ToolsWritng 2018 - 6th International Conference on Writing Analytics

We invite presentations that address ways writing analytics and data mining methods can leverage the affordances of digital tools to improve writing, feedback to students, and assessment. The conference will provide a space for developers, researchers, writing program administrators, and university-based initiatives to showcase their software, big-data research, and theoretical work regarding ways technologies are challenging traditional approaches to teaching, learning, and assessment. Presenters may speak about ways digital ecologies can measure tool behaviours such as time-on-task, how comments and trace patterns can measure interpersonal and interpersonal competences, and how machines can pitch tutorials to students based on their needs. The editors of Journal of Writing Analytics, a newly-launched publication from Colorado State University’s Open Press, invite manuscripts for research associated with the conference.
Please share your research with us. We invite paper proposals asking:
• What kind of data are actually being used for the development of curricula and teaching practices? What data is construed as actionable data?
• What are writing analytics? What sorts of analytics are being used across academic disciplines to reach a point of action? Based on your experience, what are the best practices for adapting data mining approaches to the educational domain, with specific attention to teaching and assessing writing?
• What policies and resources encourage understanding of data gathering and analysis practices?
• What parameters define ethical uses of learning analytics?
• Why are writing analytics important for academics and university assessment experts? How can writing analytics provide actionable data to improve student learning and student success? How can writing analytics promote student retention?
• How can data mining and analytics be leveraged to better meet the needs of students and educational institutions?
• How can writing analytics prioritize and scaffold feedback? How can researchers detect and assess students’ affective and emotional states while engaging the writing construct?
• Who is using writing analytics? How are they challenging disciplinary assumptions and methods?