The Role of Self-Regulated Learning in the Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Learning Analytics Dashboards

Learning technologies are generating a vast quantity of data every day. This data is often presented to students through learning analytics dashboards (LADs) with a goal of improving learners' self-regulated learning. However, are students actually using these dashboards, and do they perceive that using dashboards lead to any changes in their behavior? In this paper we report on the development and implementation of several dashboard views, which we call My Learning Analytics (MyLA). This study found that students thought using the dashboard would have more of an effect on the way they planned their course activity at pre-use (after a demo) than post use. Low self-regulated learners believed so significantly less post-use and used the grade distribution view the least. Students made several suggestions for ways to improve the grade distribution view and rated MyLA's usability more positively at pre- than post-use. Given the low use and low perceived impact of the current dashboard, we suggest that researchers use participatory design to illicit students' needs and better incorporate student suggestions.