Forging new pathways of research and innovation in open and distance learning

Learning Analytics in Distance Education: A Systematic Literature Review
Selcan Kilis, Yasemin Gülbahar
in the literature. This current study attempts to provide an overview of LA in distance
education as a means to bridge the gap and reveal existing patterns.
Methodology
The purpose of this current study is to review the existing literature published on the subject
area of learning analytics in distance education in order to reveal the current status of the
field, and the methodologies applied as a means to guide further research. With this aim, this
current study systematically reviewed the related literature using the phrase learning analytics
in two leading databases, ERIC and Science Direct. Of the studies identified, only those with
available full text were included in the current study. Duplicates and conference proceedings
were then discarded; however, since there were many duplicates, the number was seen to
decline remarkably. In accordance with the aim of this study, a set of keywords (see Table 1)
were used in searching for existing research without the restriction of any time period. Results
of these searches are presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Results from Systematic Review of Studies in Learning Analytics in Distance Education
Searched keywords
Database
ERIC Science
Direct
“learning analytics” 85 221
Journal articles 67 190
Full-text available 57 156
“learning analytics” & “online learning” 14 55
“learning analytics” & “online teaching” - 13
“learning analytics” & “online education” 10 24
“learning analytics” & “blended learning” 1 12
“learning analytics” & “blended teaching” - 2
“learning analytics” & “blended education” - 6
“learning analytics” & “distance learning” 8 11
“learning analytics” & “distance teaching” 6 4
“learning analytics” & “distance education” 7 12
“learning analytics” & “electronic learning” 9 1
“learning analytics” & “e-learning” 13 29
“learning analytics” & “open learning” 3 1
“learning analytics” & “open teaching” - -
“learning analytics” & “open education” 1 -
Selected studies were reviewed one by one, based on the chosen criteria of relevance with the
settings of any form of distance education and research conducted based on empirical data.
The selection process resulted in 25 empirical study journal articles being identified that
related with any form of open distance education. These articles were then analysed based on
qualitative content analysis. The results are explained in the next section.
312 Reaching from the roots – 9 th EDEN Research Workshop Proceedings, 2016, Oldenburg
ISBN 978-615-5511-12-7