Hendrik Drachsler

This book offers an introduction and hands-on examples that demonstrate how Learning Analytics (LA) can be used to enhance digital learning, teaching and training at various levels. While the majority of existing literature on the subject focuses on its application at large corporations, this book develops and showcases approaches that bring LA closer to smaller organizations, and to educational institutions that lack sufficient resources to implement a full-fledged LA infrastructure. In closing, the book introduces a set of software tools for data analytics and visualization, and explains how they can be employed in several LA scenarios.

Technology enhanced learning (TEL) aims to design, develop and test sociotechnical innovations that will support and enhance learning practices of both individuals and organisations. It is therefore an application domain that generally covers technologies that support all forms of teaching and learning activities. Since information retrieval (in terms of searching for relevant learning resources to support teachers or learners) is a pivotal activity in TEL, the deployment of recommender systems has attracted increased interest. This brief attempts to provide an introduction to recommender systems for TEL settings, as well as to highlight their particularities compared to recommender systems for other application domains.