[Air-L] SoLAR webinar invitation: Dr. Laura Allen "Leveraging Writing Analytics for a More Personalized View of Student Performance", Dec 11, 2019

[Vitomir Kovanovic]

Hi all,



I have a pleasure to invite you to SoLAR's Webinar with Dr. Laura K. Allen from
the University of New Hampshire *"Leveraging Writing Analytics for a More
Personalized View of Student Performance"*.


*Time and date*: Wed December 11, 2019, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm Eastern US time
(11 Dec 4–5 pm UK, 5–6 pm Central European)

*Location*: Zoom (meeting URL provided in the registration email)


*To register, go to* https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/webinar
-with-dr-laura-k-allen-university-of-new-hampshire-registration-77316645167


*Leveraging Writing Analytics for a More Personalized View of Student
Performance*


*Abstract*:
Researchers and educators have developed computer-based tools, such as
automated writing evaluation (AWE) systems, to increase opportunities for
students to produce natural language responses in a variety of contexts and
subsequently to alleviate some of the pressures facing writing instructors
due to growing class sizes. Although a wealth of research has been
conducted to validate the accuracy of the scores provided by these systems,
much less attention has been paid to the pedagogical and rhetorical
elements of the systems that use these scores. In this webinar, I will
provide an overview of case studies wherein writing analytics principles
have been applied to educational data. I will provide an overview of
multi-methodological approaches to writing analytics that rely on natural
language processing techniques to investigate the properties of students’
essays across multiple linguistic dimensions. This approach focuses on the
notion that there are multiple linguistic dimensions of the texts that
students produce. Some surface-level features relate to the characteristics
of the words and sentences in texts and can alter the style of the essay,
as well as influence its readability and perceived sophistication. Further,
discourse-level features can be calculated that go beyond the words and
sentences. These features reflect higher-level aspects of the writing such
as the degree of narrativity in the essay. Webinar attendees will gain a
sense of both the conceptual issues and practical concerns involved in
developing and using writing analytics tools for the analysis of
multi-dimensional natural language data.



*Biography*:
Dr. Laura K. Allen <https://cola.unh.edu/person/laura-allen> is an
Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of New Hampshire. She
earned a B.A. in English Literature and Foreign Languages from Mississippi
State University (2010), followed by a M.A. (2015) and Ph.D. from Arizona
State University (2017). The principal aim of Dr. Allen’s research has been
to theoretically and empirically investigate the higher-level cognitive
skills that are required for successful text comprehension and production,
as well as the ways in which performance in these domains can be enhanced
through strategy instruction and training. This line of research has been
accompanied by a second line of work that explores how educational
technologies can be leveraged to facilitate learning. The overall goal of
this research is to develop educational technologies and methodologies that
will have a broad impact on current practices in writing research and
instruction across multiple dimensions.



Kind regards,

Vitomir


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Dr Vitomir Kovanović
Research Fellow,* School of Education, University of South Australia*
Data Scientist,* Teaching Innovation Unit, University of South Australia*
Visiting Researcher, *LINK Lab, University of Texas Arlington, USA*
Secretary,* Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR)*
Academic Editor (Education, Pedagogy),* PLOS One*

University of South Australia <http://unisa.edu.au/>
GPO Box 2471, Adelaide SA 5001
CRICOS Provider Number 00121B

Office: City West Campus Room BH3-21 <https://goo.gl/maps/TeFoTBJ8nrM2>
Web: http://vitomir.kovanovic.info
Phone: +61 8 830 27377 <+61883027377>