Learning Analytics

The 2013 Horizon Report describes learning analytics as the "Field associated with deciphering trends and patterns from educational big data, or huge sets of student-related data, to further the advancement of a personalized, supportive system of higher education."   Below are articles, presentations and seminars that further discuss the growing use of learning analytics in higher education and the benefit students gain from it.

• Building Organizational Capacity for Analytics, EDUCAUSE Paper, February 2013. This report discusses how leading institutions in higher education and vendors are building capacity in analytics to improve student success.

• Leadership and Learning Analytics, ELI Brief, November 2012.  This brief highlights some of the primary issues and processes for leading an organization in the deployment and use of learning analytics, and it raises broad, conceptual questions about how best to use learning analytics to develop and strengthen learning skills among undergraduates.
• Using Predictive Analytics to Improve Student Success, EDUCAUSE Annaul Conference, November 2012. This session highlights a course recommendation system that successfully pairs current students with the courses that best fit their talents and program of study for upcoming semesters.
• When Learning Analytics Meet Big Data: The PAR Framework. EDUCAUSE Annaul Conference, November 2012. This session offers a panel presentation and discussion of results from the PAR Framework proof-of-concept phase of development, featuring the unique perspectives of PAR Framework Founding Partners.
• Game Changers: Education and Information Technologies, EDUCAUSE E-Book.  2012. The following chapters from the book specifically address the use of learning analytics in higher education.

  • The Open Learning Initiative: Enacting Instruction Online
    Ross Strader and Candace Thille
    PDF | HTML

  • Yakima Valley Community College: Using Near-Real-Time Data to Increase Student Success
    Wilma Dulin, Sheila Delquadri, and Nicole M. Melander
    PDF | HTML

  • STAR: Using Technology to Enhance the Academic Journey
    Erika Lacro and Gary Rodwell
    PDF | HTML

• Learning Analytics: Moving from Concept to Practice, July 2012. This ELI Brief describes the evolution of learning analytics (LA) over the past year. Including ways in which LA differs from other kinds of analytics; different kinds of indicators and their relative predictive value; visualizations of the findings from and LA program; and the kinds of interventions that might be included in an effective analytics initiative.
• The entire issue of EDUCAUSE Review Online, July/August 2012 is devoted to the topic of analytics in higher education. Subjects explored include how the use of analytics can help address higher education accountability, affordability, productivity, and student success.
• Learning Analytics: A Report on the ELI Focus Session, May 2012. This white paper is a synthesis of the key ideas, themes, and concepts that emerged from those sessions. This white paper also includes links to supporting focus session materials, recordings, and resources. It represents a harvesting of the key elements that we, as a teaching and learning community, need to keep in mind as we work to explore how LA can be helpful for instructors (regarding learning activities and course design), for students (regarding progress), and for administrators (regarding course and degree completion data).
• Learning Analytics: Institutional & Research Perspectives, ELI Web Seminar, January 2012. This seminar highlights three institutional learning analytics projects at the University of Phoenix, University of Saskatchewan, and the UK Open University.
• The State of Learning Analytics in 2012: A Review and Future Challenges, The Open University, March 2012. Author Rebecca Ferguson from the Open University's Knowledge Media Institute, provides a detailed look at the history of Learning Analytics research and what the future may hold.
• Leaping the Chasm: Moving from Buzzwords to Implementation of Learning Analytics, EDUCAUSE Live!, February 2012. This session explores the roots of learning analytics as well as the context in which they are now being considered in higher education.
• Learning Analytics: What Could You Do With Five Orders of Magnitude More Data About Learning?, O'Reilly Strata Conference 2012.  This video of Steve Schoettler of Junyo, discusses how the use of data mining tools could be used to develop a better understanding of how students learn and how schools can use that to advance student success. 
• Harnessing the Power of Technology, Openness, and Collaboration, EDUCAUSE Quarterly, December 2011. This article describes how together, Kaleidoscope and OAAI could facilitate a cost-effective systemic approach to address the challenge of college completion.
• 7 Things You Should Know About First-Generation Learning Analytics, ELI 7 Things You Should Know, December 2011. This 7 Things discusses how learning analytics (LA) collects and analyzes the “digital breadcrumbs” that students leave as they interact with various computer systems to look for correlations between those activities and learning outcomes.
• Feedback Loops, Analytics, and Open Educational Resources: The Innovative Braid of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. ELI Web Seminar, June 2011. Participants in the Statway Networked Improvement Community share data and analytics on what works—for what students, under what conditions—to continue to improve student learning.
• Learning Analytics: The Coming Third Wave. ELI Brief, April 2011.  This ELI brief both serves as a report on the LAK11 conference and summarizes the larger picture for LA, based on the papers and discussions at the conference.
• Learning Analytics: A Foundation for Informed Change in Higher Education. ELI Web Seminar, January 2011. This presentation offers a broad introduction to the concept of learning analytics, detail practical implementations, and discuss future options for an analytics-focused university.

March 2013