Leah Macfadyen

Dr. Leah Macfadyen

Associate Professor of Teaching

leah.macfadyen@ubc.ca 604–822–4607 PCN 3117 https://changingeye.com/
Research and teaching areas:

Critical Intercultural Studies

Digital literacies

Digital Research Methods

Instructional approaches

Multiliteracy and multimodality

Online pedagogies

Biography

Leah Macfadyen is an Associate Professor of Teaching in the Department of Language and Literacy Education and the Master of Educational Technology Program, Faculty of Education, The University of British Columbia. She is a broad-ranging interdisciplinarian, with graduate degrees in the experimental sciences and in the humanities and social sciences. Dr Macfadyen’s early eLearning research drew on her interest in theories of culture and intercultural communication, and was motivated by the reality of our increasingly diverse learner audience. Latterly, the rising tide of learning data captured by learning technologies, and the emergence of the field of learning analytics, spurred Dr Macfadyen to also bring her analytic and scientific skills to the study of virtual learning. Her research – qualitative and quantitative – has been published in respected peer-reviewed journals in several fields. In parallel Dr Macfadyen has also invested time in developing and teaching experiential and (hopefully) transformative learning experiences on topics such as sustainability, systems thinking and global issues.

Dr Macfadyen is inspired by the potential for learning analytics to offer actionable insights into our teaching and learning contexts and practice: who our learners are and how that has changed over time, what choices our learners make and how that affects outcomes, and how design and teaching innovations impact learner behavior and learning outcomes. She is also keen, however, to engage researchers and practitioners in ongoing critical discussions about the limits of ‘big data’, the challenge of data literacy, and the ethical and social implications of this work.

Media

Selected Publications

Journal Articles
Zumrawi, A. A. & Macfadyen, L. P. (2023)
Proposed metrics for summarizing student evaluation of teaching data from balanced Likert scale surveys. Cogent Education, 10(2), https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2023.2254665
Macfadyen, L. P., Austin, J., Cao, P., Cheng, J., Cremin, C., Duong, L., Elliott, A. M., Guimond, C., Lim, S., Race, S., Rajan-Babu, I.-S., Richardson, A., Wainstein, T., Zahir, F., & Birch, P. H. (2023)
A novel online genomic counselling and variant interpretation certificate: Learning design, learning analytics, and evaluation. Journal of Genetic Counselling. https://doi.org/10.1002/jgc4.1737
Banihashem, S. K., Noroozi, O., van Ginkel, S., P., Macfadyen, L., & Biemans, H. J. A. (2022)
A systematic review of the role of learning analytics in enhancing feedback practices in higher education. Educational Research Review, 100489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2022.100489
Banihashem, K. & Macfadyen, L. P. (2021)
Pedagogical design: Bridging learning theory and learning analytics. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 47(1), https://doi.org/10.21432/cjlt27959
Macfadyen, L. P., Lockyer, L., & Rienties, B. (2020)
Learning design and learning analytics: Snapshot 2020. Journal of Learning Analytics, 7 (3), 6-12. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2020.73.2
Redmond, D. W. & Macfadyen, L. P. (2020).
A Framework to leverage and mature learning ecosystems. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 15(5), 75-99.

Macfadyen, Leah. P. (2017).
Overcoming barriers to educational analytics: How systems thinking and pragmatism can help. Educational Technology, 57(1), 31-39. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44430538

Macfadyen, L. P., Dawson, S., Gašević, D. & Prest, S. (2015).
Whose feedback? A multilevel analysis of student completion of end-of-term teaching evaluations. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 41(6), 821-839. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2015.1044421

Ferguson, R., Macfadyen, L. P., Clow, D., Tynan, B., Alexander, S., & Dawson, S. (2014). Setting learning analytics in context: Overcoming the barriers to large-scale adoption. Journal of Learning Analytics, 1(3), 120-144. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2014.13.7

Macfadyen, L. P., Dawson, S. Pardo, A., & Gašević, D. (2014). Embracing big data in complex educational systems: The learning analytics imperative and the policy challenge. Research & Practice in Assessment, 9, 17-28. http://www.rpajournal.com/dev/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/A2.pdf

Macfadyen, L. P. & Dawson, S. (2012). Numbers are not enough. Why e-Learning analytics failed to inform aninstitutional strategic plan. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 1(3), 149-163. https://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.15.3.149

Dawson, S., Macfadyen, L. P., Lockyer, L. & Mazzochi-Jones, D. (2011). Using social network metrics to assess the effectiveness of broad based admission practices. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 27(1), 16-27. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.979

