The potentials of Learning Analytics for addressing educational challenges

Thematic Workshop

Recent research indicates that learning analytics (LA) can advance our knowledge and deepen our insights in a wide spectrum of TEL problems. The aim of this workshop is to help PhD students that work (or intend to work) with educational dataset in digital formats to develop their critical understandings about LA research. The focus of the workshop is on the effects of leveraging LA: added pedagogical value, risks and implications (both for research and for practice). The aim is to examine and discuss these factors in a variety of different contexts. These contexts will come from three sources: a) the literature, b) previous projects of the workshop organisers, and c) the work of the PhD students i.e. the context of the problem that they are or will be working on. The first part of the workshop will cover points a and b above, whereas the second part of it will be devoted to the work of the participants.

The first part will include a general introduction, and a critical discussion of several cases concerning LA applications. The second part will involve a) understanding the research problem for each of the participant PhD student, b) analysing it (added pedagogical value, risks and implications), c) reflecting on its underlying assumptions, and possibly d) arriving at an action plan including future steps for this particular problem.