=Paper= {{Paper |id=Vol-3069/longpaper01 |storemode=property |title=Changes in Student Perceptions of Ethics of Learning Analytics due to the Pandemic |pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3069/FP_01.pdf |volume=Vol-3069 |authors=Matias Nevaranta,Katja Lempinen,Erkki Kaila }} ==Changes in Student Perceptions of Ethics of Learning Analytics due to the Pandemic== https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3069/FP_01.pdf

Proceedings of the Conference on Technology Ethics 2021 - Tethics 2021

Changes in Student Perceptions of Ethics of Learning
Analytics due to the Pandemic

Long paper

Nevaranta, Matias 1[0000-0001-8447-856X], Lempinen, Katja 2[0000-0003-4549-4377] and Kaila,
Erkki 3[0000-0002-2407-9492]
1
Education services, Satakunta University of Applied Sciences, Pori, Finland
2
Education services, Satakunta University of Applied Sciences, Pori, Finland
3
Department of Computing, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
1matias.m.nevaranta@samk.fi, 2katja.lempinen@samk.fi, 3ertaka@utu.fi

Abstract. The pandemic has affected all areas of life with education being no
different. Distance learning has become the new normal in all levels of education.
Learning analytics as a tool best utilized by the abundance of data should now be
more lucrative and needed than ever. Prior to the change, we surveyed the
students of two Finnish higher education institutes, Helsinki university and
Satakunta university of applied sciences, about their opinions, attitudes and
expectations of learning analytics and ethics associated with it. This study is a
follow-up surveying only the students of university of applied sciences and aims
to find changes that might have been brought forth by the sudden and drastic
switch to distance learning only. In addition, this was a chance to gather
information on the students’ experiences on distance learning, and how they feel
about the so called new normal. The results seem to indicate that while students'
expectations towards learning analytics haven't changed, their attitudes to
security of their data and ethical conduction of analytics have become
significantly stricter. We also found out that students have diverse feelings about
distance learning in general, indicating changes required to post-pandemic
education.

Keywords: Learning analytics, ethics, distance learning, education

1 Introduction

The drastic change brought upon by the global pandemic has affected everyone.
Education has had to undergo a transformation to cope with the change, higher
education not being an exception (Saqr & Wasson, 2020). The change in practice meant

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extreme limitations to travelling, contact, all forms of physical interaction between
societies. In education, this commonly meant change from physical contact lessons to
full-on online education. What higher education institutes had already been offering to
the world in smaller proportions became the new standard across all levels of education.
(Pappas & Giannakos, 2021) What has been brought upon by the change in higher
education is what we are looking into. Already there have been several reports and
studies on both the positive and negative effects of distance learning and now that we
are even more dependent on educational systems and data it should also propose an
interesting question to us about the position that learning analytics now hold. Whatever
means we have used and experimented on with learning analytics and data before the
pandemic had to be deployed to make the most out of the situation all education
institutes face. (Heath, 2020) The hypothesis remains similar to our previous study on
students’ perceptions about learning analytics but now the question has shifted towards
has learning analytics gained favor due to the increased need for digital tools, platforms
and systems that learning analytics by nature should elevate to greater heights?
The focus of this follow-up study was to find out if students' attitudes, expectations
and opinions about learning analytics and ethics associated with it have been changed
by the pandemic. The original study was completed in the beginning of spring 2020
and was therefore done prior to the COVID-19 virus reaching pandemic status. (Finnish
Institute for Health and Welfare, 2021) In addition, the study measured how distance
learning has affected the study behaviors of students to provide more insight on the
possible changes in their perceptions about learning analytics and ethics associated.
This paper is structured as follows. First, we present related studies with focus on
articles related to learning analytics and ethics. Next, we discuss the topic of ethics in
learning analytics in more detail. Then we disclose the results of the original study and
present the setup of this follow-up study, including the design changes and conduction
of the survey. Finally, the results are presented, discussed and a conclusion is drawn.

2 Related Work

As stated in the introduction the basis for this study heavily references similar studies
done that measured the effects of the pandemic in education and the previous studies
done by our research group on the use and application of learning analytics in higher
education. The aforementioned Pappas & Giannakos (2021) did a study in April on the
learning design during the pandemic where they touched both topics of data and
learning analytics and Heath (2020) did similarly a study on the idea and application of
learning analytics in online instruction. More notably Viberg (et al. 2018) did an
exploratory study on the current state of learning analytics in higher education with
extensive literature review.

