The video below discusses how one school is using Learning Analytics to improve student outcomes.
Learning Analytics in education may be able to give us, as teachers, information to guide instruction. Macolm Brown of Educause states that “L(earning) A(nalytics) can be used in a variety of ways, some of which include alerting faculty, students, and advisors when intervention is needed; providing input for continuous improvement in course design and delivery; and enabling personalization of the learning environment. While some uses may seem to be only finding difficulties that students are having, the data can also predict success and ensure that students are not becoming frustrated with the content. The following info-graphic from Andrianes Pinantoan at Open Colleges highlights various ways that Learning Analytics can change education. He outlines the capabilities of Learning Analytics to predict student learning, ensure that the needs of students are met, providing encouragement, tracking struggling students, and giving real time data to teachers, administration, and students. He further states that, “Learning Analytics allows for online peer grading and self-grading because educators can monitor correlations between current vs. past performance and teacher vs. self/peer grading” (2012). However, anyone who has filled out a quiz, test, or answered a question that was interpreted differently can attest to human error in any system. Also in this graphic, the author discusses the limitations of the technology based on interpretations as well as privacy concerns.
