Learning analytics
[8][non-primary source needed] Dr. Wolfgang Greller and Dr. Hendrik Drachsler defined learning analytics holistically as a framework.
They proposed that it is a generic design framework that can act as a useful guide for setting up analytics services in support of educational practice and learner guidance, in quality assurance, curriculum development, and in improving teacher effectiveness and efficiency.
[9] The broader term "Analytics" has been defined as the science of examining data to draw conclusions and, when used in decision-making, to present paths or courses of action.
[11] During the 2010s, this definition of analytics has gone further to incorporate elements of operations research such as decision trees and strategy maps to establish predictive models and to determine probabilities for certain courses of action.
[15] The model posits that learning analytics is defined at the intersection of three disciplines: data science, theory, and design.
[16] Differentiating the fields of educational data mining (EDM) and learning analytics (LA) has been a concern of several researchers.
[18] They go on to attempt to disambiguate educational data mining from academic analytics based on whether the process is hypothesis driven or not, though Brooks[19] questions whether this distinction exists in the literature.
In the MS program offering in learning analytics at Teachers College, Columbia University, students are taught both EDM and LA methods.
[5] More in particular, the history of Learning Analytics is tightly linked to the development of four Social Sciences' fields that have converged throughout time.
These fields pursued, and still do, four goals: A diversity of disciplines and research activities have influenced in these 4 aspects throughout the last decades, contributing to the gradual development of learning analytics.
[citation needed] Social network analysis is prominent in Sociology, and its development has had a key role in the emergence of Learning Analytics.
[22] That statement forms what today is still the area of interest or the target within social network analysis, which tries to understand how people are connected and what insights can be derived as a result of their interactions, a core idea of Learning Analytics.
[23][24] American computer scientist Larry Page, Google's co-founder, defined PageRank as "an approximation of the importance" of a particular resource.
This provides Learning Analytics with a central idea: apparently un-related data may hide crucial information.
[5] The application of social network analysis in digital learning settings has been pioneered by Professor Shane P. Dawson.
[34] Recognizing unique traits, goals, and motivations of individuals remains an important activity in learning analytics.
[5]Hypermedia is a nonlinear medium of information that includes graphics, audio, video, plain text and hyperlinks.
While big data analytics has been more and more widely applied in education, Wise and Shaffer[41] addressed the importance of theory-based approach in the analysis.
Epistemic Frame Theory conceptualized the "ways of thinking, acting, and being in the world" in a collaborative learning environment.
Specifically, the framework is based on the context of Community of Practice (CoP), which is a group of learners, with common goals, standards and prior knowledge and skills, to solve a complex problem.
The first graduate program focused specifically on learning analytics was created by Ryan S. Baker and launched in the Fall 2015 semester at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Some examples of learning analytics software tools include: The ethics of data collection, analytics, reporting and accountability has been raised as a potential concern for learning analytics,[9][57][58] with concerns raised regarding: As Kay, Kom and Oppenheim point out, the range of data is wide, potentially derived from:[60] Thus the legal and ethical situation is challenging and different from country to country, raising implications for:[60] In some prominent cases like the inBloom disaster,[61] even full functional systems have been shut down due to lack of trust in the data collection by governments, stakeholders and civil rights groups.
[62][non-primary source needed] Drachsler & Greller released an 8-point checklist named DELICATE that is based on the intensive studies in this area to demystify the ethics and privacy discussions around learning analytics.
