73 144 327 | University of Arizona tracks student ID cards to detect who might drop out, March 12, 2018

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/12/17109224/university-of-arizona-tracking-smartchips-student-ids-privacy-drop-out
https://archive.fo/wiUSA

 

The University of Arizona is tracking freshman students’ ID card swipes to anticipate which students are more likely to drop out. University researchers hope to use the data to lower dropout rates. (Dropping out refers to those who have left higher-education entirely and those who transfer to other colleges.)

The card data tells researchers how frequently a student has entered a residence hall, library, and the student recreation center, which includes a salon, convenience store, mail room, and movie theater. The cards are also used for buying vending machine snacks and more, putting the total number of locations near 700. There’s a sensor embedded in the CatCard student IDs, which are given to every student attending the university.

Researchers have gathered freshman data over a three-year time frame so far, and they found that their predictions for who is more likely to drop out are 73 percent accurate. They also have plans to give academic advisers an online dashboard to look at student data in real time.

This article was published on March 12, 2018, at 10:44 AM EDT, like 144 when you drop the 0.

With data from students’ activity, academic performance, and financial aid, the university creates lists every quarter of freshman students most likely to drop out and shares it with its staff. Those who are more likely to drop out might have shrinking social circles and a lack of fairly established patterns of behavior, according to Ram. The hope is that the university will pinpoint which students need more support from advisers to stay on.  

Some schools already use student ID cards to monitor student activity, but it could be argued that this level of analyzing students’ social interaction data, which includes timestamps and locations, potentially violates students’ privacy. After all, on the CatCard policy site, there’s no disclosure that swipes and payments can be monitored by the university.

Can you say 1984?

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