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  • Current SoLAR Executive Committee for 2025 President – Bart Rienties, The Open University, UK Vice President: Blaženka Divjak, University of Zagreb, Croatia Treasurer: Abhinava Barthakur, University of South Australia, AUS Member at Large – Marie Reid, EduLearn Connect, Bahamas Member at Large – Namrata Srivastava, Vanderbilt University, USA Student Member – Maurice Boothe, New York University, USA The SoLAR Executive is pleased to present the following candidates as nominees for election to the SoLAR Executive. For the 2025 election, we have SIX member at-large positions available. There are 15 candidates for SIX available Member At-Large Positions. 2 candidates are current Executive Members running for their second and final term (* denotes a current Executive Member). Candidates for SoLAR Executive Member at Large *Kathryn Bartimote, The University of Sydney, Australia Kathryn Bartimote, Australia The University of Sydney Interest in Learning Analytics (Research Area, etc.) & Interest in serving on the SoLAR Executive Committee: One of my key research themes is theory and learning analytics. On this topic, I am co-editing a forthcoming book with SoLAR colleagues, and have co-convened an annual LAK pre-conference workshop. I have also sought to bring theory into institutional/academic analytics work. I have always been struck by the uniqueness of SoLAR in how it brings together researchers and practitioners, and in the very concrete ways that gender balance is prioritised and valued. It has also been pleasing to see the growth of geographically-based SIGs in recent years, adding to the diversity and strength of our community. If elected to the Committee I will continue to support the extension of our inclusion agenda. One way I hope to do this is via initiatives that enable and encourage even more interdisciplinary engagement with those yet to interact with LA from relevant fields and disciplines. Biography: Kath was elected to the SoLAR Executive for the previous two-year term. She is seeking re-election for a further (and final) two-year term in order to further embed the new SIG strategy to bring SIGs into the centre of SoLAR, and to ensure a smooth handover to the new SIG Working Group co-chair. Prior to joining the Executive, Kath had been a member of SoLAR’s SIG Working Group since 2020, and active in interactions with SIG leaders and championing the role of SIGs within the Society. Kath was also 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 move to the Sydney School of Education and Social Work, Kath has become first year coordinator for PhD students, chairs the research committee for the Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment (CEMA), and (co)convenes events and seminars in both educational psychology and assessment. She continues as 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. Kath teaches in the areas educational psychology, and research methods; and supervises PhD students in the areas of educational psychology and measurement/assessment. Working Group Interests: I would be pleased to continue in the role of co-chair of the SIG Working Group, and to ensure a smooth handover to the incoming SIG Working Group co-chair. *Mohammad Khalil, Bergen University, Norway *Mohammad Khalil,  Norway Bergen University Interest in Learning Analytics (Research Area, etc.) & Interest in serving on the SoLAR Executive Committee: My work focuses on conducting in-depth research on educational data, with a strong emphasis on learning analytics to support and personalize learning. A key priority in my research is positioning learning analytics as a responsible, ethical, and morally grounded practice, and I am deeply committed to inspiring others to follow this approach. I am applying for the SoLAR Executive Committee to contribute further to the field and its development. My motivations include: i) My passion for advancing the field and supporting its growth. ii) Position learning analytics by balancing perspectives on AI in, with, and for education. iii) Strengthening SoLAR initiatives to promote the adoption of learning analytics, particularly in the Global South and low-income countries. iv) Emphasizing the inherently inter- and multidisciplinary nature of the field, which thrives on collaboration across disciplines. Biography: Khalil has over a decade of experience in learning analytics and is currently a senior researcher at the Centre for the Science of Learning & Technology (SLATE) at the University of Bergen, 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. He has been funded by the Erasmus+ programme, Peder Sather Foundation, and the leading Norwegian Energy company Equinor. His contributions to SoLAR are both extensive and impactful. He currently serves as a SoLAR Executive till 2025 and has held key leadership roles, including Workshop Chair for LAK’23 and will be one of the Program Chairs for LAK’26. He has served as a guest editor for several journals on key topics in learning analytics, including Fairness, Equity, and Responsibility for the Journal of Learning Analytics. His research achievements have been recognized with the Best Full Paper Award at LAK’24 and the Best Poster Award at LAK’23. Working Group Interests: 1st priority: Communication Working Groups; 2nd: ECR grant working group; 3rd priority: Events Working Group Seyyed Kazem Banihashem, Open University of the Netherlands, NL Seyyed Kazem Banihashem, Netherlands Open University of the Netherlands Interest in Learning Analytics (Research Area, etc.) & Interest in serving on the SoLAR Executive Committee: Seyyed Kazem Banihashem’s research interests center on learning analytics, particularly in how data …

