Data privacy on the African continent: Opportunities, challenges and implications for learning analytics

Abstract Whilst learning analytics is still nascent in most African higher education institutions, many African higher education institutions use learning platforms and analytic services from providers outside of the African continent. A critical consideration of the protection of data privacy on the African continent and its implications for learning analytics in African higher education is therefore needed. In this paper, we map the current state of legal and regulatory environments and frameworks on privacy to establish their implications for learning analytics. This scoping review of privacy regulations in 32 African countries, complemented by 15 scholarly papers, revealed that there are numerous national and regional legislation and regulatory frameworks, providing clear pointers pertaining to (student) data privacy to governments, higher education institutions and researchers. As such, the findings of this research have implications for African higher education to ensure not only legal compliance but also to oversee and safeguard student data privacy as part of their fiduciary duty. This research provides crucial insights regarding the importance of context for thinking about the expansion and institutional adoption of learning analytics. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic Personal data have become commodified and are regarded as a valuable commercial asset. The commercial value of data relies on the collection and analysis of increasing volumes, granularity, variety and velocity of personal data (both identifiable and aggregated). Africa and African higher education are regarded as new data frontiers to be exploited. What this paper adds This paper, for the first time, makes an attempt to map privacy legislation and academic research on (student) data privacy in the African continent. Maps key implications for African higher educations to consider in collecting, analysing, using and sharing student data. It provides pointers for a research agenda pertaining to student data privacy on the African continent. Implications for practice and/or policy African higher education institutions should consider student data privacy when entering into service level agreements with educational technology and platform providers. African governments should develop common data sharing frameworks to facilitate cross‐border data transfer. Current African data privacy legislation provides important implications for the adoption and institutionalisation of learning analytics. African higher education also has to consider the ethical aspects of learning analytics.