Learning Analytics for Primary and Secondary Schools

Over the past decade, the increasing use of learning analytics opened the possibility of making data-driven decisions for improving student learning. Driven by the strong university adoption of learning analytics, most early learning analytics research focused on issues specific to tertiary education. With the broader adoption of educational technologies in primary and secondary education and the emergence of new classroom-focused technologies, there has been a growing awareness of the potentials of learning analytics for supporting students and diagnosing their learning progress in pre-university contexts. This special section focused on investigating, developing, and evaluating state-of-the-art learning analytics approaches within primary and secondary school settings. In this editorial, we summarize the papers of the special section and discuss the challenges and opportunities for learning analytics within the school context. We conclude with the discussion around the opportunities for future work and the implications of this special section for the field of learning analytics.

Automated summary

Learning analytics has been increasingly used in the past decade, with a focus on tertiary education initially but now expanding to primary and secondary school contexts. There is a growing awareness of the potential of learning analytics for supporting students and diagnosing their learning progress in pre-university settings. This special section investigates, develops, and evaluates state-of-the-art learning analytics approaches within primary and secondary school settings, discussing both challenges and opportunities for future work in the field.