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Writing analytics has emerged as a sub-field of learning analytics, with applications including the provision of formative feedback to students in developing their writing capacities. Rhetorical markers in writing have become a key feature in this feedback, with a number of tools being developed across research and teaching contexts. However, there is no shared corpus of texts annotated by these tools, nor is it clear how the tool annotations compare. Thus, resources are scarce for comparing tools for both tool development and pedagogic purposes. In this paper, we conduct such a comparison and introduce a sample corpus of texts representative of the particular genres, a subset of which has been annotated using three rhetorical analysis tools (one of which has two versions). This paper aims to provide both a description of the tools and a shared dataset in order to support extensions of existing analyses and tool design in support of writing skill development. We intend the description of these tools, which share a focus on rhetorical structures, alongside the corpus, to be a preliminary step to enable further research, with regard to both tool development and tool interaction.

How feedback is understood and enacted has shifted from the traditional practice of providing individual feedback on summative tasks at key points to a more ongoing series of dialogues between the teacher and students during the teaching period. This paper reports on the experiences of designing faster feedback through weekly dialogic feedback loops to enhance students' personal connection to their learning while providing teachers with faster, actionable feedback data to inform learning design. A pragmatic inquiry considered how benefits might potentially be amplified through the use of digital technologies. Data included student reflections collected via the GoingOK web application, interviews and focus groups. The findings identify and theorise four types of digitally mediated feedback loops: students in computer-mediated dialogue with themselves; students and teachers in dialogue with each other; the reflection on how feedback informed learning; and the sociotechnical dialogue informing ongoing technical design. Three design dilemmas that were experienced by teachers as they enacted digitally mediated dialogic feedback loops are articulated, alongside the principles that enabled responsive design. Understanding these design elements is fundamental if automation of some parts of the feedback loop through reflective writing analytics is to be considered both feasible and desirable. Implications for practice or policy: (1) Digitally mediated feedback loops can facilitate faster feedback, enabling students to reflect on their learning and providing teachers with access to new insights about diverse learners; (2) Feedback technology can challenge existing ideas about feedback; (3) Faster feedback can save teachers time, but efficiencies are likely to depend on an increased human workload in the short term as automation technologies can be slower to develop; and (4) Sociotechnical innovation requires collective dialogue between educators and digital developers, across asynchronous timelines.

Modern society demands renewed attention on the competencies required to best equip students for a dynamic and uncertain future. We present exploratory work based on the premise that metacognitive and reflective competencies are essential for this task. Bringing the concepts of metacognition and reflection together into a conceptual model within which we conceived of them as both a set of similar features, and as a spectrum ranging from the unconscious inner-self through to the conscious, external, social self. This model was used to guide exploratory computational analysis of 6,090 instances of reflective writing authored by undergraduate students. We found the conceptual model useful in informing the computational analysis, which in turn showed potential for automating the discovery of metacognitive activity in reflective writing, an approach that holds promise for the generation of formative feedback for students as they work towards developing core 21st century competencies.

Higher education (HE) is usually seen as serving the public good, especially when funded directly by the state, and because of potential social effects such as a reduction in inequality and an increase in social mobility. Public support for higher education is conditional; however, on its capacity, capability and willingness to educate citizens, and to create and disseminate knowledge. But what is the public good and what defines it? Recent years have seen many governments adopt the format of a national strategy or development plan for higher education--setting out national objectives. Similarly, many governments (e.g. Ireland, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Finland and New Zealand) are adopting the policy tool of performance agreements or compacts to better align higher education institutions (HEI) with the national objectives, involving identification of appropriate performance management and indicators. The process by which national objectives are determined varies but may involve a group comprising national and international 'experts', sometimes using consultation mechanisms (open or limited). The concept of public good has played a significant role in (re)positioning higher education over recent years. This is especially so in response to growing demands for greater accountability for all public organisations, but also, specific concerns regarding growing higher education access/participation, costs/debt, graduate employability/unemployment, and social/economic impact. This paper takes a practical approach--by asking 'what is the public good' and 'who defines it' and looking at how different countries are approaching the issue.

Although the use of real-world data sets is encouraged when teaching statistics, it can be difficult for instructors to find meaningful data for introducing students to univariate descriptive statistics such as the mean, median, and percentiles. The recent lead contamination of the water supply in Flint, Michigan, provides a real-life data set with important implications hinging on basic statistics such as these. The data set can also be used as a starting point for discussions on sampling design, data collection, and ethical data practices.

This article looks at the effects of a national policy of research prioritization in the years following Ireland's economic crisis. A national research prioritization exercise initiated by policymakers redefined the purpose of higher education research, and designed policies in line with this approach. Placing research for enterprise to the fore, it emphasized the economic value that subjects could return on state investments. This article examines the post-crisis policy of prioritization, its relationship with and effects on arts and humanities research, and how the notion of the benefit of research can be broadened while still addressing economic needs. It draws on 22 comprehensive semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in Ireland's academic, policy, and civil society communities, and is part of a wider study on the contribution of higher education institution-based arts and humanities research to society and the economy.

Many early-career teachers (ECTs) begin their teaching careers in rural and remote schools in Australia, and do not stay long, with consequences for their own lives, and for their students, schools and communities. By understanding how first-year ECTs navigate personal (subjective) and contextual (objective) conditions, opportunities to disrupt patterns of ECT attrition may be found. This paper explores the online longitudinal reflections from two rural ECTs. Margaret Archer's three dimensions of reflexivity were used to analyse what personal, structural and cultural resources were activated by ECTs as they discerned and deliberated the costs of being a rural ECT. The potential for school leaders and mentors to support rural ECTs through dialogic reflexivity, that is the opportunity to discern and deliberate priorities with others, is identified as a role that is significant for ECT support but not straightforward. Prompts for dialogic reflexivity are proposed.

The ability to develop and distribute digital teaching resources in higher education has developed rapidly over the last decade but research into how students use such resources has received limited attention. This study uses questionnaire results, Internet analytic data and semi-structured interviews to examine the use of three types of rich-media teaching resources--lecture podcasts, key-concept videos and tutorial solution videos--by engineering undergraduates. It is found that students value all three types of resource, especially for revision and as a supplement to lectures. Students find short, focused resources more useful than longer ones. Non-native English speakers and those with disabilities derive particular benefits from the resources. The effect of rich-media resources on lecture attendance is found to be small, and two-way.