I gave this talk on 30th January 2019 as part of the Research-led Teacher Education Network seminar series at the University of Edinburgh. This talk targeted an audience that have particular research interest in teacher education.
Abstract
Learning analytics (LA) has emerged as an interdisciplinary field that brings together research and practice in education, psychology, and data science. It collects, measures, analyses, and reports data about learners for the purpose of leveraging human decisions to improve learning and the environments where it occurs. Despite the increasing interest among higher education institutions (HEIs) in employing LA to increase the quality of teaching and learning, there are often barriers that prevent learning analytics from being used systematically and effectively. These challenges are not limited to technical problems only, but also cultural and social ones. Therefore, an institutionally wide strategy will be needed to build analytics mindsets, capabilities, and capacity. The SHEILA project intended to address issues that beset the adoption of learning analytics by promoting a policy framework, which was developed through direct engagement with key stakeholders, such as institutional leaders, teachers and students. This talk presents multi-stakeholder viewpoints on the pros and cons of learning analytics, and their implications for learning analytics deployment on the institutional level.
