Abstract:

Higher education institutions (HEIs) require strategies for the use of emergent technologies such as learning analytics (LA) which could bring the changes in the educational process, quality of contents and communication in the classroom but also more opportunities for personalized learning and teaching experiences. The implementation of technological innovation such as learning analytics has created a need for science research that can help researchers, higher education institutions and policy makers to better understand how learning and teaching in academic sector is being mediated by emerging technologies.

The use of emerging technologies such as learning analytics is on the rise in the higher education institutions worldwide. That way, each education institutions depending on institutional infrastructure and national education policies needs to develop their own strategy for the implementation of such emergent technologies in teaching and learning practice in blended learning environments.

From that reason, this paper provides a systematic literature review on institutional implementation of learning analytics at higher education institutions. The purpose of this paper is three-fold:
1) to address benefits of LA for the HE institutions, staff and students,
2) to address challenges on institutional implementation of LA and
3) provide overview on developed policies, strategies and frameworks for institutional implementation of learning analytics.

Initiated by the shortage on of LA policies that would guide HEIs in implementation of LA, this paper is organized around following research questions:
RQ1: What is the current landscape in research on learning analytics benefits in HEIs?
RQ2: Which challenges should be considered before and during institutional implementation of LA?
RQ3: What features of LA policies are identified as key for successful deployment of LA in educational institutions?

To summarize, this study contributes to the broader literature landscape in LA by:
1) methodologically collected and analyzed benefits, challenges and policies/strategies/frameworks on institutional implementation of LA,
2) presenting the findings and 3) suggestions for further research.

The paper starts with a brief critically literature review previous important theoretical and empirical studies on emergent technologies and the policies/strategies/frameworks that are explored in the academic sector. After the literature review, the research question and discussion are described, and finally the benefits, challenges and concerns that apply from the implementation of learning analytics. Also, the paper develops a research agenda integrating previous research and suggests future research.

Keywords:

Learning analytics, higher education institutions, policies, strategies, frameworks.