ABSTRACT
Learning analytics potentially requires more systems to be able to communicate with each other than any other aspect of an educational institution’s IT provision. The most commonly used data sources are the learning management system (LMS) and student information system (SIS). The market-leading products in these areas are beginning to include tools to export the relevant data to learning record stores and warehouses. Add into the mix the data from library, attendance monitoring and assessment systems, however, and the number of configurations and hence data-formatting issues, quickly escalates. A survey that I carried out of 11 universities and colleges in the UK found that no two institutions had the same set of systems to draw on for learning analytics. 1 This may not matter too much for institutions deploying the analytics systems that can be acquired alongside or as part of their SIS or their LMS. However, it becomes complex and expensive to deploy learning analytics systems that gather data from multiple feeder systems unless the data is in standard formats.