Macfadyen, L. P.  (2011). Perils of parsimony: The problematic paradigm of ‘national culture’.  Information, Communicationand Society, 14(2), 280-293, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2010.486839

Macfadyen, L. P., & Dawson, S. (2010). Mining LMS data to develop an ‘‘early warning system” for educators: A proof of concept. Computers & Education, 54, 588-599. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.09.008

Macfadyen, L. P. (2008). “A Scottish person supporting England is an impossibility”: Reflections on world cup mania and Scottish national identity. International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 3(6), 185-191.https://doi.org/10.18848/1833-1882/CGP/v03i06/52644

Macfadyen, L. P. (2008). Diaspora and denial? Holocaust accounts of a polish community in exile. International Journal of the Humanities, 6(5), 57-64. https://doi.org/10.18848/1447-9508/CGP/v06i05/42448

Macfadyen, L. P. (2006). Virtual ethnicity: The new digitization of place, body, language, and memory. Electronic Magazine of Multicultural Education, 8 (1). https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0058425

Macfadyen,L.P. (2006). In a world of text, is the author King? The revolutionary potential of wiki (open content) technologies. Hastings Bridge: A Journal from the Graduate Liberal Studies Program, 6, 3-14.

Weiss-Lambrou, R., & Macfadyen, L. P. (2005). Soutien du corps professoral dans une initiative d’enseignement avec les technologies de l’information et de la communication à l’Université de Montréal. Revue internationale des technologies en pédagogie universitaire, 2(1), 59-61. https://www.ritpu.ca/fr/articles/view/69  

Macfadyen, L. P. (2005). From the spoken to the written: The changing cultural role of folk and fairy tales. Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies, X(1), 143-153. https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0303102

Reeder, K., Macfadyen, L. P., Chase, M. and Roche, J. (2004). Negotiating culture in cyberspace: participation patterns and problematics. Language Learning and Technology, 8(2), 88-105. http://dx.doi.org/10125/25242

Chase, M., Macfadyen, L. P., Reeder, K. and Roche, J. (2002). Intercultural challenges in networked learning: hard technologies meet soft skills. First Monday, 7(8) (August 2002) https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/975

Books

Cheong, P. H., Martin, J. & Macfadyen, L. P. (2012).
New Media and Intercultural Communication: Identity, Community and Politics. New York: Peter Lang.
Macfadyen, L. P., Roche, J. & Doff, S. (2004).
Communicating across cultures in cyberspace: A bibliographical review of online intercultural communication. Lit-Verlag. https://doi.org/10.5282/ubm/epub.13955
Book Chapters

Macfadyen, L. P. (2022). Institutional implementation of learning analytics: Current state, challenges, and guiding frameworks. In C. Lang, G. Siemens, A. F. Wise, D. Gašević, & A. Merceron (Eds.), The Handbook of learning analytics (2 ed., pp. 173-186). Society for Learning Analytics Research. https://www.solaresearch.org/publications/hla-22/hla22-chapter17/

Cheong, P. H., Martin, J. & Macfadyen, L. P. (2012). Introduction: Mediated intercultural communication matters: Understanding new media, dialectics, and social change. In P. Cheong, J. Martin and L. P. Macfadyen (Eds.),New media and intercultural communication: Identity, community and politics. (pp. 1-16). Peter Lang.

Macfadyen, L. P. & Hewling, A. (2011). How the earth moved. ‘Difference’ and transformative learning in an online course on global citizenship. In R. Land & S. Bayne (Eds.), Digital differences: Perspectives on online education (pp. 83-100). Sense Publishers.

Macfadyen, L. P. (2009). Being and learning in the online classroom: Linguistic practices and ritual text acts. In M. N.Lamy & R. Goodfellow (Eds.), Learning cultures in online education. Continuum Press.

Macfadyen, L. P. (2006). Internet-mediated communication at the cultural interface. In C. Ghaoui (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 373-380). The Idea Group, Inc.

Macfadyen, L. P. (2006). The culture(s) of cyberspace. In C. Ghaoui (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 143-149). The Idea Group, Inc.

Macfadyen, L. P. (2006). The prospects for identity and community in cyberspace. In C. Ghaoui (Ed.),  Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 471-478). The Idea Group, Inc.

Macfadyen, L. P. & Doff., S. (2006). The language of cyberspace. In C. Ghaoui (Ed.),  Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 396-403). The Idea Group, Inc.

