Achieving big data privacy in education

Education, Big Data, and student privacy are a combustible mix. The improvement of education and the protection of student privacy are key societal values. Big Data and Learning Analytics offer the promise of unlocking insights to improving education through large-scale empirical analysis of data generated from student information and student interactions with educational technology tools. This article explores how learning technologies also create ethical tensions between privacy and the use of Big Data for educational improvement. We argue for the need to demonstrate the efficacy of learning systems while respecting privacy and how to build accountability and oversight into learning technologies. We conclude with policy recommendations to achieve these goals.