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3 About Learning Analytics and Ethics

Learning analytics as a subfield of analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis
and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding
and optimizing learning in the environments in which it occurs (Siemens, 2013). In
other words, learning analytics is a tool with which we can harness the abundant data
about learners in their learning environments to better and more effectively guide them
towards their academic goals. In higher education the use of lower level analytics tools
in learning and study management systems has become common in the last decade or
so and the need for more individualized and optimized learning paths for the learners
has also elevated the position of learning analytics in education (Schumacher &
Ifenthaler, 2018). In Finnish universities, depending on the learning management
system (LMS) and study management system used, there are several lower level
analytics tools that can be used by both teachers and students to progress the students’
studies more effectively. For example, there are visual progress completion tools that
visualize the students overall and course progression and graphs that display the
students’ semester progression in relation to their own and the institute’s goals and
expectations (fig 1).

Fig 1. Students study progression monitoring graph in a study management system.
Depicts the completed, ongoing, and planned studies, f. ex. in Autumn 2020 the
student has completed 15 credits, enrolled into 25 credits (including the completed)
and is therefore 5 credits short of the school’s semester objective of 30 credits for
Autumn 2020.

Data ethics always follow analytics since use of data comes with its own questions and
worries about safety, rights, and privacy. These questions and worries consider data
ownership, consent and handling of the students’ data. What are the rights of the data
owner, do the students really understand what they are enabling, where are the
boundaries of privacy set? While ethics can be seen as a concept of conduct that affects

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the safety of learning analytics and rights of the data handler and owner, privacy can
also be separated from the three as a continuous negotiable boundary that is guided by
the ethics surrounding. (Ferguson et al. 2016) As reviewed by Viberg (et al. 2018) in
her extensive higher education learning analytics literature review there have been
several studies done either addressing the concerns of learning analytics ethics or
directly emphasizing the issues of ethics (including data ethics) and privacy there
within. The general consensus here seems to be that we are not in fact even remotely
close to a level where we are using learning analytics in an ethical way, be it either due
to the lack of privacy and safety, moral qualms, juridical issues or even technical
challenges. Ethical concerns are present but there are no clear indications on how they
should be addressed or overseen, as this not only is a difficult topic but varies greatly
depending on the level of analytics, country of the educational institute and its own
laws, data regulations etc. (Willis et al. 2016) Out of the four levels of learning analytics
that Gartner (2013) has outlined for us lower level descriptive and interpretive
(diagnostic) data analysis methods seem to be more easily justifiably as they do not
involve automated decision-making. One of the most cited studies on the ethical issues
regarding learning analytics was done eight years ago by Slade and Prinsloo (2013)
who proposed a six principles framework to guide educational institutes through these
issues. The ethical principles were benefits, consent, vulnerability and harm, data and
administration and resources that are context and strategy driven. The study reasoned
that the six principles could be used by higher education institutes to offer appropriate
solutions that use learning analytics to further increase the quality and effectiveness of
the collective learning experience. These principles could act as a checklist against any
level learning analytics tool and form the base structure for the dos and don’ts of
learning analytics ethics. In our study all these principles are visible in the statements,
but they are limited to only from one group's perspective (the students).

4 Previous Study

The previous study on the students’ perception about learning analytics and ethics
served as comparison to this study. In the previous study both students from a university
and a university of applied sciences were surveyed. The students of the previous study
found learning analytics to be a potential and welcome tool to aid them create their
personalized learning paths but did also convey their worries about data safety and data
transparency. Learning analytics was generally seen as a good addition but the data it
needs to be useful must be collected and handled by ethically justifiable methods. This
was made even more evident by the university students, who were stricter about the
usage of their data, its collection and handling. (Nevaranta et al. 2020) Ultimately the
population’s views about learning analytics and data ethics sway the way our education
evolves so it is crucial to make data ethics more common ground today.
The basis for this and the previous study are the ongoing and shortly concluding
learning analytics standardization projects in the Finnish higher education scene funded
by the national ministry of education (Hartikainen et al. 2019). In universities of applied
sciences there is the APOA project and in universities there is the AnalytiikkaÄly

