This is a full-day interactive workshop with a blend of interactive exercises (including reflection, discussion, visual mapping and more) and research and theory synthesis (short presentations summarising key concepts, important scholarship and papers, and diverse viewpoints from experts we interviewed). The workshop unfolds following the outline below:
Morning, part 1: Introduction and activating debate (1 hour)
The workshop jumps right in with a playful, engaging introduction. We'll set the tone: this is not a passive lecture event. We have planned activities that will introduce everyone and help us start to expose how we think about theory and research in an engaging and (hopefully) fun way. These reflections aren't just icebreakers, they'll be relevant to the whole workshop and will be referred to throughout the day. Additionally, as facilitators we will present some key definitions of ideas and a curated selection of research throughout these activities to frame the workshop, inform, and promote scholarly debate.
Morning, part 2: Insights from three perspectives: psychometrics, sociology, and learning theory (2 hours)
At this point we'll keep the pace moving; shifting between presentation and discussion to make it easy to stay engaged. After the introductions we we will introduce the three different perspectives from psychometrics, sociology, and learning theory. This section of the workshop will include both short presentations from the organizers (to share theory and relevant studies with the participants) and discussions among workshop participants (to share perspectives). Our goal here is to raise challenging questions which may not have definitive answers. We have designed conceptual reflection tools (imagine: big poster boards, colored pens, visualisations) to support developing shared perspectives, identifying differences, and representing these perspectives systematically.
Afternoon, part 1: Advancing our methodology in learning analytics (2 hours)
After lunch, the workshop continues and shifts to a more applied focus. The goal here is connecting the conceptual perspectives from the first half to your actual research in practice. At this stage you will be able to briefly present your work, with an emphasis on the research design choices and challenges. (A prompt will be sent out in advance of the workshop, describing how to prepare). Everyone will be discussing the presentations in the context of what we developed during the morning.
Afternoon, part 2: Concluding reflections and next steps (1 hour)
To conclude the workshop, we want to summarise our outputs and developments. The participants will take a brief reflection survey that allows us to represent our takeaways (text analysis and plots) visually. This will be the starting point for plenary, final discussion. There'll be time to discuss next steps building on what we developed throughout the workshop: possible research collaborations, contributing to the journal article the facilitators are writing (in progress), and more.