Conference Proceedings

Macfadyen, L. P. & Myers, A. (2023). The “IKEA model” for pragmatic development of a custom learning analytics dashboard. In T. Cochrane, V. Narayan, C. Brown, K. MacCallum, E. Bone, C. Deneen, R. Vanderburg, & B. Hurren (Eds.), People, partnerships and pedagogies. Proceedings ASCILITE 2023. Christchurch (pp. 482-486). https://doi.org/10.14742/apubs.2023.465

Rashtian, H., Hashemi, A., & Macfadyen, L. P. (2020). Harnessing natural language processing to support curriculum analysis. In L. Gómez Chova, A. López Martínez, & I. Candel Torres (Eds.), Proceedings, ICERI2020, the 13th annual international conference of education, research and innovation (pp. 1779-1784). International Academy of Technology, Education and Development (IATED). https://doi.org/10.21125/iceri.2020.0445

Macfadyen, L. P. (2020). Content analytics for curriculum review: A learning analytics use case for exploration of learner context. In S. Gregory, S. Warburton, & M. Parkes (Eds.), Proceedings, ASCILITE 2020: 37th international conference on innovation, practice and research in the use of educational technologies in tertiary education (pp. 42-47). ASCILITE. https://2020conference.ascilite.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ASCILITE-2020-Proceedings-Macfayden-L.pdf

Wei, J., Cutler, F., Macfadyen, L. P. & Shirazi, S. (2019). Implementing learning analytics: Instructor perspectives. In A. Aghababyan, & S. San Pedro (Eds.), Companion proceedings, the 9th international conference on learning analytics and knowledge (LAK’19) (pp. 56-61). https://www.solaresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/LAK19_Companion_Proceedings.pdf

Lang, C., Macfadyen, L. P., Slade, S., Prinsloo, P. & Sclater, N. (2018). The complexities of developing a personal code of ethics for learning analytics practitioners: Implications for institutions and the field. In A. Pardo, K. Bartimote-Aufflick, & G. Lynch (Eds.), Proceedings of the 8th international conference on learning analytics and knowledge (LAK’18) (pp. 436-440). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3170358.3170396  

Macfadyen, L. P. (2017). What does a learning analytics practitioner need to know? In Y. Bergner, C. Lang, G. Gray, S. Teasley, & J. Stamper (Eds.), Joint proceedings of the workshop on methodology in learning analytics (MLA) and the workshop on building the learning analytics curriculum (BLAC), hosted by 7th International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (LAK’17). http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1915/paper4.pdf

Macfadyen, L. P., Groth, D., Rehrey, G., Shepard, L., Greer, J., Ward, D., Bennett, C., Kaupp, J., Molinaro, M. & Steinwachs, M. (2017). Developing institutional learning analytics ‘communities of transformation’ to support student success. In A. F. Wise, P. Winne, & G. Lynch (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th international conference on learning analytics & knowledge (LAK’17) (pp. 498-499). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3027385.3029426

Clow, D., Ferguson, R., Macfadyen, L. P., Prinsloo, P., & Slade, S. (2016). LAK Failathon. In J. Baron, G. Lynch, & N. Maziarz (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th international conference on learning analytics & knowledge (LAK’16) (pp. 509-511). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2883851.2883918

Macfadyen, L. P. (2016). Using EventFlow and CoCo to explore classroom activity patterns and learner performance. In B. Chen, A. F. Wise, S. Knight, & B. Haugan Cheng (Eds.), Proceedings, putting temporal analytics into practice: The 5th international workshop on temporality in learning data, hosted by the 6th International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge (LAK’16). 

Roll, I., Macfadyen, L. P., Cimet, M., Shiozaki, L., Paulin, D., & Harris, S. (2016). Questions, not answers: Boosting student participation in MOOC forums. In G. Siemens, & V. Price (Eds.), Proceedings of the third annual learning with MOOCs conference (LWMOOCs16). 

Paulin, D., Haythornthwaite, C., & Macfadyen, L. P. (2015). Social network analysis of UBC MOOCs: Illuminating learning networks. In M. Matiz, P. B. Kaufman, G. Schuessler, R. Baker, D. Gašević, & E. Y. Wang (Eds.), Proceedings of the second annual learning with MOOCs conference (LWMOOCs15).

