Hi Dennis,
As many other people have already said, I think there are many
legitimate uses for tracking, which stem from learning how your students
are accessing the materials. For example we looked at access stats for
fomative assessment and noted that there was an interesting pattern
where three or four students regularly started the assessment, but only
one completed it. It turned out that they were collaborating, discussing
the answers as a group and submitting a single agreed entry. Without the
tracking we would never have known of this informal group activity!
Also at a more general level you can see whether it is worth creating
materials if no-one is accessing them!
What I would like to see though, is the tracking process being more
transparent to the user. Ideally a note next to tracked items of
content, or perhaps a different icon? (Probably not as accessible or
immediately obvious). This is particularly pertinent if you plan to use
the COntent System to store a lot of institutional documents. Should a
Sys Admin know who has been looking at the procedures for unfair
dismassal for example?
I'd also like to see a two step tracking - one anonymous (so you would
know how many times something had been accessed, but not by who) - ideal
for the procedures for unfair dismassal example, and the second as now.
OK Yes I know if you really wanted to, you could probably get individual
user access records for any bit of content from logs, but at least it is
made more difficult!
Cheers,
Malcolm.
Dr Malcolm Murray
Learning Technologies Team
IT Service
Durham University
Dennis R Bury wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am a newcomer to the list and a new user of Blackboard. I wonder if
> anyone has a view on the ethics of Tracking. I feel uneasy about having
> it available and not mentioning that it is to the students. Would
> anyone offer me their views on this? My Thanks.
>
>
>
> Dennis R Bury
>
>
>
>
>
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