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project (APOA, 2021; AnalytiikkaÄly, 2021). In the previous study the focus was in
measuring the changes between two university models that are in Finnish higher
education. The more theoretical hard sciences universities and the more practical
universities of applied sciences. (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2021) The
previous study was concluded before the pandemic and it was already known at the
time that there was a possibility to do a follow-up since the pandemic set in shortly after
the study was completed. From the previous study we already had good data that with
a few additions could be extended into a follow-up study on the students’ changed
perspectives about learning analytics and ethics that was brought upon by the change
in learning due to the pandemic.
Prior to the previous study our research group also did a study on the application of
learning analytics in different learning models where both students and teachers’
perspectives were considered. In the study it was found that teachers involved were
positively taken by especially lower level analytics tools that would allow them to better
facilitate course design on their terms and level of skill. The students of this study
outlined similarly to the students of the previous and current study that while learning
analytics is a welcomed addition to help them advance their studies there are ethical
considerations considering the pros and cons of using their data to produce learning
analytics results. It was also found during this study that the students want to know how
their data is used to produce these results and that generally they would like to know
more about how learning analytics work. (Nevaranta et al. 2019)
During the pandemic several studies and publications with similar scopes and
objectives were completed which were referenced on this article. As the online learning
became the new normal across education levels the allure of learning analytics seemed
to increase (Qiyuan 2021). As stated by Pastor (2020) in his article there will be a
continuing linear development in the use of digital learning tools and learning analytics
accelerated by the pandemic. Where in our studies the students did find learning
analytics a welcome addition to the students’ studies, we could find some
complementary remarks in the recent international studies. Learning analytics require
active involvement from both teachers and student equally and the input of these two
parties in the development of said tools seems to be often neglected in favor of other
stakeholders (f. ex. support services), which in turn does enforce the idea of more active
learner involvement in these studies (Guzman-Valenzuela et al. 2021). The consensus
all in all seems to hold; learning analytics is what everyone would like to implement
but are not convergent on the details of how the implementation would be done.

5 Research Setup

The study was conducted in early 2021 with an electronic survey. The participants were
the students of Satakunta University of Applied Sciences. The survey was based on the
previously given survey (Nevaranta et al. 2020) one year prior and contained the same
basic statements. Additional questions about students' perceptions of the Covid
lockdown were added to further analyze the effects on students.

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The study was conducted via Microsoft Forms, distributed by the university’s student
mail listing and the students had eight days to answer the survey. The results were then
downloaded, combined, and analyzed. The survey comprised mostly of multichoice
questions and statements on a 5-step Likert scale with a few supplemental open
questions.

5.1 Participants

A total of 133 students (N=133) answered the survey. Most students were between 20
to 25 years or 31 to 40 years old. The age distribution of all respondents is displayed in
Figure 2.

Fig 2. The age distribution of all respondents in the survey.

The student distribution between different majors is displayed in Figure 3.

Fig 3. The major subjects of all respondents.

As seen in the figure, most of the students were either business or technical majors.
There are some minor differences in distributions compared to the earlier survey,
(Nevaranta et al. 2020), but not enough to likely have an effect in the results.

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5.2 Materials

The survey contained all the questions from the similar survey conducted a year earlier
(Nevaranta et al. 2020). In addition, there was a new category with statements related
to distance education and its effects. Hence, a total of 26 questions were included in the
final survey, divided into four categories. All questions were answered in a Likert scale
of 1 to 5. The categories were

1. Questions about students' knowledge of analytics and about their attitudes and
perceptions towards learning analytics and the access to their study
information.
2. Questions about students' expectations towards learning analytics, i.e. what
they wish they could gain from it and how it could (and should) help them in
their studies.
3. Questions about ethical and security issues associated with learning analytics.
4. Questions about students' attitudes and experiences towards distance
education during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The questions were provided with an electronic form using Microsoft Forms. Some
additional descriptions of some of the concepts were provided alongside questions to
ensure that the students understood all the questions correctly. These included the
description of analytics, learning analytics and the project under which the study was
done. The new statements about distance education and its effects included statements
about how the students' learning has been affected, has the studying become harder or
easier and do they find themselves receiving enough study counseling. The statements
can be found in Table 4.

5.3 Analysis

The results were first analyzed with Microsoft Excel. For additional analysis, the data
was converted into quantitative form (where applicable) and analyzed with custom-
made Python scripts. The two central forms of analysis were hence

1. Quantitative analysis of students' answers to questions 1 to 21 and differences
to last year's results
2. Qualitative analysis of open answers and the differences to last year's study
results

We also constructed correlation matrices between all questions in 2020 and 2021
surveys, respectively. This was done to ensure the validity of answers and to see
whether there were any unforeseen connections between individual questions.

