Designing Technology-Enabled Instruction to Utilize Learning Analytics

A key notion conveyed by those who advocate for the use of data to enhance instruction is an awareness that learning analytics has the potential to improve instruction and learning but is not currently reaching that potential. Gibbons (2014) suggested that a lack of learning facilitated by current technology-enabled instructional systems may be due in part to the natural tendency of many designers to focus on the surface layers of instruction (i.e., the content and control layers), while failing to adequately design the internal (less visible) aspects (e.g., the data management layer). In this paper, we outline phases in the design process related to the data management layer that should be considered when integrating learning analytics into a technology-enabled learning system.