Exploring the Learning Analytics Equation: What About the Carpe Diem of Teaching and Learning?

Abstract

Humans have always been lured by the idea that they can use data to understand a phenomenon and make predictions about it. Learning analytics, in this sense, promise to understand and optimize learning and the environments in which it occurs by collecting data from learners and learning contexts. In this regard, this study systematically examines research on learning analytics through bibliometric, data mining, and analytics approaches. This paper argues that research interest in learning analytics is increasing steadily; some countries, higher education institutions, and researchers have a specific research agenda that indicates their intention to specialize in that field. It is also noted that there is a need for more interdisciplinary studies on learning analytics and a further need to merge technological capabilities with pedagogy. Based on the findings of text-mining and social network analysis, the following themes were identified: (1) learning analytics to improve teaching and personalize learning, (2) hegemony of data-driven teaching and learning practices, (3) multimodal learning analytics as the next generation practice, (4) learning design for learning analytics, (5) formative assessment through learning analytics, (6) learning analytics for social online learning spaces, and (7) privacy and ethical concerns to overcome. This paper suggests focusing on issues such as ethics and privacy and warns researchers to pay attention to the risks of both an educational panoptic society and quantified decision-making processes. Furthermore, rather than relying on algorithms, it is suggested to incorporate social values and center the learners in the learning analytics processes. Finally, this paper asks the following: “If we quantify the learning processes, how can we benefit from the carpe diem moment of teaching and learning and then seize the beauty of educational processes?”