This article draws upon recent theorising of the "becoming topological" of space--specifically, how new social spaces are constituted through relations rather than physical locations--to explore how standardised data, and specifically test data, have influenced teachers' work and learning. We outline the varied ways in which teacher…

There is much debate over the number of interviews needed to reach data saturation for themes and metathemes in qualitative research. The primary purpose of this study is to determine the number of interviews needed to reach data saturation for metathemes in multisited and cross-cultural research. The analysis is based on a cross-cultural study on…

This article shares the findings of a study investigating institutional policy definitions of plagiarism at twenty English-speaking Canadian universities. The types of primary sources consulted for this study included: (1) university academic calendars for 2016-2017, (2) institutional policies on academic misconduct, and (3) student academic codes…

This article critically considers the promise of computer adaptive testing (CAT) and digital data to provide better and quicker data that will improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of schooling. In particular, it uses the case of the Australian NAPLAN test that will become an online, adaptive test from 2016. The article argues that…

This chapter provides an example of how one university's institutional research office played an active role in using data from institutional studies to guide the university toward courses ripe for change, faculty toward successful teaching strategies, students toward successful learning behaviors, and the university toward assessing the impact of…

This article examines the effects of incorporating information and communication technologies in schools in terms of distributive justice. To do so, four issues that are central to educational justice are discussed: scarcity of resources, the positional nature of education, peer effects, and biases in educational decision-making. The discussion…

The usefulness of the online Skype system for qualitative data collection has been well documented, but its application in qualitative data analysis has been largely ignored. This article provides insight into the use of Skype in the context of interdisciplinary team research, with a focus on the analytical phase of a qualitative investigation.…

Organizations interested in increasing their user experience (UX) capacity lack the tools they need to know how to do so. This dissertation addresses this challenge via three major research efforts: 1) the creation of User Data Spectrum theory and a User Data Spectrum survey for helping organizations better invest resources to grow their UX…

This 60-Second survey (Appendix A) was a partnership between the American Council on Education (ACE) and AACRAO. Colleges and universities have invested in the use of data analytics to improve student outcomes, close attainment gaps, and improve organizational performance. As environmental conditions continue to evolve, the pressure to do so in…

Against the backdrop of the ever-increasing influx of big data, this article examines the opportunities and concerns over big data in education. Specifically, this article first introduces big data, followed by delineating the potential opportunities of using big data in education in two areas: learning analytics and educational policy. Then, the…

This article introduces the concept of qualitative case study research as empirical inquiry. It defines and distinguishes what a case study is, the purposes, intentions, and types of case studies. It then describes how to determine if a qualitative case study is the preferred approach for conducting research. It overviews the essential steps in…

Since the first publication by Glaser and Strauss in 1967, Grounded Theory has become a highly influential research approach in the social sciences. The approach provides techniques and coding strategies for building theory inductively from the "ground up" as concepts within the data earn relevance into an evolving substantive theory.…

The UK government's Green Paper, "Fulfilling Our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice", presents both significant challenges and opportunities for universities. Whilst the quantitative element of the proposed Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), underpinned by Big Data, offers the tantalizing opportunity to…

This paper argues that learning analytics (LA) can make contributions to learning research, in addition to aiming for improvements in learning and teaching practices in a solely applied sense. Indeed, there is potential for transforming learning research if certain approaches developed in LA were used more extensively to study learning. The…

Information used to assist biomedical and clinical research has largely comprised of data available in published sources like scientific papers and journals, or in clinical sources like patient health records, lab reports and discharge summaries. Information from such sources, though extensive and organized, is often not readily available due to…