Linking learning behavior analytics and learning science concepts: Designing a learning analytics dashboard for feedback to support learning regulation

Abstract Technological advancements have generated a strong interest in exploring learner behavior data through learning analytics to provide both learner and instructor with process-oriented feedback in the form of dashboards. However, little is known about the typology of dashboard feedback relevant for different learning goals, learners and teachers. While most dashboards and the feedback that they give are based only on learner performance indicators, research shows that effective feedback needs also to be grounded in the regulatory mechanisms underlying learning processes and an awareness of the learner's learning goals. The design artefact presented in this article uses a conceptual model that visualizes the relationships between dashboard design and the learning sciences to provide cognitive and behavioral process-oriented feedback to learners and teachers to support regulation of learning. A practical case example is given that demonstrates how the ideas presented in the paper can be deployed in the context of a learning dashboard. The case example uses several analytics/visualization techniques based on empirical evidence from earlier research that successfully tested these techniques in various learning contexts.