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6 Results

In this section, the results of the study are presented. When applicable, the
corresponding results of the 2020 instance of the survey are also included. It should be
noted that in 2020 the survey was conducted in both, University and University of
Applied Sciences. To keep the results comparable, only the results of the latter are
included in the comparison.

6.1 Means and Comparison to 2020 Survey

Table 1 contains the results related to the questions in the first category, i.e. questions
about students' attitudes towards analytics.

Table 1. The students' answers to questions under category 1 in 2020 and 2021, change from
2020 to 2021 and the significance of difference.

Change 2020
Statement 2020 2021 p
→ 2021

1. I know what analytics means 3.552 3,586 -0,035 0,789

2. I know what learning analytics means 3,345 3,045 0,300 0,015*

3. IT systems help organizing and scheduling 4,517 4,316 0,201 0,013*
my studies

4. LA helps following my own progress 4,138 3,805 0,333 0,001**

5. It is a positive thing, that a teacher can 4,283 4,180 0,102 0,323
follow my progress via LA

6. It is a positive thing, that I'm assisted with
4,331 4,331 0,000 0,998
my studies without my own request, if a need is
indicated by data

7. Institution can freely utilize all data about me 3,621 3,383 0,237 0,125
to progress my studies

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The significance of difference between distribution of answers was calculated with a
two-tailed t-test. The difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05) in questions 2, 3
and very significant (p < 0.01) in question 4. Hence, it seems that in 2021 the students
were less confident about what learning analytics means, whether IT systems help
organizing their studies and whether learning analytics help them to follow their own
progress. This could be due to different forms of data collection last year. Students were
asked to take the survey and at the same time they were also informed about the goals
of the APOA-project and shortly about learning analytics. This year in the pandemic
situation the same forms of data collection was not possible. In the student union’s
national survey, answers of the students in SAMK indicated that students in their own
opinion are good or at least adequate in study preparedness, which also includes
timetabling (SAMMAKKO, 2021). Possible reasons for that can be found in the open
questions section. However, the absolute difference in mean values was still rather
small.
The answers to questions in category 2, students' expectations towards learning
analytics, are displayed in Table 2.

Table 2. The students' answers to questions under category 2 in 2020 and 2021, change from
2020 to 2021 and the significance of difference.

Change 2020
Statement 2020 2021 p
→ 2021

8. I wish that LA would help me follow my 4,110 4,211 -0,100 0,350
progress in studies

9. I wish LA would help me design my studies 4,200 4,195 0,005 0,966
better

10. I wish LA would help visualize my 4,145 4,263 -0,118 0,259
progress in studies

11. I wish teachers would use LA to follow my 3,972 3,872 0,100 0,385
progress

12. I wish that the institution would use LA to 3,966 3,835 0,131 0,259
progress my studies

As seen in the table, the students' expectations towards learning analytics have not
changed between the two observed years. The students still wish that analytics would
help them to follow, visualize and design their studies better. Moreover, the students

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still hope that teachers and institutions would utilize learning analytics to follow their
progress in their studies.
The answers to questions in category 3, measuring students' attitudes towards ethics
and security of learning analytics are displayed in Table 3.

Table 3. The students' answers to questions under category 3 in 2020 and 2021, change from
2020 to 2021 and the significance of difference.

Change 2020
Statement 2020 2021 p
→ 2021

13. I get enough information about my data 3,131 2,248 0,883 0,000**
collected by institution

14. I can affect how my data is collected and 3,179 2,571 0,608 0,000**
handed in institution

2,876 2,030 0,846 0,000**
15. I know what data is collected by institution

16. I accept the collection of my data by 3,938 4,000 -0,062 0,571
institution

17. I accept the utilization of my data by 3,903 3,947 -0,044 0,694
institution

18. Institution should follow laws and 4,338 4,752 -0,414 0,000**
regulations to keep my data safe

19. My data collected by institution can be used 4,117 3,541 0,576 0,000**
for my own benefit

20. My data collected by institution can be used 3,821 3,541 -0,315 0,005**
for institutions benefit

21. I know that my data is removed by 3,345 2,474 0,871 0,000**
institution after my graduation

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As seen in the table, the students' attitudes towards the ownership and safe handling of
their own data have changed in a year. The students still accept the utilization and
collection of their data similarly to 2020 (questions 16 and 17), but in all other questions
there is a significant change. Notably, the students feel that they don't receive as much
information about data collection and usage (questions 13, 14 and 15) and they also
have stronger opinions about secure storage and ethical usage of their own data
(questions 18 to 21).
In the 2021 survey there was also a fourth category to measure students' perceptions
about distance and online education during the Covid-19 pandemic. The answers to the
fourth category are displayed in Table 4.

