Introducing Practicable Learning Analytics

Abstract: Learning analytics have been argued as a key enabler to improving student learning at scale. Yet, despite considerable efforts by the learning analytics community across the world over the past decade, the evidence to support that claim is hitherto scarce, as is the demand from educators to adopt it into their practice. We introduce the concept of practicable learning analytics to illuminate what learning analytics may look like from the perspective of practice, and how this practice can be incorporated in learning analytics designs so as to make them more attractive for practitioners. As a framework for systematic analysis of the practice in which learning analytics tools and methods are to be employed, we use the concept of Information Systems Artifact (ISA) which comprises three interrelated subsystems: the informational, the social and the technological artefacts. The ISA approach entails systemic thinking which is necessary for discussing data-driven decision making in the context of educational systems, practices, and situations. The ten chapters in this book are presented and reflected upon from the ISA perspective, clarifying that detailed attention to the social artefact is critical to the design of practicable learning analytics.