Public Release of the Privacy Sourcebook

After the successful completion of the first iteration of the Prioritizing Privacy online professional development course, Lisa and I are excited to release the Privacy Sourcebook, which is a major learning object from the course.

For more information on the Privacy Sourcebook, read its description below:

Opportunities to engage in conversations about learning analytics will likely present themselves in both expected and unexpected settings. Being prepared for these opportunities will enable you to respond confidently and with clarity of thought. By developing your own Privacy Sourcebook you will have an opportunity to bring together your philosophy on learning analytics and privacy with an environmental scan and an analysis of key stakeholders and allies. When these pieces are put together, you will be able to develop key messages that reflect ethical approaches you would like your library and campus to pursue in designing and implementing learning analytics programs and to identify strategies for action. In addition, your Privacy Sourcebook is a place to keep track of related documents, resources, and experts you might want to consult as well as a plan for continued professional development and learning on these topics.

While learners who complete the Sourcebook would be best served by completing the activities along with the course’s modules, Lisa and I believe that some of the activities could be useful for any library professional seeking to better understand learning analytics activities and privacy procedures at their place of work, as well as what the professional’s own ethical statements are regarding learning analytics.

Initial assessment and evaluation activities associated with the course have proven that it is an effective and useful educational opportunity for library professionals. Because of this, we continue to offer the course and are about to start four new sections of it with about 100 total learners. We have plans to offer it again in the future. For individuals who cannot take the course for whatever reason, examining and working through the Privacy Sourcebook may still be a useful educational experience. We also believe that study groups, committees, or departments may benefit from working through the Privacy Sourcebook as teams.

You can access the Privacy Sourcebook using the following citation to our OSF repository:

Hinchliffe, L. J., & Jones, K. M. L. (2022, February 22). Privacy Sourcebook. https://osf.io/ga8ns/

If you choose to use the Privacy Sourcebook and have feedback, we’d welcome it!