Learning design and learning analytics: Snapshot 2020

“Learning design” belongs to that interesting class of concepts that appear on the surface to be simple and self-explanatory, but which are actually definitionally vague and contested in practice. Like “learning analytics,” the field of learning design aspires to improve teaching practice, the learning experience, and learning outcomes. And like learning analytics, this interdisciplinary field also lacks a shared language, common vocabulary, or agreement over its definition and purpose, resulting in uncertainty even about who its practitioners are — Educators? Designers? Researchers? All of these? (Law, Li, Farias Herrera, Chan & Pong, 2017). Almost a decade ago, however, learning analytics researchers pointed to the rich potential for synergies between learning analytics and learning design (Lockyer & Dawson, 2011). These authors (and others since, as cited below) argued that effective alignment of learning analytics and learning design would benefit both fields, and would offer educators and investigators the evidence they need that their efforts and innovations in learning design are “worth it” in terms of improving teaching practice and learning: "The integration of research related to both learning design and learning analytics provides the necessary contextual overlay to better understand observed student behavior and provide the necessary pedagogical recommendations where learning behavior deviates from pedagogical intention" (Lockyer & Dawson, 2011, p. 155)