Become a Member

November 22, 2023

The SoLAR Executive Committee is pleased to announce the call for nominations for the 2024-2025 Executive Committee. Executive Committee members serve a two year term. Nominations are open for four member at-large positions.

If you are interested in shaping and guiding how SoLAR continues to serve the growing learning analytics community please fill out this short google form with the following information by 5:00 pm EST January 17, 2024:

  • Name
  • Institution
  • Short biography (max 200 words)
  • Interest in Learning Analytics (Research Area, etc.) & Interest in serving on the SoLAR Executive Committee (max 200 words)
  • SoLAR Working Group Interests – Please let the SoLAR community know which areas within our working groups you would be interested in chairing and/or becoming a member. To review the current SoLAR Working Groups, please review: https://www.solaresearch.org/about/governance/solar-working-groups/
  • Photo – jpg suitable for web (200×200)
  • SoLAR Membership ID number

If you are unable to submit a google form or have any questions, please email solarsocietymgmt@gmail.com.

Only those who have valid 2024 SoLAR memberships are eligible to nominate and vote for Executive Positions. To be considered as a nominee you must be a member of SoLAR by January 17, 2024; to vote in the Executive Committee election you must be a member of SoLAR by February 5, 2024. To renew or join, visit: https://solaresearch.org/membership/

Election Ballots will be sent to all SoLAR Members on January 25, 2024 (EST) and will close on February 8, 2024 (EST). 

November 2, 2023

It is our pleasure to invite you to our next SoLAR Webinar in partnership with the Master program in Educational Psychology - Learning Analytics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison "Modeling Learning in the Age of Chat GPT" with faculty director David William Shaffer. This talk looks at what ChatGPT and AI models are really doing, what that means for the future of education — and how we can model, study, and assess learning in the world that ChatGPT is helping us create.

Time and date: November 8, 12pm CST (1pm New York, 6pm London, 5am Sydney)
Location: Zoom (meeting URL provided in the registration email)

We are looking forward to seeing you at the webinar!

Abstract: ChatGPT is the new (and most well-known) AI tool that can whip up an essay, a poem, a bit of advertising copy—and a steady boil of hype and worry about what this will mean for education in the future. This talk looks at what ChatGPT and AI models are really doing, what that means for the future of education — and how we can model, study, and assess learning in the world that ChatGPT is helping us create. Join us for a Feature Webinar as faculty director David Williamson Shaffer discusses implications and potential use for harnessing ChatGPT.

Bio

David Williamson Shaffer is the Sears Bascom Professor of Learning Analytics and the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Learning Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Data Philosopher at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. Before coming to the University of Wisconsin, Professor Shaffer taught grades 4-12 in the United States and abroad, including two years working with the US Peace Corps in Nepal. His M.S. and Ph.D. are from the Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Shaffer taught in the Technology and Education Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and was a 2008-2009 European Union Marie Curie Fellow. His current focus is on merging statistical and qualitative methods to construct fair models of complex and collaborative human activity. Professor Shaffer has led the development of a suite of quantitative ethnographic tools that are being used by more than a thousand researchers in 20 countries as part of the annual International Conference on Quantitative Ethnography. He has authored more than 250 publications with over 100 co-authors, including How Computer Games Help Children Learn and Quantitative Ethnography.

August 7, 2023

We are pleased to announce the recipient of the SoLAR 2023 Early Career Research Grant: Yizhou Fan from Peking University, China for their project, "Measuring and Scaffolding Hybrdi Human-AI Regulation: Comparing Learning Processes Facilitated by ChatGPT and Human Experts." Congratulations to Yizhou!

This year we saw many high-quality applications come through, making it a challenge in deciding the winner. We thank all applicants for their efforts in putting together their proposals, and wish them all the best as they continue to pursue their research efforts. Many thanks also to the reviewers for their time in the rigorous review of the applications!

Here is a bit more information about Yizhou's project.

