Call For Participation

This workshop seeks to build on the momentum from recent years within the LAK community, around the contributions that Human-Centred Design theory and practice should make to Learning Analytics system conception, design, implementation and evaluation.

Little work has been done in proposing the steps that other researchers or designers can use as a guidance to structure participatory sessions to understand critical aspects of the envisaged use of LA tools and the actual data needs that stakeholders may have. This workshop aims at consolidating the subcommunity of LA researchers and practitioners interested in the human factors related to the effective design of LA innovations. In doing so, we plan to address questions such as: What has been done so far in HCLA, and what have we learned from these experiences? Within the context of our field, how do we define some fuzzy concepts such as "participatory", "co-design" and "human-centeredness"? Finally, as a community, what do we want to know (research agenda) from now on?

Thus, the intended outcome of this workshop is twofold:

Outcome 1: A plan for the consolidation of a new SoLAR SIG dedicated to the study and practice of HCLA within the larger LAK community; and

Outcome 2: The publication of a report summarising the workshop experience and, hopefully, a “roadmap manifesto” setting a research agenda for HCLA.

The workshop is envisioned to be a half-day, fully online workshop. This workshop welcomes everyone with an interest in the field, from beginners to experts. We will not have a call for papers. Instead, participants will be asked to fill a survey which will capture previous experiences in HCLA as well as current understandings of design aspects that will be relevant for the discussions during the workshop. In particular, participants will be asked to share their experience with human-centred design or human centred LA; to define human-centred design; to share what design methods they are familiar with; future plans to adopt human-centred design methods in LA projects.

Workshop activities

The workshop is divided into four parts:

1. Overview of HCLA. In the first part of the workshop, and based on the survey results, we will present a number of processes, frameworks and examples for engaging in participatory/co-design processes with students, faculty or administrators, emphasising both opportunities and challenges.

2. Human-Centred Design challenge. The second part of the workshop is a collaborative design challenge. Participants will engage in creating a research design plan by using human-centred methodologies. They will be grouped in teams of 4-5 people, and go to virtual breakout rooms. They will be presented with a design need and asked to work together designing a human-centred design project to handle the need. Groups will be prompted to consider methodologies such as Value-Sensitive Design, Co-design and generative tools in planning their projects.

3. Sharing and guided critique. The third part will be a discussion based on the experience co-designing the human-centred plans. A number of discussants from other communities (e.g. human-computer interaction, interaction design, participatory design and information visualisation), and some that critique human-centred design methods, will be invited to the workshop to give their critical points of view on the ideas posed in the design plans. We expect that this will lead to a discussion of the pros and cons of human-centred design techniques, what needs to be adapted to fit LA purposes and the differences of meaning of human-centred design for different people.

4. Discussion on next steps. All participants will be invited to contribute with ideas to set a potential HCLA research agenda and the potential configuration of a dedicated Special Interest Group (SIG).