Learning analytics - New flavor and benefits for educational environments

Abstract

© 2018 Vilnius University. Amount of educational data has been constantly increasing for years in all domains and kinds of education (formal or informal) and educational activities (teaching, learning, assessment, use of social media and collaboration and so on). Accordingly, Learning Analytics (LA) become a powerful mechanism for supporting learners, instructors, teachers, learning system designers and developers to better understand educational processes and predict learners' needs and performances. In this paper, we analyze the important dimensions and objectives of LA, application possibilities and some challenges to the beneficial exploitation of educational data. The required skills and capabilities that make meaningful use of LA techniques and technologies in this domain are considered and identified. Presented findings can act as a valuable guide for setting up LA services in support of educational practice. Also, they can be used as learner guidance, in quality assurance, curriculum development, and in improving learning process effectiveness and efficiency. Finally, this paper proposes the unavoidable constraints that affect LA technologies in education.