Developing a multiple-document-processing performance assessment for epistemic literacy

The LAK15 theme “shifts the focus from data to impact”, noting the potential for Learning Analytics based on existing technologies to have scalable impact on learning for people of all ages. For such demand and potential in scalability to be met the challenges of addressing higher-order thinking skills should be addressed. This paper discuses one such approach – the creation of an analytic and task model to probe epistemic cognition in complex literacy tasks. The research uses existing technologies in novel ways to build a conceptually grounded model of trace-indicators for epistemic-commitments in information seeking behaviors. We argue that such an evidence centered approach is fundamental to realizing the potential of analytics, which should maintain a strong association with learning theory