A Human-Centered Design Approach to Learning Analytics

• In Event: Learning Analytics in Higher Education: Exploring Big Data on Campus

Abstract

Learning analytics is an emerging field that uses existing student traces to aggregate and illuminate student data through visualizations and dashboards in an attempt to improve students’ learning outcomes. However, missing from learning analytics research is an investigation of how students interact with data or how faculty can use data to shape their teaching. Practices that select relevant data traces and develop dashboards with learners and teachers instead of for learners and teachers should better inform development of and, ultimately, sustainable use of learning analytics-based models and dashboards. This presentation describes a project conducted by an interdisciplinary team of faculty and graduate students from engineering education, computer science, human computer interaction, human centered design, the learning sciences, and visual communications who followed a mixed-methods, human-centered approach to early dashboard development that involved student and faculty end users throughout the design and development process. Folding users into the process from the outset identified design features and data concerns that could be addressed early to enhance their later interest and engagement with learning analytics systems.

Author

• David Knight, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University