Project title:

Measuring and Scaffolding Hybrid Human-AI Regulation: Comparing Learning Processes Facilitated by ChatGPT and Human Experts

Project summary:

The advances in AI have radically and will continually change the workforce by automating many jobs in all walks of life. Therefore, it is vital for students and professionals to be able to learn and work with AI, which has been an increasingly central focus of education. As the practice and research of AI-assisted learning emerge, a new evolution for learning analytics is to measure and understand how learning takes place with the scaffolding of AI. However, relevant empirical research is still in an early stage, and further exploration is urgently needed. Therefore, to fill this gap and investigate how AI could better facilitate learning, I propose this project to compare ChatGPT with human experts and reveal how practical AI could promote learners’ regulation process and consequently improve their performance. I will conduct a lab experiment, recruit 90 participants, and randomly assign them to three conditions. During the project, learners’ multi-channel data, such as pre-post-test, survey, learning trace, and interview data, will be collected and analysed using cutting-edge learning analytics approaches and methods. This project will illuminate how to enhance learning with learning analytics in an AI-powered world.

Project fit with themes for the year:

This year's theme is enhancing learning with learning analytics in an AI powered world. Here, I focus on measuring and scaffolding hybrid human-AI regulation using cutting-edge learning analytics approaches (e.g., trace SRL) and promising methods (e.g., ONA). Mainly, this project will design and evaluate an AI-driven scaffolding tool which uses ChatGPT to provide learners context-specific facilitation in a challenging task. By comparing learners' interaction with ChatGPT and human experts, this project will reveal how and to what extent AI could impact learning and thus unpack how learning with AI takes place. Furthermore, this project will examine how new generational AI impacts learning and assessment by comparing learners' regulation processes and their performance across different conditions. Finally, the proposed project will also explore how learners could interact with AI more efficiently, which can be used to foster insights into new AI literacies, such as prompt engineering.

We look forward to receiving updates throughout the research process and the future contributions from Yizhou's research in the learning analytics community.

General Information about the SoLAR Early Career Research Grant

The SoLAR ECR Research Grant serves to support promising early career researchers who demonstrate the potential to advance research and practice in learning analytics and increase the educational and socio-economic impacts of learning analytics. Proposed projects should improve our understanding of learning analytics and learning in general, result in positive impacts on education, and align with the topics identified for the current round. It is expected that the ECR grant will help successful applicants develop their career by enabling an initiative that is scalable or has potential to attract further funding.

With the announcement of the winning application, the call for this year’s ECR grant is now closed. Look out for the next round of the ECR grant in early 2024!

The new funding guidelines in 2024 will be posted on the General ECR Grant page found here: https://www.solaresearch.org/community/scholarships/ecr-research-grant/ 

June 28, 2023

The Spanish Network of Learning Analytics is glad to announce its 12th edition of the Learning Analytics Summer Institute Spain 2023 (LASI Spain 2023).

LASI Spain 2023 (https://lasi23.snola.es), will take place in Madrid on June 29-30, 2023, organized by SNOLA (the Spanish Network of Learning Analytics) and will have Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) as a host. LASI Spain is part of the global LASI network (https://www.solaresearch.org/events/lasi/), conceived as a platform to catalyze educators, technologists, researchers, enterprise, and policymakers around shaping the next generation of learning infrastructures to truly serve the needs now facing the education sector.

LASI Spain 2023 aims to promote links among Spanish researchers on LA, and to connect them with the international community, mainly in Europe (with the support of SoLAR’s European SIG (LACE-SIG) and in Latin-American Countries. It is a face-to-face event with the possibility to participate online to accommodate to a variety of personal circumstances of the interested participants.

This years’ LASI Spain theme is “Learning Analytics & Artificial Intelligence: Balancing risks and opportunities”. As a community close to AI tools and techniques, we need to reflect on the challenges that the tremendous rise of AI in our society poses for LA and on what LA has to contribute to this discussion. Baltasar Fernandez-Manjón, from UCM, Madrid, will present the keynote “Learning Analytics for games in the AI revolution” and there will be talks and panels related to this theme. LASI Spain 2023 will host the fourth edition of the Doctoral Consortium, that welcomes PhD students willing to share their project and discuss them with the community.

Registration is free but needed to participate and have access to the papers and sessions (link: https://lasi23.snola.es/posts/registration.html)

More info: https://lasi23.snola.es

 

This event is in-cooperation with the Society for Learning Analytics Research. To learn more or to have your future event have in-cooperation status, please review SoLAR's in-cooperation guidelines here: https://www.solaresearch.org/community/in-cooperation-with-solar/

June 8, 2023

It is our pleasure to invite you to SoLAR Webinar "Unveiling the Power of Affect during Learning" presented by Elizabeth Cloude from University of Pennsylvania. This webinar will present an interdisciplinary perspective that merges an affect framework with complex adaptive systems theory.

