Governance

Dr. Bart Rienties is Professor of Learning Analytics and programme lead of the learning analytics and learning design research programme at the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University UK. He leads a group of academics who provide university-wide learning analytics and learning design solutions and conduct evidence-based research of how students and professionals learn. As an educational psychologist, he conducts multi-disciplinary research on work-based and collaborative learning environments and focuses on the role of social interaction in learning, which is published in leading academic journals and books. His primary research interests are focussed on Learning Analytics, Learning Design, and the role of motivation in learning. Furthermore, Bart is interested in broader internationalisation aspects of higher education. He has successfully led a range of institutional/national/European projects, and has received a range of awards for his educational innovation projects. He has published over 250 academic outputs in a range of disciplines, but is most proud of the embedding of several of the educational innovations as “business as usual” at the three institutions he has worked. For the “serious Bart” see https://twitter.com/DrBartRienties, for the “real Bart” see https://www.strava.com/athletes/5325274.

Professor Blaženka Divjak, PhD, is a Full Professor of Mathematics and Information Science at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Organization and Informatics. She served as Vice-Rector for students and study programs at the University of Zagreb (2010-2014). She was the Croatian Minister of Science and Education (2017-2020), leading four major reform processes: curricular reform of general education, reform of vocational education and training, enhancement of relevance of higher education and excellence of research. She chaired the EU Council of ministers for education and Council of ministers for research and space during the Croatian presidency (January – June 2020). In that period, she coordinated the EU response to the COVID-19 crises in education and research. She has been a coordinator and a researcher in over 30 (inter)national projects. Currently, she coordinates the “Relevant assessment and pedagogies for inclusive digital education” Erasmus+ project, as well as a work package within the “Digital and entrepreneurial skills for European teachers” Erasmus+ project, both of which research learning analytics. Her area of interest and expertise, besides mathematics, includes curriculum development, e-learning, learning design, assessment, learning analytics, strategic decision-making, the Bologna process, as well as the social dimension of higher education.

Nia Nixon is an Assistant Professor in Education at UC-Irvine and director of the Learning Analytics Laboratory (LA-Lab). Her primary interests are in cognitive psychology, discourse processing, group interaction, and learning analytics. Her research focuses on using quantitative measures of language and discourse to reveal the dynamics of socially significant cognitive and affective processes. She is currently applying computational techniques to model discourse and social dynamics in a variety of environments including small group computer- mediated collaborative learning environments, collaborative design networks, and massive open online courses (MOOCs). Her research has also extended beyond the educational and learning sciences spaces and highlighted the practical applications of computational discourse science in the clinical, political and social sciences.

Ioana Jivet is a postdoctoral researcher at studiumdigitale at the Goethe University Frankfurt and an associate researcher at DIPF in Germany. Ioana has a Masters degree in Computer Science obtained in 2016 from TU Delft and a PhD Cum Laude obtained in 2021 at the Open University of the Netherlands. Her research focuses on designing feedback interventions and learner-facing learning analytics dashboards that foster goal achievement and the development of self-regulated learning skills. Over the past years, she has contributed to Competen-SEA, a capacity building project in South-East Asia around MOOCs, and SHEILA, a research project that investigated the adoption of learning analytics in European higher education institutions and built a policy development framework for HEIs to facilitate adoption.

Isabel Hilliger is the Associate Director for Assessment and Evaluation at the Engineering School in Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC-Chile). Isabel received a BEng from PUC-Chile and a MA in Policies, Organization and Leadership Studies from Stanford Graduate School of Education in U.S.A. Between 2011 and 2013, Isabel led the development of indicators to evaluate school support programs in Chile as the Associate Coordinator for Pedagogical Technical Assistance in the Ministry for Education. Since then, she has been involved in diverse research projects on educational policy and technology enhanced learning in different countries, including a research fellowship at Laspau, a Harvard-affiliated organization. She is currently a PhD candidate in Computer Science at PUC-Chile and her research focuses on the development of processes and learning analytics tools for continuous improvement of higher education in Latin America. In this context, she has served as a researcher in a project titled ‘Building Capacity to Use Learning Learning Analytics to Improve Higher Education in Latin America-LALA Project’. This project is financed by the European Commission, and Isabel has actively participated in the development of a framework to guide the design and implementation of Learning Analytics tools in Latin American universities.

