The Prioritizing Privacy training curriculum will be designed for both in-person and online delivery and will be delivered in both modes.
A minimum of four in-person workshops will be offered at relevant library conferences or as stand-alone events. Libraries or associations wishing to host these workshops will be solicited through an expression of interest call. The call will be shared broadly; however, targeted emails to recruit proposals will also be sent to the leaders of the American Indian Library Association, the Asian Pacific American Library Association, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, the Chinese American Library Association, and REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking. The call will also be sent to the listservs for the Chapters Council of the Association of College and Research Libraries and alumni of the Assessment in Action program.
Hosts and locations for the workshop will be selected to ensure geographic and participant diversity. The Advisory Board will provide input on the selection process. Enrollment in each workshop will be capped at 25 participants to ensure a productive training environment that includes attention to individual learner needs. Hosts will be responsible for recruiting individual participants in the workshop and arranging for registration, training space, and other logistical considerations. The grant budget reflects the costs of putting on workshops (instructor expenses and training materials); however, if the locations chosen prove less expensive than anticipated, the number of workshops will be expanded (provided IMLS approves).
The online training will be offered as a structured, multi-week online course using Canvas Free, a learning management system that is available for use without charge.1 Given the focus of this grant, in selecting an online training system, special attention was paid to the privacy policies of the available options. A review of the Canvas Free Privacy Policy found it to be typical of online learning management systems with no extreme levels of data capture.2
The online course will be offered four times with enrollments of up to 25 participants per course. A call for participation will again be distributed broadly as well as with the targeted recruitment mentioned above. The baseline requirement to apply to participate in the online training will be having an interest in academic libraries and learning analytics and an interest in privacy and other ethical considerations in learning analytics. In selecting participants, the goal will be to include those with a range of experiences with learning analytics (none, developing, and extensive). There will be no “litmus test” for whether an applicant is already committed to any particular approach to privacy and other ethical considerations. Consideration will also be given to geographic, career stage, and participant diversity. The Advisory Board will provide input on the selection process.
Summative and formative learning assessments will be built into the delivery of both in-person and online learning environments in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the training and identify opportunities for improvement. In addition, program evaluation will include a pre/post survey related to knowledge, skills, and confidence with respect to privacy and library learning analytics; assessment of learning activities that demonstrate achievement relative to each of the primary training concepts; and rubric evaluation of each participant’s final project (a plan for a learning analytics project prioritizing privacy protections). Approximately one month after the training ends, participants will also be invited to participate in an interview to provide additional insights about the impact of the training and participants’ experiences. If participants publish or blog about their experiences or if the training is covered by the press (e.g., Library Journal), these materials will also be used in evaluating the impact of the program.
The workshops and online training will be repeated in Year Three as well using the same criteria for the selection of sites and participants. As such, this training will directly reach up to 400 participants.