Abstract:

There is a growing trend for academic education and the development of professional skills to go hand in hand. In some programs this is done through Work-Based Learning, in which students attain some of the learning objectives by working within companies. This gives students comprehensive practical experience while at the same time supporting companies with research-intensive development activities.

Work-Based Learning is seen as an effective teaching method. However, since student learning takes place at the enterprise and assessment at the university, the question often arises how to track the learning process and evaluate students.

The study uses Design-Based Research, with the following steps: identifying needs, developing a model, and evaluating prototypes with teachers and students. Here, we focus on the first two steps.

We propose a practical reference model for incorporating a learning analytics approach into the Work-Based Learning life-cycle. We use the Work-Based Learning framework to consider the four dimensions: What (Data, Environments, Context), Why (Objectives), Who (Stakeholders) and How (Methods) of the Work-Based Learning analytics reference model at each step.

We have reviewed existing academic research on applying learning analytics in Work-Based Learning. We specifically focus on the learning indicators that could indicate the achievement of defined learning outcomes. The reference model and review of existing use cases for learning analytics and learning metrics help to more adaptively design and measure workplace learning curricula using evidence-based data and link digital learning trials to skills and competencies.

Keywords:

Learning analytics, Work-Based Learning, Reference model, Learning Outcomes.