My research focuses on information ethics and policy issues associated with educational data mining and learning analytics practices in higher education.
Qualitative methods often influence my research designs. I primarily use interviews and documents as data. Grounded Theory techniques and content analysis inform my analytical strategies. When my work is more critical and normative, I use information privacy theory (e.g., work by Richards, Nissenbaum, and others) and critical data studies to frame my approach.
The following questions guide most of my research:
- How do learning analytics intersect with and affect student privacy?
- How are micro-contextual professional communities (e.g., advisors) impacted by learning analytics initiatives?
- What are the structural and governance effects emerging from learning analytics and other “big data” style initiatives?
The publications below reflect a select assortment of work related to recent projects. For a history of my research, see my CV.
Select Publications
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Jones, K. M. L., VanScoy, A., Bright, K., Harding, A., & Vedak, S. (2022). A measurement of faculty views on the meaning and value of student privacy.
Journal of Computing in Higher Education,
34, 769–789.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-022-09320-7
Jones, K. M. L. (2022).
The datafied student: Why students’ data privacy matters and the responsibility to protect it. Future of Privacy Forum.
https://studentprivacycompass.org/resource/the-datafied-student-why-students-data-privacy-matters-and-the-responsibility-to-protect-it/
Jones, K. M. L. (2021). Library learning analytics: Addressing the relationship between professional, research, and publication ethics.
Portal: Libraries and the Academy,
21(3), 417–423.
https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.2021.0022
Jones, K. M. L., & McCoy, C. (2021). Privacy in practice: A socio-technical integration research (STIR) study of rules-in-use within institutional research. In M. R. Sanfilippo, B. M. Frischmann, & K. J. Strandburg (Eds.),
Governing Privacy in Knowledge Commons (pp. 98–120). Cambridge University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108749978.005
Rubel, A., & Jones, K. M. L. (2020). The temptation of data-enabled surveillance: Are universities the next cautionary tale?
Communications of the ACM,
63(4), 22–24.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3382741
Jones, K. M. L., Asher, A., Goben, A., Perry, M. R., Salo, D., Briney, K. A., & Robertshaw, M. B. (2020). “We’re being tracked at all times”: Student perspectives of their privacy in relation to learning analytics in higher education.
Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology,
71(9), 1044–1059.
https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24358
Jones, K. M. L., Briney, K. A., Goben, A., Salo, D., Asher, A., & Perry, M. R. (2020). A comprehensive primer to library learning analytics practices, initiatives, and privacy issues.
College & Research Libraries,
81(3), 570–591.
https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.81.3.570
Jones, K. M. L., Rubel, A., & LeClere, E. (2020). A matter of trust: Higher education institutions as information fiduciaries in an age of educational data mining and learning analytics.
Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology,
71(10), 1227–1241.
https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24327
Jones, K. M. L., & Hinchliffe, L. J. (2020). New methods, new needs: Preparing academic library practitioners to address ethical issues associated with learning analytics.
Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE).
https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/108811
Jones, K. M. L. (2019). “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should”: Practitioner perceptions of learning analytics ethics.
Portal: Libraries & the Academy,
19(3), 407–428.
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/729196
Jones, K. M. L., Perry, M. R., Goben, A., Asher, A., Briney, K. A., Robertshaw, M. B., & Salo, D. (2019). “In their own words: student perspectives on privacy and library participation in learning analytics initiatives.” In D. Mueller (Ed.),
Recasting the Narrative: The Proceedings of the ACRL 2019 Conference. ACRL.
http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2019/InTheirOwnWords.pdf
Jones, K. M. L. (2019). Advising the whole student: eAdvising analytics and the contextual suppression of advisor values.
Education and Information Technologies,
24(1), 437–458.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-018-9781-8
Jones, K. M. L. (2019). Learning analytics and higher education: A proposed model for establishing informed consent mechanisms to promote student privacy and autonomy.
International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education,
16(1), 1–22.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0155-0
Jones, K. M. L., & McCoy, C. (2019). Reconsidering data in learning analytics: Opportunities for critical research using a documentation studies framework.
Learning, Media and Technology,
44(1), 52–63.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2018.1556216
Jones, K. M. L., & McCoy, C. (2019). Ethics in praxis: Socio-technical integration research in learning analytics.
Jones, K. M. L., & VanScoy, A. (2019). The syllabus as a student privacy document in an age of learning analytics.
Journal of Documentation,
75(6), 1333–1355.
https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-12-2018-0202
Jones, K. M. L. (Ed.). (2019). Learning analytics and the academic library: Critical questions about real and possible futures.
Library Trends,
68(1), 1–4.
https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/41142
Jones, K. M. L., & Salo, D. (2018). Learning analytics and the academic library: Professional ethics commitments at a crossroads.
College & Research Libraries,
79(3), 304–323.
https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.79.3.304
Jones, K. M. L., & LeClere, E. (2018). Contextual expectations and emerging informational harms: A primer on academic library participation in learning analytics initiatives. In P. Fernandez & K. Tilton (Eds.),
Applying library values to emerging technology: Decision-making in the age of open access, maker spaces, and the ever-changing library (pp. 357–371). Association of College and Research Libraries.
https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2980784
Rubel, A., & Jones, K. M. L. (2016). Student privacy in learning analytics: An information ethics perspective.
The Information Society,
32(2), 143–159.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2016.1130502