Learning analytics for assessment
What are learning analytics?
Observation and gathering assessment evidence is an essential part of assessment for learning. When learning and teaching online, the setting is completely different. We don’t have as many opportunities to observe the class dynamics and see how each student is doing. However, online learning environments can offer new possibilities. In this page, we present an introduction to what learning analytics are, which data might be interesting to examine, and how it can contribute to assessment for learning altogether.
Reflection activity:
Identify 3 key ideas of the video you have just watched.
- What did you find most interesting?
- What is something that you didn't know before?
- What is your main takeaway from the video?
Constant monitoring and analysis of information through learner-centered instruction and assessment are two essential conditions required for the success of today’s online courses. Learning analytics focuses on the transformation of education, by changing the very nature of teaching, learning, and assessment.
Learning analytics can be very useful to access and transform important data from our students, with the aim to get a better understanding of what students know, but also to what extent they know it. Through learning analytics, it is possible to transform this data to useful knowledge for teachers, which can be used to assess academic progress, predict future performance, and spot potential issues.
Virtual learning environments are hosted in a LMS (Learning Management Systems), which is a software to manage online training, where your virtual learning environment will be hosted. Some of the most used LMSs in schools and high schools are Moodle and Google Classroom.
Each LMS registers different data that might give teachers meaningful information. Also, the data you can gather will always depend on the type of activities you plan.
Here are some of the variables that might give you an insight as for how your students are doing:
If you plan to use Moodle, here is a list of the data that the LMS can collect, where to get it, and how it can be helpful to each user.
Notice that the most valuable information for teachers is not so much what one variable can say, but how they are related to identify how students are performing.
For instance, you may identify a relation between how much time students interacting with a learning material and their final score in a quiz. If you do, you can contact that student personally to see if they need support, just like you would do in a face-to-face classroom if you saw one of your pupils struggling.
The data collected from learning analytics can also give you a clue about where learners might be having difficulties. For example, if you ask them to complete a quiz and notice that 85% of the class got one question wrong, it might indicate that concept isn’t clear enough. That gives you the opportunity to go back and clarify any misunderstandings.
