Category: Student Success

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#LTHEChat 225 Tweetchat – 2 February 2022 – Supporting and humanising behavioural change without the behaviourism: nudges and digital footprints

Ameena Payne, Martin Compton, Sophie Kennedy

Hosted by an early career researcher, educator and incoming doctoral student (Payne), senior researcher and educator (Compton) and disabled, undergraduate psychology student (Kennedy), our collaborative and interactive tweetchat aims to explore how behavioural change in online, higher education can be supported without behaviouristic approaches. Specifically, we will engage in discussion on how nudges and digital footprints may be deployed effectively to empower marginalised students – and the potential pitfalls of such data-driven pedagogy.

When students engage in online learning, they leave behind digital footprints, artefacts that trace their activities such as contributions, page views and communications. Digital learning management systems (LMS) generate data from these footprints that can provide insight into student progress and engagement as it relates to student success. These data are called learner analytics (LAs). LAs encompass the broad data mining, collection, analysis, and sharing/reporting/disseminating of students’ digital footprints. LAs are shaping the role of online instruction and student self-regulated learning by promoting ‘actionable intelligence’ (Bayne et al., 2020, p. 71), allowing instructors to orient students and empowering students to orient themselves. 

The growing adoption and interest in LAs has supported a strategic commitment to transparency regarding key drivers for improved student engagement, retention and success. At the same time, concerns are increasingly voiced around the extent to which students are informed about, supported (or hindered by), and tracked and surveilled as they engage online. It is important to acknowledge that making pedagogical conclusions based on delimited dimensions creates a context for stereotyping and discrimination, and profiling can result in hindering students’ potential and may hurt self-efficacy.

Nudge theory, coined by behaviour economist Richard Thaler, connects persuasion with design principles (Thaler, 2015). A nudge is an approach that focuses not on punishment and reward (behaviourism) but encourages positive choices and decisions – fundamental is understanding the context.
We’d like to share a few assumptions as we engage in this discussion:

  • Academic staff have a responsibility to support our increasingly diverse body of students and need to be open to new tools and techniques such as data generated by our students’ digital footprints and opportunities offered by behavioural psychology.
  • Achievement differentials and attainment gaps exist for marginalised students. Disabled students, or students with executive dysfunction, may struggle with skills vital to independent study and content learning e.g., initiation, planning, organisation, etc. For disabled students, a product of being under-served by higher education institutions (HEIs) is that they often demonstrate lower levels of engagement which leads to disproportionate completion rates and, subsequently, employment rates and other outcomes. 
  • Behaviouristic approaches (rewards and sanctions) are at the heart of much of what we still do in education but there have been movements and trends challenging manifestations of this – from banning of corporal punishment in schools to rapid growth in interest in ungrading. 
  • LMS data are not indicators of students’ potential and merit. LAs are not impartial; they are creations of human design. By giving a voice to the data, we’re defining their meaning through our interpretations.

It is valuable to build in periodic or persistent nudges of and toward ‘both the goal and its value’ to empower all students to sustain their efforts (CAST, 2018). We advocate the implementation of nudges as something that can be useful for everyone using an LMS, as compared to a tool aimed directly at disabled students, who may feel singled out. We hold that nudging is less of an evolution of behaviourism but more of a challenge to its ubiquity and all the common assumptions about its effectiveness. We propose the employment of empathy, human connection (in contrast with carrot and stick approaches of education) and understanding to help effect small changes through supportive nudges. Nudging, prompted by LAs, is one way to approach improving achievement, narrowing gaps and offering connection and support for all students. 

Q1 – If nudging students is less about coercive practises (punishments and rewards) and more about ‘soft’, small-step connections towards positive change, what examples can you offer from your practice?

Q2 – What role does/could learning analytics (LAs) play in shaping our in-course interactions with students, particularly those from marginalised groups? 

