Designing pedagogical interventions to support student use of learning analytics

Abstract

This article addresses a relatively unexplored area in the emerging field of learning analytics, the design of learning analytics interventions. A learning analytics intervention is defined as the surrounding frame of activity through which analytic tools, data, and reports are taken up and used. It is a soft technology that involves the orchestration of the human process of engaging with the analytics as part of the larger teaching and learning activity. This paper first makes the case for the overall importance of intervention design, situating it within the larger landscape of the learning analytics field, and then considers the specific issues of intervention design for student use of learning analytics. Four principles of pedagogical learning analytics intervention design that can be used by teachers and course developers to support the productive use of learning analytics by students are introduced: Integration, Agency, Reference Frame and Dialogue. In addition three core processes in which to engage students are described: Grounding, Goal-Setting and Reflection. These principles and processes are united in a preliminary model of pedagogical learning analytics intervention design for students, presented as a starting point for further inquiry.