Will Analytics transform Education? | Learning Frontiers Effective use of data is vital for success in today’s business world. In education, Analytics (or Learning Analytics) is becoming a hot topic, promising to disrupt and transform education and learning. In this overview article we do a short detour to the business world for some examples of business analytics; look at how education have approached the phenomenon; explore some practices; and raise some concerns about the downside of this trend. The most spectacular example of business use of consumer data is the US chain store Target’s analysis of changes in a customer’s life, e.g. finding out whether or not a customer is pregnant[1], with the aim to send them coupons for certain products they will need. Making sense of analytics: In education, slightly different definitions of Analytics have emerged. Analytics in practice: Analytics in education is still at its early stage and most of the work in this area is conceptual and comprises small scale funded projects. 1. 2. 3.
Journal of Learning Analytics Current Issue Vol 2, No 1 (2015): Special section: Self-regulated learning and learning analytics Journal of Learning Analytics is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal, disseminating the highest quality research in the field. The journal is the official publication of the Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR). The journal seeks to connect researchers and developers with practitioners, creating and disseminating new tools and techniques, studying transformations, and providing ongoing evaluation and critique of the conceptual, technical, and practice outcomes. Journal of Learning Analytics welcomes papers that either describe original research or offer a review of the state of the art in a particular area. Manuscripts can be submitted to the Journal of Learning Analytics any time.