Talk:Learning analytics

Pointer to 'general introduction' at start of article?
I've added a "general introduction" link to the start of the article: "For a general audience introduction, see the UNESCO "Learning Analytics Policy Brief" (2012)[2]". IF anyone thinks it's not appropriate in that position, please move it/discuss here. I should point out it was written by one of my supervisors. It's the most recent, comprehensive, and general purpose paper on it so I don't see a COI - but as more literature is released it may want relocating. Sjgknight (talk) 12:42, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Definition
I might be a good idea to distinguish "learning analytics" from formative and summative learning assessment. If anyone can. Let me remind readers that the definition of learning assessment is to provide data to support educational decisions.Robotczar (talk) 19:59, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

After thorough research on related literature, I've detected some defects in the content, structure and presentation of the information. The most important one is that the definition of LA is still in dispute, so many definitions have been attempted. The section now tries to approach this reality to the reader, providing the most important definitions in the field. The section was completely revised, corrected, organized and extended. Pagonol (talk) 10:55, 11 January 2019 (UTC)

History
After careful reading of previous version of this section and further research on related literature, the conclusion was that it was still poorly developed. There are 2 main reasons for this opinion. On the one hand, a section about history of anything must provide a sense of progress through time, sequences of phases or chains of events. This was not the case. On the other hand, Learning Analytics, as a field, has multiple disciplinary roots, and therefore the history of LA must be told by explaining how those roots converged and gave rise to LA as a new field. The section was not being explained following this structure and I believe that, in this case, is a must. Pagonol (talk) 10:55, 11 January 2019 (UTC)

Applications
This is a capital aspect of the field and it was missing in the wiki, so was added. It is far from being completed, but it's a decent start. Pagonol (talk) 10:55, 11 January 2019 (UTC)

External links modified
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Purposes/functions of analytics - new section?
This section could explain some of the differences between EDM, LA and academic analytics before moving on to some of the ways it is being used. A possible sub section could be on analytics for understanding research (E.g. the CETIS Analytics Series Vol 1. No 4. Analytics for Understanding Research, Mark van Harmelen Hedtek Ltd, Serial Number: ISSN 2051-9214 Vol 1, No 4, ISSN: 2051-9214, which is CC-BY licensed too). Sjgknight (talk) 18:28, 8 February 2013 (UTC)


 * I added a differentiation between LA and EDM in the intro section, but am open to having it moved if there are objections.

Cab938 (talk) 13:07, 9 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Looks good to me User:Cab938. I wrote some stuff on another wiki (http://www.edfutures.net/index.php?title=Learning_Analytics#Learning_Analytics_and_Educational_Data_Mining_.E2.80.93_What.E2.80.99s_the_Difference.3F) which might be transferable (CC-By licensed, and it was summaries of research) - I've added some bits from that article anyway so slightly reluctant to add it myself, but it may be useful to just straight transfer the below or adapt it to this article? I'm not sure what emphasis to place on this distinction either - I'd hate to see the rest of the article swamped by excessive coverage of this bit!


 * Many researchers in both EDM and LA do work which crosses between the two. Ferguson summarised it thus:


 * Educational data mining was primarily focused on the technical challenge: How can we extract value from these big sets of learning-related data?
 * Learning analytics was primarily focused on the educational challenge: How can we optimise opportunities for learning?
 * Academic (and action) analytics were focused on the political/economic challenge: How can we substantially improve learning opportunities and educational results at national or international levels?

While Siemens and Baker highlight some key differences between LA and EDM as in the table.

Table adapted from

Some 'to do' in each section
See also the other comments, but this is just some obvious things which ought to be addressed. Someone might find it useful as a starting point. Mark/discuss as you edit. Sjgknight (talk) 14:05, 5 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Introduction Needs expanding, list better placed in "External Links" & references but referred to in text.
 * What is Learning Analytics? I think a simple, broad definition from a good soruce would be better here
 * History; Context There is more history than is given here (although this summary is probably ok), a link to EDM might be good. Incorporating 'tools' also useful.
 * History; Techniques No links or citations, unclear relationship to LA. Might be better in lower section?
 * Criticism The definition debate is wider than this, it should perhaps be moved to this section (from the first section) and expanded.  The ethics issues also need expanding and I'm sure there are recent sources as well as other concerns re: big data, quantification, etc.
 * Methods - Could do with some general intro to methods. Also methods section is a slightly odd mixture of things which could perhaps be related better.
 * Methods; The particular 'methods' need expanding and citations adding. Linking to particular software, or examples of use might also be useful
 * Software Expand
 * See also Expand
 * External links	This is too much of a list. Some of these things look like they belong as references to the main text, others could probably be removed. This would be a good place for general articles and discussion areas (inc. SoLAR) but these are swamped at the moment

New Section - Ethics
There is a rich discussion around the ethics of leraning analytics. In part this has been collected by George Siemens, etc. from discussion group posts, but there are also good articles including: ''Learning analytics: ethical issues and dilemmas. Slade, Sharon and Prinsloo, Paul (2013). Learning analytics: ethical issues and dilemmas. American Behavioral Scientist (In press).'' http://oro.open.ac.uk/36594/ Which gives 6 principles which could easily be brought in. Paralleling boyd & Crawford's big data provocations I wrote http://people.kmi.open.ac.uk/knight/2013/01/six-provocations-for-learning-analytics/ it may not be useful (and I'm certainly not going to add it myself) but there may be something there or a useful parallel to draw with the original boyd & Crawford article. I'll try and a) find some more good sources and b) begin a section skeleton asap. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sjgknight (talk • contribs) 17:43, 15 March 2013 (UTC) Sjgknight (talk) 17:46, 15 March 2013 (UTC)