Learning Analytics (Annotated)

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Data sets being collected from massive scale online learning systems, ranging from MOOCs to Khan Academy, as well as smaller scale online programs, have fueled the rapid growth of the field of learning analytics. Online courses are not only good for widespread delivery, but are natural vehicles for data collection and experimental instrumentation that will contribute to scientific findings and improving the quality of learning at scale. Organizations such as the Society for Learning Analytics Research (SOLAR), and the rise of conferences including the Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference^[89] and the Learning at Scale Conference (L@S)^[90] reflect this trend. This community applies deep learning, natural language processing, and other AI techniques to analysis of student engagement, behavior, and outcomes.

Current projects seek to model common student misconceptions, predict which students are at risk of failure, and provide real-time student feedback that is tightly integrated with learning outcomes. Recent work has also been devoted to understanding the cognitive processes involved in comprehension, writing, knowledge acquisition, and memory, and to applying that understanding to educational practice by developing and testing educational technologies.

[89] The 6^th International Learning Analytics & Knowledge Conference, accessed August 1, 2016, http://lak16.solaresearch.org/.

[90] Third Annual ACM Conference on Learning at Scale, http://learningatscale.acm.org/las2016/.