Abstract:

Learning analytics (LA) has been recently increasingly applied in teaching and learning process at all levels of education, especially at the level of higher education (HE). LA can bring interesting insights for teachers, students, managers and all participants involved into learning and teaching process on the students’ learning progress. The role of LA system is to give the right information at the right time about the teaching and learning processes to increase the quality of learning process, increase the efficiency of education, and decrease the drop-out rate. Efficient LA includes many aspects such as procurement of appropriate equipment (hardware), installation of software, establishing teams for LA implementation, engaging the experts in LA and IT systems development and other. The special challenge is related to security, privacy and compliance with GDPR rights. Indeed, introducing and adopting the LA paradigms is a subject of strategic planning of education institution management. LA adoption can be analysed as the innovation in HE system. In this paper, we analyse the LA adoption process through glasses of the diffusion of innovation theory (DOI). The diffusion of innovation (DOI) is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread in the system. In this research, we keen to identify and concretize activities and steps that could be implemented in each phase of DOI theory. The paper has been prepared in the scope of scientific project HELA: Improving HEI maturity to implement learning analytics which is funded by Croatian Science Foundation. Under the HELA project, the one of the goals is to develop LA adoption maturity framework (LAAMF) in blended educational environment. LA adoption is defined as making strategic decision by formal or informal education organization to adopt the LA in their teaching process. In our case, the organization is higher education institution (HEI) which implements teaching and learning processes in the blended environment. LA adoption maturity is the level of HEI’s maturity to adopt LA in their educational system. LA adoption maturity framework (LAAMF) is an artifact that seeks to explain and measure how much mature or ready certain HEI is to adopt the LA. LA maturity is a level that explain how mature is certain HEI in applying different LA solutions, and possibly able to create new LA possibilities that fit their needs better than current solutions. This research is a step forward to project goal because the DOI analysis of LA adoption can significantly contribute to the elements of LAAMF which aims to measure the maturity and/or readiness of certain institution to adopt the LA.

Keywords:

Learning analytics (LA), diffusion of innovation (DOI), higher education institutions, maturity framework, LA adoption, educational system.