The Three-Iterative Design and Implementation of a Student-Facing Social Learning Analytics Tool

The design of social learning analytics (SLA) tools has become a practical means to make available learning information with a goal to improve students’ regulation, reflection, and engagement in online learning. This design-based research uses the multi-method analytics to iteratively design, implement, and modify the SLA tool that makes available social, topic, and cognitive information to students in online discussions. This tool demonstrates students’ online discussions from social, sematic, and cognitive aspects. This research further uses online questionnaire and interview methods to investigate students’ perceptions about the tool’s usefulness and usability. After experiencing this tool, students proposed critical feedback for tool improvement from the network visualization, peer reference, and explanation support perspectives. Overall, the SLA tool is a beneficial tool to foster students’ awareness of their own learning and peer learning process, to improve students’ regulation and reflection of learning, and eventually improve student engagement in online discussions.