Learning analytics and data-driven education: A growing field

Abstract

The growing presence of digital mediation systems in most educational spaces —whether face-toface or not, formalized or open, and at basic or lifelong learning levels— has accelerated the advance of learning analytics and the use of data in education as a common practice. Using digital educational tools facilitates the interaction between students, teachers and learning resources in the digital world, and generates a remarkable volume of data that can be analyzed by applying a variety of methodologies. Thus, research focused on information generated by student activity in digital spaces has risen exponentially. Based on this evidence, this special issue shows a set of studies in the field of data-driven educational research and the field of digital learning, which enriches knowledge about learning processes and management of teaching in digitally mediated spaces.