Advancing the Power of Learning Analytics and Big Data in Education

The term learning analytics is used in the context of the use of analytics in e-learning environments. Learning analytics is used to improve quality. It uses data about students and their activities to provide better understanding and to improve student learning. The use of learning management systems, where the activity of the students can be easily accessed, potentiated the use of learning analytics to understand their route during the learning process, help students be aware of their progress, and detect situations where students can give up the course before its completion, which is a growing problem in e-learning environments. Advancing the Power of Learning Analytics and Big Data in Education provides insights concerning the use of learning analytics, the role and impact of analytics on education, and how learning analytics are designed, employed, and assessed. The chapters will discuss factors affecting learning analytics such as human factors, geographical factors, technological factors, and ethical and legal factors. This book is ideal for teachers, administrators, teacher educators, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the use of big data and learning analytics for improved student success and educational environments.

Professor Ana Azevedo holds a PhD in Information Systems and Technologies from the University of Minho, Portugal. She is an integrated member of the CEOS.PP research center and was member of its Directive Board. She is a senior lecture in the Information Systems Department, School of Business, Polytechnic of Porto, Portugal teaching courses on Analytics, Business Intelligence, Research Methodologies, and E-Commerce, and is member of the Scientific Board of the Master in E-Business. She has published articles in both journals and conference proceedings, and she collaborates in the editorial teams of several journals. She has served as chair for several conferences as well as special sessions in conferences. She has been guest editor for a number of books and special journals issues. She regularly participates as a member of the program committee for conferences and is a regular reviewer for journals and conferences.

Jose Manuel Azevedo is a lecturer in the Mathematics Department, ISCAP/ Polytechnic Institute of Porto (P.PORTO), Porto, Portugal, since 1998. He obtain is PhD in Education (Mathematics) at the University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal. He teaches subjects such as: Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Statistics and Algebra. His research interests are Mathematics Education, E-assessment, Financial Mathematics, Financial Time Series, Data Mining, Analytics and e-learning. He published several articles in journals and conferences. He is a member of the program committee of several conferences in his areas of research. In addition, he also serves as a reviewer for some journals and conferences. Researcher at CEOS.PP Research Center.

James Onohuome Uhomoibhi is a Chartered Physicist and a member of the Institute of Physics; He is a Chartered IT Professional, a Fellow of BCS, a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and a member of several national and international professional organizations in Physics, Engineering and Education. He lectures and researches electronics, mechatronics, computer science, and entrepreneurship and innovation in engineering. He is a visiting Professor of Physics, Computer Science and IT in three Nigerian Universities. He is also a visiting Professor of Science, Technology and Environmental Studies at the Open University, Tanzania. James Uhomoibhi holds BSc in Physics Education, BPhil in Philosophy, MSc in Optoelectronics and Optical Information Processing, PGCHET in Higher Education Teaching and PhD in Laser Physics. He has published several articles in journals, conferences and book chapters. He has also edited Books and proceedings. He is a member of Editorial Review Board of several international highly esteemed journals. He is an expert in digital education and e-Research. His research interests are in artificial intelligence, digital education and e-research, machine learning, data science, information security, MAV (mixed augmented and virtual) reality computing. James Uhomoibhi is LEADS scholar in Nigeria and the African Laser Centre representative in Europe.

Ebba Ossiannilsson is the V President for the Swedish Association for Distance Education and for the Swedish Association for E-Competence. She is the CEO of her company on Quality in Open Online Learning. She was awarded the EDEN Fellow title in 2014 and she became Open Education Europa (OEE) Fellow in 2015, and an Ambassador for OEE in 2017. Since 2016 she is ambassador for GLOBE the Community of digital learning. She is a researcher reviewer, advisor and consultant within the area of open, online, flexible, and technology enabled teaching and learning (OOFAT) and quality. Since the year 2000, she worked at Lund University, Sweden, as an e-learning, open online learning expert, and advisor with special focus on quality. She is frequently invited as keynote speaker. She is board member in international associations. She is in the ICDE Focal Points of Quality, in the policy committee for the global advocacy of OER and ICDE ON BOLDIC. She has conducted several research studies and national overview reports. Her PhD at Oulu University, Finland in 2012 was on Benchmarking e-learning in higher education. Her dissertation had a large outreach and is often cited. She has over 200 publications.