Learning-centred translucence: an approach to understand how teachers talk about classroom data

Abstract

Teachers are increasingly being encouraged to embrace evidence-based practices. Learning analytics (LA) offer great promise in supporting these by providing evidence for teachers and learners to make informed decisions and transform the educational experience. However, LA limitations and their uptake by educators are coming under critical scrutiny. This is in part due to the lack of involvement of teachers and learners in the design of LA tools. In this paper, we propose a human-centred approach to generate understanding of teachers' data needs through the lens of three key principles of translucence: visibility, awareness and accountability. We illustrate our approach through a participatory design sprint to identify how teachers talk about classroom data. We describe teachers' perspectives on the evidence they need for making better-informed decisions and discuss the implications of our approach for the design of human-centred LA in the next years.