Data Analytics and Adaptive Learning: Research Perspectives

Concurrent Session 4
Streamed Session

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Brief Abstract

This session will focus on current research on data analytics as used in adaptive learning environments and empowered by emerging data analysis techniques. It will center on examples of original research conducted by the most-talented scholars in the field. The substance of this session will be published in Data Analytics and Adaptive Learning: Research Perspectives (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) in early 2023.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Patsy Moskal, University of Central Florida

Patsy Moskal is the Director of the Digital Learning Impact Evaluation in the Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness at the University of Central Florida (UCF) where she evaluates the impact of technology-enhanced learning and serves as the liaison for faculty scholarship of teaching and learning. In 2011 Dr. Moskal was named an OLC Fellow in recognition of her groundbreaking work in the assessment of the impact and efficacy of online and blended learning. She has written and co-authored numerous works on blended and online learning and is a frequent presenter on these topics. Patsy's co-authored book--Conducting Research in Online and Blended Learning: New Pedagogical Frontiers--with Dziuban, Picciano, and Graham, was published in August 2015. She currently serves on the OLC Board of Directors.

Co-presenter: Chuck Dziuban, University of Central Florida

Charles Dziuban is Director of the Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness at the University of Central Florida (UCF) where has been a faculty member since 1970 teaching research design and statistics and is the founding director of the university’s Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. Since 1996, he has directed the impact evaluation of UCF’s distributed learning initiative examining student and faculty outcomes as well as gauging the impact of online, blended and lecture capture courses on the university. Chuck has published in numerous journals including Multivariate Behavioral Research, The Psychological Bulletin, Educational and Psychological Measurement, the American Education Research Journal, the Phi Delta Kappan, the Internet in Higher Education, the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, and the Sloan-C View. His methods for determining psychometric adequacy have been featured in both the SPSS and the SAS packages. He has received funding from several government and industrial agencies including the Ford Foundation, Centers for Disease Control, National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. In 2000, Chuck was named UCF’s first ever Pegasus Professor for extraordinary research, teaching, and service and in 2005 received the honor of Professor Emeritus. In 2005, he received the Sloan Consortium award for Most Outstanding Achievement in Online Learning by an Individual. In 2007 he was appointed to the National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy Policy Council. In 2010, Chuck was named an inaugural Sloan-C Fellow. In 2012 the University of Central Florida initiated the Chuck D. Dziuban Award for Excellence in Online Teaching for UCF faculty members in honor of Chuck’s impact on the field of online teaching and learning. In 2017 Chuck received UCF’s inaugural Collective Excellence award for his work strengthening the university’s impact with the Tangelo Park Program and assumed the position of University Representative to the Rosen Foundation Tangelo Park and Parramore programs.

Co-presenter: Anthony Picciano, CUNY - Hunter College and Graduate Center

Anthony G. Picciano is a professor in Education Leadership program at Hunter College, the Ph.D. Urban Education at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He has held several administrative appointments at the City University and State University of New York. Dr. Picciano started his career working with computer systems in the late 1960s. He taught his first college-level course in computer programming and systems analysis in 1971. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was involved with developing computer facilities, computer-assisted instruction (CAI) laboratories, and data networks at the City University of New York. He started teaching online in 1996. In 1998, Dr. Picciano co-founded CUNY Online, a multi-million dollar initiative funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that provided support to faculty using the Internet for course development. He was a founding member and continues to serve on the Board of Directors of the Online Learning Consortium (formerly the Sloan Consortium). Dr. Picciano's research interests are education leadership, education policy, Internet-based teaching and learning, and multimedia instructional models. With Jeff Seaman, Dr. Picciano has conducted major national studies on the extent and nature of online and blended learning in American K-12 school districts. He has authored numerous articles and frequently speaks and presents at conferences on education and technology. He has authored sixteen books including: The Community College in the Post-Recession Reform Era: Aims and Outcomes of a Decade of Experimentation. (in press, Routledge, Taylor & Francis) Online Education: Foundations, Planning, and Pedagogy (1st Ed). (2018, Routledge/Taylor & Francis). CUNY's First Fifty Years: Triumphs and Ordeals of a People's University (2018, Routledge/Taylor & Francis) Educational Leadership and Planning for Technology, 5th Edition (2011, Pearson) Data-Driven Decision Making for Effective School Leadership (2006, Pearson) Distance Learning: Making Connections across Virtual Space and Time (2001, Pearson) Educational Research Primer (2004, Continuum) The Great Education-Industrial Complex: Ideology, Technology, and Profit (2013, Routledge/Taylor & Francis) Blended Learning: Research Perspectives, Volume 1 (2007, The Sloan Consortium) Blended Learning: Research Perspectives, Volume 2 (2014, Routledge/Taylor & Francis) Conducting Research in Online and Blended Learning Environments: New Pedagogical Frontiers (2016, Routledge/Taylor & Francis). Online Education Policy and Practice: The Past, Present, and Future of the Digital University (2017, New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis, Publisher). Dr. Picciano was elected to the Inaugural Class of the Sloan Consortium Fellows in recognition of outstanding publications that have advanced the field of online learning. Dr. Picciano was the 2010 recipient of the Sloan Consortium National Award for Outstanding Achievement in Online Education by an Individual. Visit Dr. Picciano website at: http://anthonypicciano.com

Extended Abstract

The past decade has seen advances in instructional technology in adaptive and personalized instruction, virtual learning environments, and blended learning, all of which have been augmented by analytics and its companion big data. The past two years, however, the impact of COVID-19 has resulted in a remarkable investment in online learning of all types as education policymakers and administrators pivoted to virtual teaching to salvage their academic programs. As we evolve to the new normal, education will be vastly augmented by instructional technologies including data analytics and adaptive learning.  The dynamic of technology is that it constantly changes, grows and integrates into society and its institutions. Now is an ideal time to collect and view the evidence on the main topic of this session to see if and how it is fueling advances in our schools, colleges and universities.

This session will review the definition and pedagogical practices that permeate data analytics in teaching and learning. It will wade through the technological monikers and approaches that surround data analytics to give the term an organization and structure, thereby allowing participants to understand the research base that follows. The main focus of this session is to review several of the most enlightening areas of data analytics research by scholars such as Chris Dede, Justin Dellinger, John Fritz, Phil Ice, Karen Vignare, and many others. Major research findings relating to learning effectiveness, student outcomes, and faculty perspectives will be provided. This presentation will conclude with speculation on the future of education as data analytics and adaptive learning infused by artificial intelligence develops and matures.

The presenters of this session, Patsy Moskal (University of Central Florida), Charles Dziuban (University of Central Florida), and Anthony G. Picciano (Hunter College and Graduate Center, City University of New York), have conducted research and presented extensively on online, blended, and digital learning for three decades and together have published thirty books and more than 250 articles on these topics.