Perspectives and Opportunities for Learning Analytics Integration

Abstract

The adoption of learning analytics (LA) in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Mexico is still at an early stage despite increasing global interest and advances in the field. The use of educational data remains a challenging puzzle for many universities, which strive to provide students, teachers, and institutional administrators with information and insights to better understand their performance. The objective of this study was to identify the perspectives of teachers, students, and administrators about the use of educational data to explore opportunities for the adoption and integration of LA in three different Mexican universities. A qualitative approach was used, adopting instruments and guidelines previously developed in the framework of Learning Analytics for Latin America (LALA) project, adapting them to the Mexican context. Methods included 1) structured interviews with high-level institutional administrators and 2) focus groups with students, teachers, and other educational administrators. Results showed that perceptions are oriented toward improving school performance through data-based feedback, with ethical responsibility. Emergent categories were physical and mental health, development of healthy relationships and well-being, feedback style, and governance in a bureaucratic setting. The specific modern construct of LA still needs to be internalized and disseminated to Mexican universities’ educational stakeholders to increase the likelihood of successful adoption.

Applications of Learning Analytics in Latin America

“…First, they tackle some of the needs for LA adoption that were previously identified by Hilliger, Ortiz-Rojas, Pesántez-Cabrera, Scheihing, Tsai, Muñoz-Merino, Broos, Whitelock-Wainwright, Gašević, and Pérez-Sanagustín (2020), such as students' need for timely support (Villalobos Díaz et al, 2024), instructors' need for quality feedback about their teaching practices (Kotorov et al, 2024), and authorities' need for actionable insights to evaluate curriculum decision-making (Talamás-Carvajal et al, 2024). Second, the insights of these studies shed light on growing interest in scaling adoption at an institutional level, not only offering a snapshot of the current adoption of data-driven strategies at different HEIs (Bautista Godínez et al, 2024), but also providing HEIs with a structured approach to scale up LA initiatives (Freitas et al, 2024).…”

“…Also conducted in Mexico, the study titled "Perspectives and Opportunities for Learning Analytics Integration: A Qualitative Study in Mexican Universities" focuses on understanding the perceptions of university instructors, students, and high-level authorities regarding the use of educational data and the adoption of LA solutions (Bautista Godínez et al, 2024). The study conducted semi-structured interviews based on qualitative protocols proposed by the LALA project to gather insights across three universities.…”