Time and date: June 15, 11am-12pm CDT (12pm New York, 5pm London, 1am Tokyo)
Location: Zoom (meeting URL provided in the registration email)

We are looking forward to seeing you at the webinar! Make sure you follow SoLAR's Eventbrite page to get updates for the future events.

Abstract: In the realm of education, affect has long been acknowledged as a significant factor that impacts learning. Represented by cognitive structures in the mind, affect is described as a mood, feeling, or emotion, which transmits information about the world we experience and compels us to act and make decisions. Research finds that an inability (or ability) to regulate affect (e.g., confusion or frustration) can greatly impact how an individual learns with educational technologies (e.g., intelligent tutoring systems, game-based learning environments, MOOCs). Yet, there are significant theoretical, methodological, and analytical challenges impeding our understanding on how to best identify (and intervene) if and when affect becomes detrimental during learning with educational technologies.

In the "Unveiling the Power of Affect during Learning" webinar, Elizabeth Cloude will discuss state-of-the-art research findings, theoretical, methodological, and analytical approaches, and their challenges. Next, an interdisciplinary perspective that merges an affect framework with complex adaptive systems theory will be presented and two illustrative cases will be demonstrated. Finally, new research tools and directions will be considered for examining how the design of educational technologies can positively influence affect, engagement, knowledge acquisition, and learning outcomes. Opportunities and challenges regarding affect learning analytics will be discussed.

Bio

Elizabeth Cloude is postdoctoral research fellow in the Penn Center for Learning Analytics at the University of Pennsylvania. She explores the role of affect on cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational (CAMM) processes that emerge during self-regulated learning (SRL) and its relation to learning and performance with educational technologies and multimodal learning analytics. Her background is in psychology, learning sciences, educational technology, and instructional design, and in 2021, she completed her PhD in Education and Learning Sciences. She was recently awarded the Marie Curie European Postdoctoral Fellowship at Tampere University (to start in Fall 2023), where her active and future research will leverage a multi-modal mixed methods approach to study affect as a non-linear dynamical system and study its relation to cognition and learning outcomes with a game-based learning environment.

April 28, 2023

The SoLAR ECR Research Grant serves to support promising early career researchers who demonstrate the potential to advance research and practice in learning analytics and increase the educational and socio-economic impacts of learning analytics. Proposed projects should improve our understanding of learning analytics and learning in general, result in positive impacts on education, and align with the topics identified for the current round. It is expected that the ECR grant will help successful applicants develop their career by enabling an initiative that is scalable or has potential to attract further funding.

Applicant eligibility

Applications from individuals based in academic or not-for-profit organizations are welcome, provided the individuals hold valid SoLAR membership when applying and for the term of the project. Applicants need to have been awarded with a PhD qualification no longer than 5 years prior to the application deadline. Each applicant may only submit one application, and each application can only have one named applicant. Past awardees or current SoLAR executive committee members are not eligible to apply.

2023 Themes – Enhancing Learning with Learning Analytics in an AI Powered World

With the rapid development of AI technologies, including generative AI such as ChatGPT, the impact on learning and thus understanding how learning takes place is a new evolution for learning analytics. How to measure and scaffold the learning process are important questions confronting learning analytics researchers and practitioners. We welcome proposals of research that explore the impact of AI on learning analytics research and practice. Example topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Understand the impact of AI technologies on student learning and teaching;
  • Identify innovative AI driven methodologies and tools to gain insights into learning;
  • Understand how AI technologies impact different strands of learning analytics research, e.g., personalised feedback, writing analytics research, self-regulated learning, etc.;
  • Explore how learning analytics can be used to foster insights into new AI literacies, such as prompt engineering;
  • Explore the role of learning analytics in futures literacy;
  • Examine how new generational AI impacts learning and assessment, and how learning analytics can help;
  • Make sense of the intersections of humans and AI in practices of learning analytics;
  • Enhance the use of learning analytics with explainable AI;
  • Evaluate the impact of learning analytics on institutional strategy development and monitoring;
  • Explore how institutions navigate ethical considerations of AI when adopting learning analytics;
  • Explore how to ensure trustworthiness of learning analytics and AI in education in parallel with data protection and informed consent of data owners;
  • Understand ways that algorithmic fairness & biases in AI technologies may affect learners.

