Learning Analytics for Learning: Emerging International Trends and Case Studies from the Asia-Pacific

Abstract

In this chapter, an overview of learning analytics is provided – highlighting emerging international trends – illustrated with innovative case studies from the Asia-Pacific. As a growing field intersecting learning and pedagogical theories, human-centered design, and data science, learning analytics has many applications in K-12 and adult learning settings, from enhancing learning progress and learning awareness, improving cognitive learning outcomes, nurturing socioemotional and lifelong learning skills, to intervening with prompts, tasks, feedback, and learning strategies. While there are many recent movements such as multimodal learning analytics, trustable data, and actionable dashboards, they essentially drive towards the ultimate purpose – learning analytics is for optimizing learning. Upon reviewing influential literature in the field, we conceptualize a framework to map current research trends in learning analytics into seven dimensions, including the foundational lens, visual feedback, indicators and metrics, design approach, function/purpose type, data modality, and ethics. This framework demonstrates a global convergence in the field with wide application including the Asia-Pacific region. Case studies of learning analytics applications from Hong Kong and Singapore are illustrated to highlight the fruitful ways how learning and learning environments have been optimized, along the dimensions in the framework. The chapter concludes with a synthesis and critique of current learning analytics research and suggests implications for learning analytics researchers, developers, and users including practitioners.