Q3 – LAs risks profiling students and driving inequality. How might we address the weaknesses of LAs (such as the cognitive biases we may bring to its interpretation and/or some students being advantaged by extra guidance)?

Q4 – What role might nudging and/ or LAs play in personalising/adaptive learning?

Q5 – Regarding the complex issues in the nexus of student agency & subjectivity, privacy, consent, & vulnerability, how might we differentiate between LAs & surveillance in online HE?

Q6 – Can nudges assist students in overcoming ‘learned helplessness’ especially when breaking through cycles of negative thoughts and self-blame? If so, how might nudges support students in taking control of their educational experiences?

Join us on Wed, 2 Feb at 8p (GMT) / Thu, 3 Feb at 7a (AEDT)




Further reading:

Bayne, S., Evans, P., Ewins, R., Knox, J., Lamb, J., Mcleod, H., et al. (2020). The Manifesto for Teaching Online. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. http://udlguidelines.cast.org

Commissioner for Fair Access. (2019). Disabled students at university: discussion paper. Scottish Government. Available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/commissioner-fair-access-discussion-paper-disabled-students-university/

Gašević, D., Dawson, S., & Siemens, G. (2015). Let’s not forget: Learning analytics are about learning. TechTrends, 59(1), 64-71. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11528-014-0822-x.pdf 

Lim, L. A., Gentili, S., Pardo, A., Kovanović, V., Whitelock-Wainwright, A., Gašević, D., & Dawson, S. (2021). What changes, and for whom? A study of the impact of learning analytics-based process feedback in a large course. Learning and Instruction, 72, 101202.

Payne, A. L., Compton, M. & Kennedy, S. (In Progress). ‘Supporting and humanising behavioural change without the behaviorism: nudges and digital footprints.’ Human Data Interaction, Disadvantage and Skills in the Community: Enabling Cross-Sector Environments For Postdigital Inclusion. Springer.

Prinsloo, P. (2016). “Decolonising the Collection, Analyses and Use of Student Data: A Tentative Exploration/Proposal.” Open Distance Teaching and Learning (blog). https://opendistanceteachingandlearning.wordpress.com/2016/11/14/decolonising-the-collection-analyses-and-use-of-student-data-a-tentative-explorationproposal/.

Prinsloo, P., & Slade, S.(2015). Student privacy self-management: implications for learning analytics. In Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Learning Analytics And Knowledge (LAK ’15). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 83–92. https://doi.org/10.1145/2723576.2723585

Prinsloo, P., & Slade, S. (2016). Student Vulnerability, Agency and Learning Analytics: An Exploration. Journal of Learning Analytics, 3(1), 159–182. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2016.31.10

Roberts, L. D., Howell, J. A., Seaman, K., & Gibson, D. C. (2016). Student Attitudes toward Learning Analytics in Higher Education: “The Fitbit Version of the Learning World”. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 1959. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01959

Thaler, R. (2015). The Power of Nudges, for Good and Bad. The New York Times. Available at: https://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/-/media/faculty/richard-thaler/assets/files/goodandbad.pdf

Weijers, R.J., de Koning, B.B. & Paas, F. (2021). Nudging in education: from theory towards guidelines for successful implementation. Eur J Psychol Educ 36, 883–902). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-020-00495-0

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AdvanceHE 2020 Online Curriculum Symposium

I am thrilled to share that I have been invited to deliver my presentation ‘Innovating academic feedback with screen-casted audio/video feedback design’ as part of Advance HE’s Online Curriculum Symposium on 14 July alongside other academics.

This discussion aims to contribute to the on-going conversations surrounding innovations within higher education, particularly as it relates to the digital learning environment. The discussion will strive to support the benefits of focused, clear and personal feedback whilst promoting academic staff to demonstrate their commitment to engaged learning, innovative and scholarly teaching and reaching more students by improving access and flexibility.

