Jenna Mittelmeier

Research Evidence on the Use of Learning Analytics: Implications for Education Policy

Learning analytics is an emergent field of research that is growing fast. It takes advantage of the last decade of e-learning implementations in education and training as well as of research and development work in areas such as educational data mining, web analytics and statistics. In recent years, increasing numbers of digital tools for the education and training sectors have included learning analytics to some extent, and these tools are now in the early stages of adoption. This report reviews early uptake in the field, presenting five case studies and an inventory of tools, policies and practices. It also provides an Action List for policymakers, practitioners, researchers and industry members to guide work in Europe.

Student profiling in a dispositional learning analytics application using formative assessment

How learning disposition data can help us translating learning feedback from a learning analytics application into actionable learning interventions, is the main focus of this empirical study. It extends previous work (Tempelaar, Rienties, & Giesbers, 2015), where the focus was on deriving timely prediction models in a data rich context, encompassing trace data from learning management systems, formative assessment data, e-tutorial trace data as well as learning dispositions. In this same educational context, the current study investigates how the application of cluster analysis based on e-tutorial trace data allows student profiling into different at-risk groups, and how these at-risk groups can be characterized with the help of learning disposition data. It is our conjecture that establishing a chain of antecedent-consequence relationships starting from learning disposition, through student activity in e-tutorials and formative assessment performance, to course performance, adds a crucial dimension to current learning analytics studies: that of profiling students with descriptors that easily lend themselves to the design of educational interventions.

Learning design in diverse institutional and cultural contexts : Suggestions from a participatory workshop with higher education professionals in Africa

ABSTRACT Learning design approaches, such as those adopted by the Open University, provide a set of tools and resources for purposefully-designing modules with a focus on student experiences. However, many of the current learning design strategies have been situated within specific institutions in Europe and North America. This means that there are several issues worth considering around if and how established learning design approaches make sense in diverse institutional and cultural contexts. To critically assess the relevance and appropriateness of learning design strategies in new contexts, this article describes an in-depth participatory workshop with 34 education professionals from five African countries. Altogether, 10 suggestions for learning design practices were derived from the consensus of workshop participants, which provide a foundation for the development of learning design practices moving forward.