Learning analytics in higher education – why we still have a long way to go.
Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 7:19 am
With regular prophesying of the possibilities of big data, you’re bound to come across the term ‘learning analytics’ (or ‘student data analytics’) as a key trend to look out for in EdTech. Perhaps you’re thinking that the onslaught of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) will be the catalyst for the major evolution of analytics in education, well you’ll be disappointed.
Learning analytics – what is it?
According to the 1st International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge, learning analytics is defined as:
“the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data singapore email list 1.6 million contact leads about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimising learning and the environments in which it occurs.”
Basically, data scientists identify key trends in how students learn within online environments and use these trends to improve the education experience – institutions aim to create personalised education experiences based on how you learn best.
For more on the theory check out this bite-sized infographic about learning analytics from College Stats.
A loose definition.
We have a client that’s particularly interested in this area and asked us to take a deeper dig for anyone in higher education doing it well. In our research, we found a lot of universities that claim to be doing ‘learning analytics’, but the term is used pretty loosely.
“Generally, what you see is learning analytics applied to course management systems, and course management systems is basically just a fancy way of saying an online discussion board, and they are looking at how many times a student will respond, […] how quickly they respond to a discussion, how often they log on. So just very, very basic levels of data.”
Reynol Junco, Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society
Learning analytics – what is it?
According to the 1st International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge, learning analytics is defined as:
“the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data singapore email list 1.6 million contact leads about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimising learning and the environments in which it occurs.”
Basically, data scientists identify key trends in how students learn within online environments and use these trends to improve the education experience – institutions aim to create personalised education experiences based on how you learn best.
For more on the theory check out this bite-sized infographic about learning analytics from College Stats.
A loose definition.
We have a client that’s particularly interested in this area and asked us to take a deeper dig for anyone in higher education doing it well. In our research, we found a lot of universities that claim to be doing ‘learning analytics’, but the term is used pretty loosely.
“Generally, what you see is learning analytics applied to course management systems, and course management systems is basically just a fancy way of saying an online discussion board, and they are looking at how many times a student will respond, […] how quickly they respond to a discussion, how often they log on. So just very, very basic levels of data.”
Reynol Junco, Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society