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as an early career academic and M.Ed research

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Student Advising in Online Higher Education

Higher education students are confronted with a large number of academic choices during their studies. Which units should be taken next? How much study load can be successfully engaged with? What should a learners do when they are not progressing satisfactorily? Can they still complete the program in their expected number of years? All these decisions are often taken without complete knowledge of the intervening factors or their short, medium, and long-term consequences. To help students make better decisions, most universities offer student advising as a student service. Student advising is a decision-making process that assists students in the clarification of their academic goals and the development of an educational plan for the realisation of these goals through communication and information exchanges with an advisor. The professionalisation of academic advising in higher education has increasingly gained importance. As a result, academic advising has become more student-centric; students’ needs and expectations for their personal and professional lives are part of the advising process. Student Advisor, Quanita Nathan, shares her experience in her role of academic advisor and offers a unique academic support perspective as we navigate the impact of COVID-19 in higher education.

What are the most common concerns of learners commencing online study?

As online study is relatively new, students have a variety of concerns surrounding the delivery methods and support available to them during their studies. Education has remained relatively stable over decades and students have a set expectation in their mind to how higher education is supposed to look like. Most students feel that they do not have the same level of support available to them as there is no face-to-face component. They also feel that they are left to their own devices as there is no set times for classes. Students have to take a little more responsibility over their studies, however, there is a multitude of support available to them via a range of online methods. The delivery method is slightly different to on-campus studies as the majority of it is done via an online platform with videos and reading often substituting face-to-face classrooms. Most students, especially those who have studied before face an adjustment period in order to get used to this new way of studying. However, they soon realise that online studies affords them the flexibility and freedom to fit their studies into everyday life that on-campus study does not have the capacity to do so.

Do you feel there is a way information could be made more easily available to allow learners to take a more active and engaged role and viewing their own personal academic journey?

I think an interactive course planner that marks off a student’s course progression might be extremely useful to both students and student advisors. If we could create an online live course planner that highlights exempted, passed, and currently enroled units whilst also providing any extra information a student may need to provide (i.e. WWCC) to enrol in a unit. I also think that usage of videos and graphs or timelines will be useful for online students to assist them in feeling more in control of their academic journey. Overall it is important to discern information in an interactive way which is easy to understand and helps create more engagement for students.

What kinds of queries have you seen come through as a result of the repercussions of coronavirus?

The coronavirus has affected students a variety of ways. We have had students who are no longer able to study due to increase workloads and on the flip-side, students able to give more time to their studies due to some industries unfortunately being negatively affected by the coronavirus and leading to redundancies. We have also has students progression being affected by not being able to attend any placements they may have had planned. As this was such a sudden event that affected such a wide scope of life in general, the queries have been just as expansive. Many of these queries had to be viewed on a case by case basis, but the university has been extremely supportive and many exceptions have been giving in this trying time.

What patterns or information do you rely on to discern/address these queries and concerns?

We rely on the information provided by Program Directors, Academics, and general government protocols to ensure we are providing students a wholesome answer. Any concern that is out of the ordinary will be investigated so that we can provide students with a range of information that will hopefully assist in discerning their concerns. Under normal circumstances we have processes in place, so that students are provided with the correct information. However, as the past couple months have proven processes do not always function in times of change. We have learnt to look at every case individually and lean towards a little more leeway.

How have you effectively addressed these concerns?

The starting point is always to come from an understanding perspective and to advocate for students. We did not have answers for the questions that were being asked, when all of changes occurred due to the coronavirus. The way that we effectively addressed these concerns was to escalate concerns to the correct people and to ensure that the outcome was in the best interest of the students. Personally, there is probably more that could have been done to address some of the more specific concerns of students, but given the current circumstances, we have assured students that their progression and studies will not be halted and alternatives are being put in place so that students can continue with this aspect of their life.

Professional academic advising creates a vital connection between students and their education – helping them to become more reflective and strategic about the choices they are making and the learning they are engaged in.