Learner analytics

As was identified in the 2011 NMC Horizon Report ( I served on the advisory board of the UK JISC version), it seems that learner analytics is going to be a big thing for education over the next four to five years. Expect to see it emerging into mainstream practice in a number of versions, specifically aligned to the personalised learning agenda. From the report comes an explanation of learner analytics:

Learner analytics loosely joins a variety of data gathering tools and analytic techniques to study student engagement, performance, and progress in practice, with the goal of what is learned to revise curricula, assessment and teaching in real time. Building on the kinds of information generated by Google Analytics and other similar tools, learner analytics aims to mobilize the power of data-mining tools in the service of learning, and embracing the complexity, diversity and abundance of information that dynamic learning environments can generate.

Below is a very useful infographic developed by the Australian Open Colleges organisation. I think it explains just about everything you will need to know about learning analytics:

Image source 

Learner analytics by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.