  • Title: Addressing the Digital Divide to Support Learning Analytics Adoption in the Global South In recent years, Learning Analytics (LA) has emerged as a powerful tool for enhancing educational practices, improving student outcomes, and informing policy decisions. However, the persistent digital divide often restricts the adoption of LA technologies, particularly in regions of the Global South. This talk explores the critical barriers that limit the widespread implementation of LA, including issues related to infrastructure, access to technology, and digital literacy. Focusing on practical solutions, we will discuss how addressing these challenges can foster more equitable access to data-driven insights and improve educational outcomes in under-resourced contexts. Drawing on case studies from the Brazilian Ministry of Education, this presentation will offer strategies for overcoming these barriers and reaching students in low-resource environments. Presenter: Rafael Ferreira Mello has a Ph.D. in computer science with research interests that span across learning analytics, generative AI and natural language processing. He is a Professor at the UFRPE and senior researcher at CESAR, where he holds the position of Course coordinator for the master and PhD program. In the last few years, Dr. Mello has supported adopting Learning Analytics techniques and tools in several institutions in Brazil. One recognition of his contributions is that Dr. Mello is the leading researcher at two national-level projects, funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Education, aiming the development of (i) natural language processing and learning analytics techniques to enhance students written productions and (ii) Learning Analytics Dashboards to support decision-making regarding the national education plan. Moreover, he has worked on several multinational research projects, which involve institutional and organizational partners in Europe, Australia, and Latin America. He has published in the leading international journals and conference proceedings in the fields of his research. He also served as an assistant editor and reviewer for several journals and conferences, including the International Learning Analytics & Knowledge Conference, Journal of Learning Analytics, Computers and Education, British Journal of Educational Technology, and Internet and Higher Education.

  • The SoLAR Executive Committee is pleased to announce the call for nominations for the 2025-2026 Executive Committee. Executive Committee members serve a two year term. Nominations are open for six 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 December 3, 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 2025 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 December 3, 2024, and if elected will need to maintain current membership; to vote in the Executive Committee election you must be a member of SoLAR by December 18, 2024. To renew or join, visit: https://solaresearch.org/membership/ Election Ballots will be sent to all SoLAR Members on December 6, 2024 (EST) and will close on December 20, 2024 (EST). 

  • Title: Learning and Regulating with ChatGPT: What an Experimental Study Tells Us The advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have profoundly transformed and will continue to influence the workforce by automating numerous tasks across various sectors. Consequently, it is vital for students and professionals to develop the capability to “learn and work with AI,” a focus that has increasingly become central in educational paradigms. As the practice and research of AI-assisted learning evolve, a significant advancement in learning analytics is the capacity to measure and understand how learning occurs with AI scaffolding. Nevertheless, empirical research in this area remains nascent, calling for further exploration. In this webinar, Dr. Fan will present his recently concluded SoLAR ECR project, which centers on understanding learners’ interactions and regulation using ChatGPT. He and his colleagues conducted an experimental study involving 117 learners, who were randomly assigned to one of four groups, each provided with different forms of learning support (e.g., ChatGPT and human experts). His presentation will share insights into how these groups compare in terms of self-regulated learning processes, help-seeking behaviors, self-assessment skills, and overall learning performance. Additionally, Dr. Fan will discuss the promises and challenges of using generative AI in education that identified in his empirical study. Presenter: Yizhou Fan is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Peking University and an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Centre for Learning Analytics at Monash University. He identifies as a learning analyst employing computational techniques to enhance the understanding of self-regulated learning and to develop next-generation learning environments for envisioning future education. In 2023, he received the Emerging Scholars Award and Early Career Research Grant from SoLAR. His recent research focuses on human-AI collaboration and the scaffolding of hybrid intelligence.

  • Current SoLAR Executive Committee for 2024 President – Bart Rienties, The Open University, UK Vice President – Blaženka Divjak, University of Zagreb, Croatia Vice President – Olga Viberg, KTH Royal Institute of Technology Secretary – Ioana Jivet, FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany Treasurer – Abhinava Barthakur, University of South Australia, Australia Member at Large – Kathryn Bartimote, University of Sydney, Australia Member at Large – Rogers Kaliisa, University of Oslo, Norway Member at Large – Mohammad Khalil, University of Bergen, Norway Member at Large – Lisa-Angelique Lim, University of Technology Sydney, Australia Member at Large – Marie Reid, Edulearn Connect, Bahamas Member at Large – Namrata Srivastava, University of Pennsylvania, USA The SoLAR Executive is pleased to present the following candidates as nominees for election to the SoLAR Executive for a two -year term. For this 2024 special student election, we have ONE student member positions available. Please review the following candidate profiles and vote via the surveymonkey email that will be sent to all members.   Voting Information: All SoLAR individual and students members are eligible to vote. Links to access the online voting system will be sent to SoLAR members through SurveyMonkey via email starting on May 6, 2024 (EST). Voting will end on May 13, 2024 at 8:00pm Eastern. All members who join SoLAR by May 10, 2024 will be eligible to vote and will receive a ballot after successfully joining SoLAR. Any questions, please email solarsocietymgmt@gmail.com.

  • The SoLAR Executive Committee and ECR Grant Working Group is pleased to announce the deadline extension for the Early Career Research Grant. Applications are now due May 17, 2024 by 5pm EDT. Purpose 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. 2024 Themes – The role of learning analytics in the age of Artificial Intelligence As interest in AI, and especially generative AI, in education continues to rise rapidly, ethical considerations and challenges of inclusion remain important issues for the field (Bond et al., 2024). The field of learning analytics can contribute to these issues by providing a synergised framework that grounds AI innovation and methodology in learners and learning (Yan et al., 2024). This positioning opens up promising avenues of research to bring the two fields together. We welcome proposals of research that showcase the practicalities, possibilities and challenges in integrating these two fields to foster ethical use of genAI in education as well as to mitigate the digital divide. 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 generative 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. Explore ways learning analytics may incorporate AI to tackle major challenges in education, such as educational equity and quality. Level of award A total of $15,000 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 regional Learning Analytics Summer Institute (LASI) or LAP event, and the International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (LAK). For more information on eligible costs, criteria and selection process and the application guidelines, please review the ECR Grant webpage.

  • The SoLAR Executive Committee is pleased to announce the call for nominations for a special election for a student representative to the 2024-2025 Executive Committee. Executive Committee members serve a two year term. Nominations are open for one student representative. 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 11:59 pm EST May 1, 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 May 1, 2024; to vote in the Executive Committee election you must be a member of SoLAR by May 10, 2024. To renew or join, visit: https://solaresearch.org/membership/ Election Ballots will be sent to all SoLAR Members starting on May 6, 2024 (EST) and will close on May 13, 2024 (EST).    **Note to nominees: To confirm, each nominee must hold a valid 2024 STUDENT membership within SoLAR to stand for the executive committee election. If your institution is an institutional member, you must still register as a student using your institutional discount code that would have been sent to your institutional representative. If you have any questions regarding membership, please contact us at solarsocietymgmt@gmail.com. **We are currently experiencing an issue with our membership system. Our support teams are working on it and hope to have it resolved soon. If you have a question on this, please reach out.

  • Title: Reframing thinking about and modeling learning through complex dynamical systems  Learning is a highly individual process of change that emerges from multiple interacting components (e.g. cognitive, social) that occur at varying levels (e.g., individual, group) and timescales (e.g. micro, meso, macro) in constantly changing environments. Due to its complexity, the theoretical assumptions that describe learning are difficult to computationally model, and many existing methodologies are limited by conventional statistics that do not adhere to these assumptions. In recent years, the learning analytics community has explored the potential of complex dynamical systems for modeling and analyzing learning processes. Complex dynamical systems (CDS) approach refers to theoretical views, largely from physics and biology, that preserve the complexity of learning and could be potentially useful in studying  socio-/ technical-/ material-/ symbolic systems that learn.  The integration of CDS into analytical and methodological tenets of LA research is ongoing. Yet, CDS concepts and accompanying methods remain mostly “under the radar” of a larger learning analytics community. In this webinar, we will introduce the main theoretical underpinnings and methodological toolkit of CDS, and highlight their relevance to and potential integration with learning analytics. We will present key opportunities for thinking about and modeling learning through CDS concepts and briefly review CDS-inspired research from works-in-progress presented at the latest workshop on CDS in learning analytics.    Presenters: Elizabeth Cloude, Tampere University | Jelena Jovanovic, University of Belgrade | Oleksandra Poquet, Technical University of Munich   Bios Elizabeth B. Cloude is a recipient of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship funded by the European Union and is affiliated with the Faculty of Education and Culture and Gamification Group at Tampere University in Finland. Elizabeth’s research specializes in studying self-regulated learning as a non-linear dynamical system with educational technologies. Her focus is on collecting, processing, and analyzing multimodal data (e.g., eye movements, log files, physiology, concurrent verbalizations, facial expressions of emotions) to study the complex nature of learning and emotions across activities to build adaptive, intelligent systems. She was previously a postdoctoral scholar within the Penn Center for Learning Analytics at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Central Florida. Elizabeth has contributed to various peer-reviewed publications, including the Cognitive Science Society, International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference, European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, and IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.   Jelena Jovanovic is a Professor at the Department of Software Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Centre for the Science of Learning & Technology (SLATE) at University of Bergen, Norway, and an Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Learning Analytics at Monash (CoLAM), Monash University, Australia. Her current research focus is on the use of computational approaches, including statistical and machine learning methods and techniques, network analysis, and text analytics, towards better understanding and supporting learning, primarily self-regulated learning in higher education settings. Currently she serves as Advisor to the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies and Editorial Board member of Journal of Learning Analytics, Journal of Educational Data Mining, and Computers & Education: Artificial Intelligence. She has been one of the faculty leads for the three latest Doctoral Consortia at the Learning Analytics and Knowledge conference.   Oleksandra Poquet (Sasha Poquet) is a tenure-track professor in learning analytics at the School of Social Sciences and Technology, Technical University of Munich in Germany. She leads a LEAPS research group that studies Learning Analytics and Practices in Systems. ​​Her current research focuses on creating impactful technology-based interventions using learning analytics that support agency and social networks in higher education and workplace training. Prof Poquet is a core member of the Munich Data Science Institute and an affiliate of the Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning, University of South Australia.

  • Current SoLAR Executive Committee for 2024 President – Bart Rienties, The Open University, UK Secretary – Ioana Jivet, Goethe University Frankfurt & DIPF, Germany Member at Large – Kathryn Bartimote, University of Sydney, Australia Member at Large – Rogers Kaliisa, University of Oslo, Norway Member at Large – Mohammad Khalil, University of Bergen, Norway Member at Large – Lisa-Angelique Lim, University of Technology Sydney, Australia Student Member –  Adele Smolansky, Cornell University, USA Member at large – Olga Viberg, KTH Royal Institute of Technology The SoLAR Executive is pleased to present the following candidates as nominees for election to the SoLAR Executive. For the 2024 election, we have FOUR member at-large positions available. There are 11 candidates for FOUR available Member At-Large Positions. 1 candidate is a current Executive Member running for their second and final term (* denotes a current Executive Member). Voting Information: All SoLAR individual and students members are eligible to vote for all positions. Links to access the online voting system will be sent to SoLAR members through SurveyMonkey via email starting on January 25, 2024 (Eastern Time, no later than 8:00pm EST). Voting will end on February 8, 2024 at 11:59pm Eastern. All members who join SoLAR by February 5, 2024 will be eligible to vote and will receive a ballot after successfully joining SoLAR. Any questions, please email solarsocietymgmt@gmail.com.

  • Dear Learning Analytics Community,  We write to inform you that the SoLAR Executive Committee has made the difficult decision to cancel the integrated virtual component of LAK24 scheduled for March 18 -22, 2024. The number of virtual submissions and registrations for LAK24 is extremely low (i.e., 4.6% of LAK paper presenters have requested online presentation, 7% of registered LAK24 participants thus far registered for online format), although the overall number of in person submissions for LAK24 has reached a new record high. The low number of virtual presentations is insufficient to create virtual paper sessions and the associated costs of running a hybrid conference (> US$ 60.0000) are substantial. Therefore, the Executive Committee has concluded that a virtual meeting is not viable this year as a meaningful or quality educational experience for accepted presenters or attendees.  SoLAR joins many other societies and groups in responding to our community in making this decision. SoLAR has reached out to the virtual paper presenters with options to ensure their paper is still part of the LAK24 proceedings and how their paper will be presented. SoLAR continues to be committed to creating and holding events that are of the highest quality for presenters and attendees and we are pleased in addition to a fully in person LAK24 to offer a fully virtual Learning Analytics in Practice (LAP24) event June 18-20 (depending on your location in the world). In addition there are a number of local LASIs planned in different geographical regions throughout 2024. Thank you for your understanding as we all continue to navigate in this changing world since COVID first arrived.   Sincerely, Bart Rienties, President SoLAR on behalf of SoLAR Executive Committee

  • The SoLAR Communications team is pleased to present episode 20: Learning Analytics & AI: Opportunities & Challenges of the SoLAR Spotlight podcast. This episode of the SoLAR Spotlight podcast series features Dr Aneesha Bakharia, University of Queensland, Australia and Professor Barbara Wasson, University of Bergen, Norway as guests, hosted by Shibani Antonette & Rogers Kaliisa. They converse about the recent advances in generative AI and tools like ChatGPT and how they relate to work in learning analytics that aims to improve teaching and learning with data. What is your takeaway from this podcast? What is the lie that Aneesha and Barbara told in the ‘two truths and a lie’ game? Let us know using the hashtag #SoLARspotlight on Twitter. If you want to know more about SoLAR, get in touch via solaresearch.org or tweet us @SoLAResearch. Specific feedback may be sent to solar.spotlight.podcast@gmail.com. Need to catch up on past podcast episodes? Review them all here: https://www.solaresearch.org/community/podcast/

  • 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). 

  • 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.

  • 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/ 

  • 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/

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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.

  • Current SoLAR Executive Committee for 2023 President – Bart Rienties, The Open University, UK Treasurer – Isabel Hilliger, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile Member at Large – Blaženka Divjak, University of Zagreb, Croatia Member at Large – Nia Dowell, University of California, Irvine, USA Member at Large – Paul Prinsloo, University of South Africa, South Africa The SoLAR Executive is pleased to present the following candidates as nominees for election to the SoLAR Executive. For the 2023 election, we have SIX member at-large positions available and ONE student member position available. There are 11 candidates for SIX available Member At-Large Positions. 2 candidates are current Executive Members running for their second and final term (* denotes a current Executive Member). There are 3 candidates for ONE available Student Member Position. Voting Information: All SoLAR individual and students members are eligible to vote for all positions. Links to access the online voting system will be sent to SoLAR members through SurveyMonkey via email starting on January 20, 2023 (Eastern Time). Voting will end on February 3, 2023 at 11:59pm Eastern. All members who join SoLAR by February 1, 2023 will be eligible to vote and will receive a ballot after successfully joining SoLAR. Any questions, please email solarsocietymgmt@gmail.com.

Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR)