important notice – LAKathon20 postponed due to covid-19 outbreak read more about
The 6th Learning Analytics Hackathon (#LAKathon) is a pre-conference workshop of the 10th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (LAK’20), taking place on March 23-24, 2020 in Frankfurt Germany.
The LAKathon 2020 is the sixth in the series of Hackathons held at LAK. The theme of 2020 is Accelerating Development by Learning from the Past.
Please feel free to bring along your research questions, datasets and methodologies to the workshop for incorporation in the multidisciplinary activities. If you would like to suggest open research questions that you think should be addressed at the event, then come along prepared to pitch your idea.
You don’t have to submit a proposal in order to participate, and this Hackathon is not just for techies. If you are interested in education, whether as a teacher, instructor, learning technologist or instructional designer, this is the chance to gain better insight into learning analytics!
The format of the Event
For the last five years, researchers and practitioners have run hackathons at the Learning Analytics & Knowledge (LAK) conferences. We have brainstormed on new LA techniques, discussed technical infrastructures and analysed educational datasets. We have formed opinions and suggested strategies which have radiated back to the LA research community as a whole.
In 2020, in the 10th anniversary of the LAK conference, the theme chosen for the 6th LAKathon is “Accelerating Development by Learning from the Past”. In this edition, we suggest key thematic objectives which build upon the key topics of previous’ LAKathon editions.
All LAKathons have been designed to be
- solution-driven, participants solve a series of realistic challenges through Agile research approaches, including brainstorming, design thinking, or fast-prototyping;
- multi-disciplinary, reflected in the diversity of the LAKathon participants;
- self-organised, as we engage in bottom-up, and actionable research questions. Through a Call for Proposals, we aim to elicit research questions that address the thematic objectives thus accelerating the development of the LAK community.
We aim also to strengthen the bridge between the LAKathon and the LAK conference by explicitly inviting the LAK research sub-communities and Special Interest Groups to join the LAKathon and propose their challenges, as it was the case last year for the CrossMMLA SIG. The LAKathon 2020 wants to become the space for hands-on technical challenges, which take place in parallel to the work of the LAK sub-communities and offers them the space to address challenges.
Registering for the Hackathon
When registering to LAK’20 there will be two possibilities for you to choose from:
- Two-days participation (*recommended*). In two days you will join the teams and make sure that the solution to the selected challenge is found. From our experience, two days of the hackathon are necessary to create a good team spirit in the hackathon team and the provide more time for the elaboration of the solution.
- One-day participation. To ensure continuity with the whole LAK community, this year we allow also one-day participation to the LAKathon, to allow people interested in parallel pre-conference workshops also to join and bring their research questions.
However, the quality of the results which can be obtained in one-day participation is lower than in two-days participation. The Hackathon organisers will make their best to ensure a smooth transition and make sure that the (partial) solutions are reported and streamlined to the next days and to the future LAKathons.
LAKathon 2020 