Table 4. The students' answers to questions under category 4 in 2021. Questions were not
included in the 2020 survey.

Statement 2021

Studying remotely has been more difficult than regular learning 3,152

My digital and IT skills are sufficient for studying 4,439

I have received enough instruction for studying 3,553

Visualizations in Moodle help in tracking my study progress 3,833

Visualization in Loki helps in tracking my study progress 3,909

As seen in the table, the students haven't found distance learning as more difficult and
feel that they have sufficient IT skills for learning remotely. Most of the students seem
to find visualizations useful in tracking their study progress as well. As a side note,
Moodle is the common open-source LMS used by many institutes globally
(Moodle.org, 2021). Loki, commonly known as Peppi, is the study management system
used commonly in Finnish higher education institutes (Peppi-consortium, 2021).

6.2 Open Answers

The survey included some open questions as well. The first three were the same as the
questions asked in 2020 (Nevaranta et al. 2020). In addition, there was an open question
about distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The first question was about students' perception on using their data to progress or
track their studies. Most of the answers were positive about this, such as (translations
from Finnish by authors):

"I find it positive that progress is tracked, and actions are taken
if anomalies are detected. This way nobody gets left behind."

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"I think it's a good thing that teachers and tutors can follow my
progress. This improves the discussion."

"Anything that's helpful can be used."

However, several students that were positive about utilization of their data also raised
a concern about the privacy and security of this:

"A good thing as long as data security in ensured."

"As long as my study data is used to promote or guide my
studies, this is ok. I don't want my data exposed to any
outsiders."

"The fact that my data is collected and can be observed by
anyone else makes me a little uncomfortable. But for promoting
my studies it is ok as long as the data is not shared with anyone
else."

There were also students who did not think that the data was utilized to full extent:

"Students and teachers need a lot of training for this."

"Should be utilized better."

"Very good idea, but in practice we seem to be very far from
actually utilizing data in counseling."

Finally, some students were negative about the whole idea:

"Fully negative, I don't want my data to be collected. Why
should I justify this?"

Table 5 displays the division of answers based on the categories described above.

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Table 5. The division of students' answers to open questions about usage of their data.

Category N %

All answers 59 100%

Positive 27 46%

Positive but worried about privacy 14 24%

Skeptical that data is not utilized enough 8 14%

Negative 6 10%

No opinion 4 7%

The second open question was about what kind of added value the students hoped
learning analytics would bring to their studies. The answers were roughly divided into
two categories. First, there were students who saw the potential of analytics, such as

"Knowing where to progress and where to focus more."

"Easier tracking of one's progress in studies."

"Clearer and more visible learning goals etc."

The other group consisted of students who did not find any potential benefits. Most of
them were not skeptical about the benefits of analytics as such, but rather argued that
the teachers are not likely going to utilize analytics in teaching:

"Now that I know that this kind of data is collected, I assume
that it will be utilized as well. Until now there have been no
signs of using any kind of data by teachers or counselors"

"Nothing. The teachers will track [the progress] like they have
always done."

"Nothing, the opposite. I don't think the teachers can utilize the
data at all."
Majority of answers to the second open question (N=34) were positive, only 7 of the
answers were classified as negative.
The third open question was about whether the students see learning analytics as an
ethically sustainable part of education in the future. There were 53 answers in total. The
students who answered the question positively (N=16) listed results such as

"I don't see any problem; I have nothing to hide."

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"I don't see ethical problems. Education is about completing
things and it's important that the teacher gets the necessary
information."

There were also students who felt negatively towards this (N=6):

"Not much. Traditional human contact would be nice, as would
having fewer students so that the teacher will at least know
everyone's names."

"I should be able to refuse without consequences."

Many students (N=24) however agreed that learning analytics can maybe conducted
ethically if special consideration is paid towards data security and ethics in general:

"I don't find analytics itself to be an ethical problem, but the
rules and data handling need to be clearly announced."

