SoLAR Nexus - Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR)

Nexus? As the name signals, this is meant to bring people together from across the diverse community interested in these questions — including educators, learning technologists, instructional designers, researchers, data scientists, user interface designers, educational leaders — hey, even students who are curious to know how these systems come into being!

Nexus is published on Medium at solarnexus.medium.com to take advantage of that huge community, but also mirrored here since Medium limits non-members to 3 articles/month. So if you’re not signed up there, you can still read to your heart’s content here!

Enjoy the stories. Like/dislike what you see? Want to share your work? You’re warmly invited to email the editors with your ideas and feedback: solarnexusblog {at} gmail dot com

Educational data storytelling: How can we communicate important insights into your learning dashboards?

Learning dashboards can be challenging to interpret for our teachers and students. Educational Data Storytelling can help communicate meaningful insights and drive attention to what is important… →

Partnering with educators to take advantage of tools that predict student academic performance

How can we change established ways of teaching to take full advantage of predictive analytics tools? How can we embed innovation in teaching in ways that help teachers acknowledge its value?.. →

Mind the ‘pedagogical gap’ when preparing staff to use learning analytics

There’s growing evidence that educators benefit from some training in order to make the most of learning analytics dashboards. Linda Corrin shares insights from her extensive experience - and it’s about more than “data literacy”….. →

Video analytics: What are academics looking for?

Video is used extensively in teaching, but how do you design a dashboard to show teachers what they really need to know? An educational video guru talks about what features are on her “must have” list for video analytics.. →

Making Learning Analytics “Irresistible”: Part 1

How can we design and implement learning analytics platforms so that instructors can’t wait to use them?.. →

Predictive learning analytics: An empowering tool in the hands of online teachers

How can a teacher tell if their students are progressing or struggling when studying at home?.. →

Can we give educators and students a real voice in shaping Learning Analytics?

When designing Learning Analytics tools, we need to hear from the people who will use them. Co-Design is a way to make educator and learner voices heard. .. →

Bridging Disciplines and Making New Connections to Understand Science Learning

What do biology, learning sciences and learning analytics have in common? And how can insights from each field be utilized to understand how people learn and understand science? Learn more in the latest NEXUS article by Dr. Melanie Peffer. .. →

Leveraging the Potential of Learning Analytics in Higher Education Requires Inclusive Policies and Practices

To fully leverage the power of learning analytics data, attention must be paid to the policies and practices that guide data use in higher education. Drawing on justice and care perspectives, we argue a need for inclusive policies and practices—learning analytics professionals should work to establish equity in their systems, ensure transparency and trust, and empower students as active agents in the use of their data… →

Learning Analytics: 3 Challenges and Opportunities

Learning Analytics are generating both excitement, and scepticism since adoption isn’t as fast as expected. In this blog, we briefly introduce the key concept, before looking at practical approaches to three challenges for embedding LA in organisations….. →

SoLAR Blogs

Nexus, is just the latest channel to join our podcasts and webinars, as we get the word out about Learning Analytics to our diverse audiences.

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