Study on bias in learning analytics earns Brooks Best Full Research Paper Award at LAK conference

A paper co-authored by University of Michigan School of Information research assistant professor Christopher Brooks received the Best Full Research Paper Award at the International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge (LAK) Conference in Tempe, Arizona. The award was announced on the final day of the conference, March 7, 2019.

The paper, “Evaluating the Fairness of Predictive Student Models Through Slicing Analysis,” describes a tool designed to test the bias in algorithms used to predict student success.

The goal of the paper, Brooks says, was to evaluate whether the algorithms used to predict whether students would succeed in massive online courses (MOOCs) was skewed by the gender makeup of the classes.

“We were able to find that some have more bias than others do,” says Brooks. “First we were able to show that different MOOCs tend to have different bias in gender representation inside of the MOOCs.”

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