"If analytics is transparent and students know what they are
committed to, I don't see a problem."

"It's ethically acceptable as long as students give their
permission and can see the data collected concerning them
without any delays."

Finally, we wanted to know what kind of changes the pandemic had to studying.
Notably, the students' answers were mostly very strongly positive or negative. Positive
comments were mostly related to flexible schedules and not needing to travel, such as

"It's easier to study while eating breakfast at home in my
pajamas."

"Easier to schedule things I do since traveling won't take any
time"

" I have a better computer and more displays at home than in
school."

However, many students found distance learning as a very negative experience:

"Schedules are hard to meet when you spend all your time at
home."

"I have no structure in life."

"Concentrating and self-motivating at home are nearly
impossible."

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"I have no human contacts, all hobbies are forbidden, 14h per
day looking at a computer screen [...] I have lost my mental
sanity and have no interest in school."

There was a total of 125 answers to the final question, which seems to indicate that the
students had strong feelings about distance learning. In 44 of these the students reported
positive feelings about distance learning while 61 answers indicated negative. The
remaining included students who already had studied remotely before the pandemic.

7 Discussion

It seems that the pandemic has changed some attitudes towards learning analytics
strongly, while some attitudes have remained similar. The questions in category 1
(Table 1) reveal that the students still find analytics in general as a positive thing like
the study a year ago. However, now the students feel less confident about analytics
helping them to follow their own study progress. It is possible that due to the pandemic,
the students now need to rely heavier on the analytics and may since feel less satisfied
with the results. Students' expectations towards analytics (category 2, Table 2) seem to
be like what they were before distance learning: they hope that learning analytics would
help them follow, design, and visualize the progress of their studies.
The biggest changes in students' attitudes were in the third category (Table 3), which
was about students' attitudes about ethics and security of learning analytics. It seems
that students now feel significantly less informed about the collection, utilization, and
removal of their data. The students still accept the collection and utilization of their data
for their own benefit but seem to be much stricter about the ethical and security issues
related to their data. Again, we find it likely that the students are more concerned about
these issues because they have been dealing with them a lot more than before. Students
did not have as much experience about distance learning and about ethical issues related
to it when we conducted the survey last time before the pandemic started.
While the questions in the fourth category (Table 4) seem to indicate that the
students' attitudes towards distance learning are quite neutral, the open answers draw a
different picture. In fact, many students seem to have very strong positive or negative
attitudes towards distance learning. While many of them appreciate the flexible
schedules and working from home, many of them are worried about lack of motivation
and the (sometimes devastating effect of) missing human contacts. Since the division
seems to be quite deep, the organizations should seriously consider providing distance
learning chances for some students even after the pandemic while returning to normal
routines with those who want it.
The students' open answers reveal that many students are positive about the potential
possibilities of learning analytics, but at the same time they are worried about the safety
of their data and ethical conduction of analytics. It also seems that many students don't
find the teachers' competence about utilizing analytics as sufficient. Again, some
students seem to think that their data can be utilized freely (as they "have nothing to
hide"), but in general there seems to be a stronger demand towards safer conduction of

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analytics. This is a positive thing, because it may indicate that the students are more
aware of data collection and its effects on them.

8 Conclusion and Future Work

We conducted a survey collecting students' perceptions about learning analytics and
ethical and security issues related to them. The study was a follow-up to a study
conducted a year ago, and our goal was to find out whether the pandemic had any effects
on students' perceptions. Based on the results, it seems that the students' expectations
towards analytics have not changed, but their attitudes toward data security and ethical
conduction of analytics have become much stricter. We also found out that the
pandemic has had a diverse effect on students: while some have enjoyed the flexibility
and working from home, others felt strongly that their motivation had decreased and
loss of contacts had been close to unbearable.
There are naturally limitations to this study, which we need to address in future
studies. Unfortunately, due to different scheduling of the courses, we were not able to
collect data from university students like we did a year ago when conducting the first
iteration of the study. Hence, a comparison like what we did earlier was not possible
this time. Hence, in the future we are going to conduct the survey in the university as
well. Other future work should include finding the connection between students'
perceptions and their actual utilization of learning analytics based on the statistics. We
are also very interested to find out what kind of effect the return to contact learning will
have on students' attitudes towards ethical conduction of learning analytics.

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