Kathryn has been a member of SoLAR’s SIG Working Group since 2020, and is active in interactions with SIG leaders and championing the role of SIGs within the Society. Kathryn was on the organising committee for LAK18 in Sydney, and initiated her university’s institutional membership with SoLAR and continued as its representative until 2022 when she moved from a central institutional leadership role to a regular faculty position. Some notable achievements whilst in the role of Head Quality and Analytics at the University of Sydney (USyd) were delivering an online survey system, the establishment of data access processes, convening twice-yearly roundtable sessions for researchers using university-held student data, and sponsoring a number of institution-wide learning analytics projects of which the most significant was the creation of an educational databank. Since her recent move to the Sydney School of Education and Social Work, Kathryn is now research coordinator at the Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment (CEMA). She is also deputy chair and chair of two of USyd’s human research ethics committees, and regularly gives seminars and advice across the arts and social sciences on ethics. Kathryn currently teaches in the areas educational leadership, educational psychology, and research methods; and supervises PhD students in the areas of assessment and educational psychology.

Rogers Kaliisa is a Doctoral Research Fellow in Learning Analytics at the Department of Education, University of Oslo, Norway. His doctoral research focuses on leveraging social learning analytics to support teachers in making data-informed learning design (LD) decisions in blended learning environments. His research utilizes networked approaches (e.g. social and epistemic network analysis) and automated discourse analysis to make sense of students’ data generated from online learning environments and how it relates to teachers’ intended pedagogical objectives.

Khalil is a senior researcher and lecturer in learning analytics at the Centre for the Science of Learning & Technology (SLATE) within the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Bergen in Norway. Khalil, as an Erasmus Mundus granted scholar, has a Ph.D. with distinction from Graz University of Technology in Learning Analytics in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). He worked as a Postdoc at Delft University of Technology for almost 2 years in Technology Enhanced Learning. Khalil leads several international projects in learning analytics, including Erasmus+ and PederSather projects. He is a guest editor of two special issues in the Journal of Learning Analytics (JLA) on Fairness, Equity and Responsibility in Learning Analytics and the British Journal of Educational Technology on Adaptive Support for Self-Regulated Learning. He has served as one of the workshop chairs for LAK’23.

Lisa-Angelique Lim is a postdoctoral researcher with the Connected Intelligence Centre at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Australia. Lisa obtained her PhD in education with a focus on learning analytics from the University of South Australia. Lisa’s primary research interests are in learning analytics feedback and human-centred AI. Lisa’s research focuses on understanding effective implementation of human-centred learning analytics in educational settings, as well as its impact on key stakeholders. Lisa has published in several top journals and conferences in the fields of education and learning analytics. In addition to research, Lisa’s work involves building educators’ capability development in the use of automated feedback, and co-designing learning analytics feedback with educators within their teaching contexts. She has also chaired or co-chaired a number of successful workshops in learning analytics feedback at LAK and LASI.

I am a Research Professor in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in the Department of Business Management, College of Economic and Management Sciences, University of South Africa (Unisa). I am also a Visiting Professor at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (Germany), a Research Associate for Contact North I Contact Nord (Canada) and a Fellow of the European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN) and serve on several editorial boards. In the South African context, I have a B3 research rating confirming my considerable international reputation for the high quality and impact of his research outputs. Since the birth of learning analytics as a distinct, interdisciplinary research field and practice, my research into the ethical issues in learning analytics, and recently the potential of as well as the political/ethical issues at the intersections of human-algorithmic decision-making systems, is internationally recognised as providing innovative and important perspectives. While learning analytics is still an emerging research focus and practice in the broader Global South and specifically on the African continent, my collaboration with various international and African scholars raises important considerations for the broader learning analytics community.

My name is Adele Smolansky, and I am an undergraduate senior studying Computer Science at Cornell University. Starting Fall of 2023, I will pursue a PhD at the intersection of education, computer science, and neuroscience to increase our scientific understanding of how children learn and how educational technology can improve student learning outcomes. My younger sister Lara has a severe neurological disability called Rett Syndrome. After my freshman year at Cornell, I founded AI-Learners, an educational technology company that helps kids with disabilities learn math. I’ve seen the great benefits of personalized learning for students with disabilities, but to truly maximize learning outcomes, I believe we need a deep understanding of how to apply artificial intelligence and neuroscience to education. I am now conducting research at two Cornell University research labs. At the Future of Learning Lab, I’m exploring how adaptive EdTech math games can help children with cognitive disabilities learn math. At the Enhancing Ability Lab, I’m investigating the accessibility of EdTech games for students with physical and cognitive disabilities. I’m looking forward to continuing my research in graduate school.