Browsing by Author "VanScoy, Amy"

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    A measurement of faculty views on the meaning and value of student privacy
    (Springer, 2022-06-04) Jones, Kyle M. L.; VanScoy, Amy; Bright, Kawanna; Harding, Alison; Vedak, Sanika; Library and Information Science, School of Computing and Informatics
    Learning analytics tools are becoming commonplace in educational technologies, but extant student privacy issues remain largely unresolved. It is unknown whether faculty care about student privacy and see privacy as valuable for learning. The research herein addresses findings from a survey of over 500 full-time higher education instructors. In the findings, we detail faculty perspectives of their privacy, students’ privacy, and the high degree to which they value both. Data indicate that faculty believe privacy is important to intellectual behaviors and learning, but the discussion argues that faculty make choices that put students at risk. While there seems to be a “privacy paradox,” our discussion argues that faculty are making assumptions about existing privacy protections and making instructional choices that could harm students because their “risk calculus” is underinformed. We conclude the article with recommendations to improve a faculty member’s privacy decision-making strategies and improve institutional conditions for student privacy.
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    Do They Even Care? Measuring Instructor Value of Student Privacy in the Context of Learning Analytics
    (AIS, 2021) Jones, Kyle M. L.; VanScoy, Amy; Bright, Kawanna; Harding, Alison; Library and Information Science, School of Informatics and Computing
    Learning analytics tools are becoming commonplace in educational technologies, but extant student privacy issues remain largely unresolved. It is unknown whether or not faculty care about student privacy and see privacy as valuable for learning. The research herein addresses findings from a survey of over 500 full-time higher education instructors. The findings detail faculty perspectives of their own privacy, students’ privacy, and the high degree to which they value both. Data indicate that faculty believe that privacy is important to intellectual behaviors and learning. This work reports initial findings of a multi-phase, grant-funded research project that will further uncover instructor views of learning analytics and its student privacy issues.
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    The Syllabus as a Student Privacy Document in an Age of Learning Analytics
    (Emerald, 2019-09) Jones, Kyle M. L.; VanScoy, Amy; Library and Information Science, School of Informatics and Computing
    Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reveal how instructors discuss student data and information privacy in their syllabi. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected a mixture of publicly accessible and privately disclosed syllabi from 8,302 library and information science (LIS) courses to extract privacy language. Using privacy concepts from the literature and emergent themes, the authors analyzed the corpus. Findings Most syllabi did not mention privacy (98 percent). Privacy tended to be mentioned in the context of digital tools, course communication, policies and assignments. Research limitations/implications The transferability of the findings is limited because they address only one field and professional discipline, LIS, and address syllabi for only online and hybrid courses. Practical implications The findings suggest a need for professional development for instructors related to student data privacy. The discussion provides recommendations for creating educational experiences that support syllabi development and constructive norming opportunities. Social implications Instructors may be making assumptions about the degree of privacy literacy among their students or not value student privacy. Each raises significant concerns if privacy is instrumental to intellectual freedom and processes critical to the educational experience. Originality/value In an age of educational data mining and analytics, this is one of the first studies to consider if and how instructors are addressing student data privacy in their courses, and the study initiates an important conversation for reflecting on privacy values and practices.