Learning analytics challenges: trade-offs, methodology, scalability

Abstract

Ryan Baker presented in a LAK 2019 keynote a list of six grand challenges for learning analytics research. The challenges are specified as problems with clearly defined success criteria. Education is, however, a domain full of ill-defined problems. I argue that learning analytics research should reflect this nature of the education domain and focus on less clearly defined, but practically essential issues. As an illustration, I discuss three important challenges of this type: addressing inherent trade-offs in learning environments, the clarification of methodological issues, and the scalability of system development.