General Call

The focus of the research track is on advancing scholarly knowledge in the field of learning analytics through rigorous reports of learning analytics research studies. The primary audience includes academics, research scientists, doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and other types of educational research staff working in different capacities on learning analytics research projects.

Starting with LAK21, LAK follows ACM’s 1-column format for submissions. Templates and formatting details will be included in the submission guidelines being released soon. Please note that published Proceedings will appear in ACM 2-column format.

Submission types for the research track are similar to other years: 

• Full research papers (up to 16 pages in ACM 1-column format, including references) include a clearly explained substantial conceptual, technical or empirical contribution to learning analytics. The scope of the paper must be placed appropriately with respect to the current state of the field, and the contribution should be clearly described. This includes the conceptual or theoretical aspects at the foundation of the contribution, an explanation of the technical setting (tools used, how are they integrated into the contribution), analysis, and results. See the bulleted list of questions above for more detailed ideas on useful elements to include.
• Short research papers (up to 10 pages in ACM 1-column format, including references) can address on-going work, which may include a briefly described theoretical underpinning, an initial proposal or rationale for a technical solution, and preliminary results, with consideration of stakeholder engagement issues. See the bulleted list of questions above for more detailed ideas on useful elements to include.

NOTE: If you are a newcomer to the LAK conference, it might be helpful to review the LAK24 ACM proceedings, openly available from the SoLAR website via ACM’s OpenTOC service. For Tips on writing LAK papers see here.

Should you have further questions regarding paper length or format, please contact us at lakconference@gmail.com.

The practitioner track is part of the main conference program and provides a way in which real-world learning analytics implementations in use by practitioners can be shared with the entire community. The intent of the stream is to contribute to our collective understanding of learning analytics in practice, analysis of the use of learning analytics in product development and improvement, learning analytics intervention deployment, research-based evaluations of learning analytics implementations and methodologies. Specifically, some of the goals of practitioner presentations are to:

1. contribute to the conversation between researchers and practitioners around adoption, implementation, scaling and evaluation of learning analytics, 
2. provide insights from practice around factors enabling or constraining learning analytics  adoption and implementation, 
3. conduct critical analysis of learning analytics adoption strategies and approaches, and/or
4. share experiences on developing a business case for learning analytics adoption.
5. provide experience of innovative evaluation methodologies or approaches.

To meet these goals, submissions are encouraged to reflect on the context and purpose of the presented learning analytics initiative, discuss implementation, outcomes, impacts, and learning, and consider implications for others attempting similar work. We also encourage submissions where an initiative did not achieve what was expected, as we believe that such examples provide valuable knowledge to the community. 

We welcome submissions that fall in the scope described above from anyone regardless of their institutional roles. Some examples of practitioner participants are:

1. Educators, students, learning/instructional designers, faculty developers, and other staff directly involved in learning, teaching, and assessment within educational institutions.
2. Policy makers, department leads, instructional technologists, analysts, and other services staff from education institutions.
3. Developers, designers, analysts, and other representatives from commercial and industry entities, non-profit organizations, and government bodies. 
4. Corporate trainers, instructors and other staff involved in the skills development of employees, alternative credentialing models and the impact on using data to guide corporate learning programs. 

Successful submissions are expected to offer unique or distinct insights into practical applications, intervention designs, analyses, and/or the processes surrounding their implementation. 

The more complete the report of the work is, including usage of the learning analytics and their impact, the higher the probability of being selected for inclusion. Submissions should include: 

• thorough description of the institutional/organizational context for the work,
• the background of why the initiative was implemented and/or product was developed,
• detailed presentation of its implementation and results,
• discussion of issues that arose / lessons learned / implications for future efforts by others in the LAK community attempting similar work.

The following criteria will guide reviewers when selecting submissions, although we recognise that this list may not be applicable to all submissions. Authors are encouraged to consider the following when preparing their submissions:

• Learning/education related: The submission should describe work that utilizes learning analytics, either at an educational institution or in an area (such as corporate training, health care or informal learning) where the goal is to improve the learning environment or the learning outcomes.
• Stakeholder involvement: All submissions should include perspectives from people who have participated in the initiative or intervention in a learning environment, and/or have been impacted by it (such as faculty, students, administrators and trainees).
• No sales pitches: While submissions from commercial suppliers are welcomed, reviewers will not accept overt (or covert) sales pitches. Reviewers will look for evidence that the presentation will take into account challenges faced, problems that have arisen, and/or user feedback that needs to be addressed. 

Practitioner Report (2-4 page document, using the SoLAR companion proceedings template) should include accounts and findings that stem from practical experience in implementing learning analytics projects incorporating the following sections:

• Presenter’s Names (Left blank for double blind submission // Only add in for camera-ready version)
• Presentation Title:
• Abstract (100-150 words):
• Keywords (up to 10):
• Full Presentation Description 

All accepted submissions to the Practitioner track will be published in the LAK25 Companion Proceedings and archived on the SoLAR website.

• Posters (3 pages, SoLAR companion proceedings template) represent i) a concise report of recent findings or other types of innovative work not ready to be submitted as a full or short research paper or ii) a description of a practical learning analytics project implementation which may not be ready to be presented as a practitioner report. Poster presentations are part of the LAK Poster & Demo session, and authors are given a physical board to present and discuss their projects with delegates. 
• Interactive demos (200 words abstract in SoLAR companion proceedings template + 5 min video) provide opportunities to showcase interactive learning analytics tools. Interactive demonstrations are part of the LAK Poster & Demo session, and presenters are given a  physical space to demonstrate their latest learning analytics projects, tools, and systems. Demos should be used to communicate innovative user interface designs, visualizations, or another novel functionality that tackles a real user problem. Tools may be prototypes in an early stage of development or relatively mature products. In whichever stage, tools should have been field-tested with an authentic use case and provide some results and feedback. Submissions for conceptual products or for products that have not been used by instructors and/or students are unlikely to be accepted.

The focus of pre-conference events is on providing space for new and emerging ideas in learning analytics and their further development. Events can have either research or practical focus and can be structured in the way which best serves their particular purpose.

The types of submissions for the pre-conference event track are:

• Workshops (4 pages, SoLAR companion proceedings template) provide an efficient forum for community building, sharing of perspectives, training, and idea generation for specific and emerging research topics or viewpoints. Successful proposals should be explicit regarding the kind of activities participants should expect, for example from interactive/generative participatory sessions to mini-conference or symposium sessions.
• Tutorials (4 pages, SoLAR companion proceedings template) aim to educate stakeholders on a specific learning analytics topic and/or stakeholder perspective. Proposals should be clear about what the need is for particular knowledge, target audience and their prior knowledge, and the intended learning outcomes.

For more information please review the Leadership Academy Call.

For more information please review the Doctoral Consortium Call.