Monitoring, supporting, and engaging students based on the evidence generated by digital technologies

Learning analytics

Learning analytics dashboard

According to The Glossary of Education Reform, learner engagement “refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education.” This definition does not concern only students but also school leaders, educators and any other external factors that might “engage” learners in the design and in the decision-making process about their learning. Learners’ engagement is concerned with the relation between the time and effort that has been invested in optimising the learning experience. Engagement can be found in behaviours, thinking processes and signs of emotion. In other words, engagement is perceived as a behavioural, cognitive and emotional dimension.

A measure of how well students are learning in terms of knowledge and skills development.

Learners’ engagement is concerned with the relation between the time and effort that has been invested in optimising the experience and enhancing learning (Trowler 2010). Engagement can be situated in behaviour, in thinking processes and in signs of emotion. In other words, engagement is perceived in a behavioral, cognitive and emotional dimension. 

It is a tool for assessment, interpretation, and analysis of learner-generated data in the online learning environment, in order to make the learning and teaching processes more efficient by the teacher on interventions needed to advise or consult learners in due time to enhance their academic success. (Volungeviciene et al., 2021:12). There are four main categories of learning analytics: (1) descriptive (what happened?); (2) predictive (what will happen next?); (3) diagnostic (why did it happen?); (4) prescriptive (do this to improve).

Learning Analytics Dashboards are an important subset of learning analytics and refer to the visual representation of the data automatically generated by the system. LADs are data visualisation tools displaying and representing information in a user-friendly way and providing “meaningful and actionable insights at a glance” (Pokhrel & Awasthi, 2021:93).

A specific statement that describes exactly what a student will be able to do in some measurable way. There may be more than one measurable outcome defined for a given competency (Gosselin, 2020).

Learning progress describes increasing levels of difficulty and complexity in the acquisition of knowledge,  skills and attitudes in a given domain. Teachers have to be able to identify when and how to intervene to move students’ learning forward. 

Learning management system