplinary Learning – Self-Reflection – Transferability – Social Learning – Intersection of formal and informal – Holistic

That’s great. But how do we assess connectivity?

We are thinking hard about how to build meaningful assessments in our course designs. (1)Documenting connectivity. (2)Advancing the learning. (3)Meeting 21 st century goals for assessment.

Social Learning Analytics: A subset of learning analytics meant to capture, organize, and demonstrate the inherently social, open, and connective aspects of networked participatory learning. --Ferguson & Buckingham Shum (2011)

Are there ways to take advantage of the uniquely digital aspects of blogging and tweeting to assess student blogging and tweeting in these environments?

Annotations Symbols & phrases that are distinct from but included within the communication, meant to demonstrate communicative intent Hyperlinks – Embedded Images – Mentions – Hashtags

Initial argument for annotation-centric assessment: While specific to digital, they point to the art of crafting communication. Annotation is an act that lends itself to strategic reflection (“Why did you annotate that?”) Documentable, extractable, quantifiable.

Strands of Inquiry 1.How are student-participants using annotations in course-related blogging and tweeting? 1.How can this information be used (organized and visualized) to inform meaningful assessment?

COURSES PARTICIPANTS DATA SOURCES DATA TYPES 4 ONLINE COURSES Undergraduate & Graduate Multidisciplinary & Gen Ed 6-26 Students 280 PARTICIPANTS Instructors & Assistants (n = 10) Students (n = 60) Open Participants (n = 12) Other Participants (n = 200) 1618 Posts (500 Sampled) 5000 Tweets POSTS Hyperlinks (n = 800) Embedded Images (n = 400) TWEETS Hyperlinks (n = 430) Mentions (n = 3000) Hashtags (n = 130) ANALYSES Descriptive Statistics Content Analysis Social Network Analysis

Two Things Happened. 1.Classification systems for describing how students annotate. 1.Dashboards for documenting and assessing student performance.

An Example CC was a graduate level elective which aimed to introduce its students to community engaged research. On average, students blogged several times a week in three formats: (1) digital makes; (2) reflective posts; (3) research proposal project. They also engaged in weekly, structured Twitter chats. Enrollment: 10 students. 12 open participants.

Classification Systems Types and sources of hyperlinked and embedded materials Purpose or impact of the annotation in the context of the post

But why did CC students hyperlink? Types and sources of materials that CC students used were appropriate for student level and the course content.

1. To link to supporting documents. Traditional citing and referencing. Defining, describing, and providing examples in ways not supported by formal writing styles. “This could be filled in, Mad Libs style.” “...verbal or nonverbal communication...”

2. To link to previous work or experience. “As I discussed in a previous post...” “As I reflect on my proposed research questions...”

3. To provide course context. “I am writing this because I am taking a course...”

But what about embedded images and videos?

The pedagogical value of embedded images and videos varied, but in a way that can be defined and organized into a spectrum.

BASIC LEVEL (IMAGES): Serves no obvious purpose other than contributing to an aesthetic.

INTERMEDIATE LEVEL (IMAGES): Provides additional information Makes an otherwise unstated them explicit. Inspires deeper questions.

ADVANCED LEVEL (IMAGES & VIDEOS): Further the narrative (e.g. a table, chart, or infographic that the student refers to or explains in the narrative) Demonstrate a personal connection to the subject (e.g. a photograph, graphic, or video the student made themselves and explains in the narrative)

How does can typologies like these inform student assessment? Rubrics – Peer Assessment – Self Assessment