TY  - CHAP
TI  - Theory and Learning Analytics
AU  - Knight, Simon
AU  - Buckingham Shum, Simon
T2  - The Handbook of Learning Analytics
A2  - Lang, Charles
A2  - Siemens, George
A2  - Wise, Alyssa Friend
A2  - Gaševic, Dragan
AB  - The challenge of understanding how theory and analytics relate is to move “from clicks to constructs” in a principled way. Learning analytics are a specific incarnation of the bigger
shift to an algorithmically pervaded society, and their wider impact on education needs
careful consideration. In this chapter, we argue that by design — or else by accident — the
use of a learning analytics tool is always aligned with assessment regimes, which are in
turn grounded in epistemological assumptions and pedagogical practices. Fundamentally
then, we argue that deploying a given learning analytics tool expresses a commitment to
a particular educational worldview, designed to nurture particular kinds of learners. We
outline some key provocations in the development of learning analytic techniques, key
questions to draw out the purpose and assumptions built into learning analytics. We suggest
that using “claims analysis” — analysis of the implicit or explicit stances taken in the design
and deploying of technologies — is a productive human-centred method to address these
key questions, and we offer some examples of the method applied to those provocations.
CY  - Alberta, Canada
DA  - 2017///
PY  - 2017
ET  - 1
SP  - 17
EP  - 22
PB  - Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR)
SN  - 978-0-9952408-0-3
UR  - http://solaresearch.org/hla-17/hla17-chapter1
ER  -