Roll, I., Macfadyen, L. P. & Sandilands, D. (2015). Evaluating the relationship between course structure, learner activity, and perceived value of online courses.In G. Kiczales, D. Russell, & B. Woolf (Eds.), Proceedings, second (2015) ACM conference on learning @ scale (pp. 385-388). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2724660.2728699  

Ferguson, R., Clow, D., Macfadyen, L. P., Essa, A., Dawson, S. & Alexander, S. (2014). Setting learning analytics in context: Overcoming the barriers to large-scale adoption. In A. Pardo, & S. Teasley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th international conference on learning analytics and knowledge (LAK’14) (pp. 251-253). ACM.https://doi.org/10.1145/2567574.2567592

Dawson, S., Macfadyen, L. P., Risko, E., Foulsham, T. & Kingstone, A. (2012). Using technology to encourage self-directed learning: The Collaborative Lecture Annotation System. In M. Brown, M. Hartnett, & T. Stewart (Eds.), Proceedings, Australasian society for computers in learning in tertiary education conference 2012. ASCILITE. http://www.ascilite.org/conferences/Wellington12/2012/images/custom/dawson,_shane_-_using_technology.pdf   

Macfadyen, L. P. & Sorenson, P. (2010). Using LiMS (the learner interaction monitoring system) to track online learner engagement and evaluate course design. In R. S. J. d. Baker, A. Merceron, & P. I. Pavlik Jr. (Eds.), Proceedings, third international conference on educational data mining (pp. 301-302). https://educationaldatamining.org/EDM2010/uploads/proc/edm2010_submission_73.pdf

Dawson, S., Macfadyen, L. P., Lockyer, L. & Mazzochi-Jones, D. (2010). From neural to social: Medical student admissions criteria and engagement in a social learning environment. In S. Housego, C. Steel, & M. Keppell (Eds.), Proceedings, Australasian society for computers in learning in tertiary education conference 2010 (pp. 292-301). ASCILITE. https://www.ascilite.org/conferences/sydney10/procs/Dawson-full.pdf

Dawson, S., Macfadyen, L. P. & Lockyer, L. (2009). Learning or performance: Predicting drivers of student motivation. In R. Atkinson, & C. McBeath (Eds.), Proceedings, Australasian society for computers in learning in tertiary education conference 2009 (pp. 184-193). ASCILITE. https://ascilite.org/conferences/auckland09/procs/dawson.pdf

Macfadyen, L. P. (2008). The perils of parsimony. “National culture” as red herring? In F. Sudweeks, H. Hrachoveć, & C. Ess (Eds.), Proceedings, cultural attitudes towards technology and communication 2008. Murdoch University. https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0058428

Lee, J. & Macfadyen, L. P. (2009). Reciprocal peer observation of teaching: Networking across disciplines. In Proceedings, Improving University Teaching 2009.

Macfadyen, L. P. (2008). Constructing ethnicity and identity in the online classroom: Linguistic practices and ritual text acts. In Proceedings, networked learning conference 2008. http://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/past/nlc2008/abstracts/PDFs/Macfadyen_560-568.pdf

Macfadyen, L. P. & Hewling, A. (2007). How the earth moved. ‘Difference’ and transformative learning in an online course on global citizenship. In R. Land, S. Bayne & J. Ross (Eds.), Proceedings, ideas in cyberspace education 3: Digital difference. Moray House School of Education. http://www.ice3.education.ed.ac.uk/papers/hewlingmacfadyen.html

Macfadyen, L. P. (2006). In a world of text, is the author King? The revolutionary potential of wiki (open content) technologies. In F. Sudweeks, H. Hrachoveć, & C. Ess (Eds.), Proceedings, cultural attitudes towards technology and communication 2006 (pp. 285-298). Murdoch University.

Reeder, K., Macfadyen, L. P., Chase, M. and Roche, J. (2004). Falling through the cultural gaps? Intercultural communication challenges in cyberspace. In In F. Sudweeks, & C. Ess (Eds.), Proceedings, cultural attitudes towards technology and communication 2004. Murdoch University.

Macfadyen, L. P., Chase, M., Reeder, K. and Roche, J. (2003). Matches and mismatches in intercultural learning: Designing and moderating an online intercultural course. In Proceedings, UNESCO Conference on International and Intercultural Education 2003.

Macfadyen, L. P. (2003). Intercultural and international education via the Internet: Success stories from Canada. In Proceedings, UNESCO Conference on International and Intercultural Education 2003.

Chase, M., Macfadyen, L. P., Reeder, K. and Roche, J. (2002). Intercultural challenges in networked learning: Hard technologies meet soft skills. In Proceedings of the 3rd international conference: Networked learning 2002.

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