Analysing learning data provides instructors with opportunities to improve their courses and curriculum. Through the Access to and Use of Learning Data for Quality Assurance / Enhancement Purposes application process, instructors can request access to data beyond the data sources that are available to them through Canvas and other learning tools.
Requests for data access are processed by the data steward for learning data at UBC, the Learning Data Committee.
How to submit a data access request
Instructors can submit a learning data access and use request through the Access to and Use of Learning Data for Quality Assurance / Enhancement Purposes online application form for the purpose of evaluation, quality assurance, or enhancement.
Who this application process for?
Instructors should submit a data access request if they wish to access data under any of the following conditions:
• Data will be provisioned beyond your core teaching team;
• Access to data from multiple courses is requested and will be combined; or
• Learning data will be combined with personal information (e.g., from the SIS).
This application process is not intended to be applicable to data that is routinely available to faculty through Canvas or other learning tools, unless that data will be combined with other data sources as outlined above.
Does my use of data require ethical review?
The Office of Research Ethics is responsible for monitoring and assessing applications for all research involving human participants, with the exception of quality assurance studies. Please see the Behavioural Research Ethics Board (BREB) FAQ for more information about whether your planned use of data may require ethical review. The FAQ includes a checklist to help researchers decide whether their project constitutes research requiring review or whether their project constitutes quality assurance and does not.
If a study requires ethical review and access to data that would ordinarily be provided through the Access to Learning Data for Evaluation and Enhancement application process, instructors will need to submit both a BREB application and a data access request.
How is my request adjudicated?
At UBC, data access requests are reviewed by the person or group responsible for that data, called a data steward. The data steward overseeing requests to access learning data is the Learning Data Committee.
Data stewards have direct operational-level responsibility for the management of one or more types of Institutional Data. Data stewards have authority to make decisions, but will escalate decisions to the Data Governance Steering Committee as required. Data stewards’ activity includes working collaboratively with other data stewards to define business term definitions and business rules and manage and maintain the data assets for the data within their charge.
Learn more
The Access to Learning Data for Evaluation and Enhancement reference application form [PDF] outlines the rationale for UBC’s new process for supporting and overseeing requests to access and use learning data. This process was developed following discussion at the Associate Deans Academic meeting and Committee of Deans meeting in Vancouver. A copy of the data request form is available as a Word document for the purpose of drafting a request.
For more information about how learning data and student privacy is protected, please see the Guide to Learning Data, Analytics + Privacy for instructors or the guide for students.
Share your feedback
Do you have questions or comments for the Learning Data Committee about the Access to and Use of Learning Data for Quality Assurance / Enhancement Purposes application process? We invite you to get in touch.