Level of award

A total of $10,000 CAD is available to fund one to two projects. Funds will be managed directly by SoLAR via approved expense invoices.

Awardee(s) will also receive publicity via SoLAR’s channels to help them connect with the community, complimentary registration for a Learning Analytics Summer Institute (LASI) and the International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (LAK).

 

For more information and the grant application, please visit: https://www.solaresearch.org/community/scholarships/ecr-research-grant/

 

Key dates

Application open: 22 March 2023

Submission deadline: 3 May 2023 (5pm EDT)

Results announcement: 30 June 2023

March 6, 2023

The SoLAR Awards Committee is calling for nominations for two new SoLAR awards programs, the Emerging Scholars Award and the Outstanding Community Work Award. People can nominate themselves or others. We are specifically looking for nominations covering different regions of the world, i.e. Australasia, Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America.

Deadline for submissions is March 11, 23:59 AOE. 

Decision process:

  • The decision on who will be awarded will be taken by the SoLAR Awards Committee

  • The winners will be announced during LAK23

  • If there aren’t any nominees for one of the geographical regions, no award will be given for that region

  • If there is only one nominee for a geographical region, then this person may not automatically win as the eligibility criteria must be met)

For Emerging Scholars Award:

What do we mean by “emerging scholar”? Here are the eligibility criteria to be nominated for this award:

  • Obtained a PhD or equivalent doctoral degree within the past 5 years (or equivalent if there have been career interruptions)

AND

  • Emerging noteworthy research leading to significant knowledge and understanding of learning analytics

OR

  • Evidence of impact of nominee’s research on learning analytics application, adoption, or professional development

To nominate an Emerging Scholar, please fill out this google form: https://forms.gle/wNp46DLfN4TCPTjM9

For Outstanding Community Work Award: 

What do we mean by “outstanding community work”? Below  are the eligibility criteria to be nominated for this award (please note that while only 1 is required), select all that apply:

  • Engagement with researchers and/or practitioners to train or disseminate initiatives in the area of learning analytics

Support the dissemination of ideas in the field to multiple stakeholders

  • Engagement as a volunteer in community-based learning or research activities

  • Outreach activities to connect learning analytics with other communities

  • Foster exchange of knowledge around learning analytics with multiple groups

To nominate for the Outstanding Community Work Award, please fill out this google form: https://forms.gle/numzRa4iY7YWLJUa7

February 7, 2023

It is our pleasure to invite you to SoLAR Webinar "Socio-spatial Learning Analytics for Embodied Collaborative Learning" presented by Lixiang Yan from Monash University, recipient of the Best Paper Award at LAK22.

Time and date: February 9, 12-1pm CET (6am New York, 11am London, 8pm Tokyo)
Location: Zoom (meeting URL provided in the registration email)

We are looking forward to seeing you at the webinar! Make sure you follow SoLAR's Eventbrite page to get updates for the future events.

Abstract: Embodied collaborative learning (ECL) provides unique opportunities for students to practice key procedural and collaboration skills in co-located, physical learning spaces where they need to interact with others and utilise physical and digital resources to achieve a shared goal. Unpacking the socio-spatial aspects of ECL is essential for developing tools that can support students' collaboration and teachers' orchestration in increasingly complex, hybrid learning spaces. Advancements in multimodal learning analytics and wearable technologies are motivating emerging analytic approaches to tackle this challenge.

This presentation will introduce a conceptual and methodological framework of social-spatial learning analytics that map from social-spatial traces captured through wearable sensors to meaningful educational insights. The framework consists of five primary phases: foundations, feature engineering, analytic approaches, learning analytics, and educational insights. Two illustrative cases will be presented to demonstrate how the framework can support educational research and the formative assessment of students' learning. Finally, the opportunities and challenges regarding socio-spatial learning analytics are discussed.

Bio: Lixiang Yan is a final-year PhD candidate at the Centre for Learning Analytics at Monash University. He researches multimodal learning analytics, focusing on classroom orchestration and collaborative learning in physical learning spaces.

Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR)