Lecture 2

    LET is where theory meets practice; this philosophy was one of the main motivators for my applying to the program. The research that LET performs focuses on helping people of all ages engage with the work that they do in a more meaningful and profitable way (something I am passionate about). The LET research team also recognizes that each data point that they collect corresponds to a learner or an educator who is a real person with a story.

Research Center for Psychology and Educational Psychology focus on counseling, organizational dynamics and growth and development. I found a lot of overlap with what their studies are and what LET studies. However, RCPEP has the end goal of applying the knowledge they gain to the field of counseling and making it applicable for counselors in the educational space. Whereas LET’s philosophy of “Teach what we research and research what we teach” 

In Silvola et al. (2021), “Expectations for supporting student engagement with learning analytics” we get outstanding insight into how LET puts its philosophy into practice. The methodology of using pre-service teachers as the subjects of this study is a brilliant one. It is brilliant because the subjects are aware of pedagogical theories and practices because of their background. However, they are also sympathetic to the role of the instructor in the educational context because this is what they have been training for the previous 4 years. The concept of constant feedback within the concept of the course is what I most identified with in this piece. The role of feedback should be akin to constructive criticism. In the academic context, feedback is best administered several times over the duration of the course as opposed to dumping it all on at the end of the course. If the feedback is delivered only at the end of the course, the student will not have the opportunity to put this feedback into the work that they are doing. The article also exemplifies LET’s philosophy when they assert “students can be involved for designing and developing LA tools as equal collaborators.” (Silvola, A 2021). This aspect of the study is encouraging in the sense that it shows that collaboration between instructor and learner can provide more harmonious use of learning analytics. This paper highlights the importance of methodology and being specific in the context of applying theory to practice. The paper concludes that we must further develop different learning analytics tools to “further support each aspect of engagement” (Silvola, A 2021).

Reference

Silvola, A., Näykki, P., Kaveri, A., & Muukkonen, H. (2021). Expectations for supporting student engagement with learning analytics: An academic path perspective. Computers and Education, 168(February). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104192


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