Learning analytics features for improving collaborative writing practices: insights into the students’ perspective

One of the challenges within the field of learning analytics is paying more attention to the perspective of learners. Even though students are increasingly provided with access to the data collected on their own activity, they are still rarely asked what analytics would be useful for them. The goal of this research was to gain insights into the perspective of the learners to elicit features that would be useful from their point of view. We conducted two participatory workshops with 15 students during which participants were asked to design learning analytics features that could help them improve their collaborative writing in Google Docs. The collected data was then analysed using thematic network analysis. The extracted insights elaborated on different aspects concerning design and usage of learning analytics features for collaboration. The themes that emerged through analysis concerned topics are such as: guidelines for visualisation; the importance of context for making sense of the data; the influence that data visualisations can have on collaborative writing practice; and concerns with who should be granted access to the analytics. The themes and insights, we argue, indicate the importance of including students in the development of LA solutions through actively granting students a voice in the design process.