Fifteen Years of Learning Analytics Research: Topics, Trends, and Challenges

TL;DR

This study analyzes 15 years of learning analytics research, revealing stable core topics, collaboration patterns, and challenges like participation and funding diversity, using advanced data analysis methods.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive longitudinal analysis of LA research topics, collaboration, and funding, identifying enduring themes and future challenges.

Findings

Six main topical centers identified in LA research.

High turnover of new researchers with stable core authors.

Funding sources influence research directions.

Abstract

The learning analytics (LA) community has recently reached two important milestones: celebrating the 15th LAK conference and updating the 2011 definition of LA to reflect the 15 years of changes in the discipline. However, despite LA's growth, little is known about how research topics, funding, and collaboration, as well as the relationships among them, have developed within the community over time. This study addressed this gap by analyzing all 936 full and short papers published at LAK over a 15-year period using unsupervised machine learning, natural language processing, and network analytics. The analysis revealed a stable core of prolific authors alongside high turnover of newcomers, systematic links between funding sources and research directions, and six enduring topical centers that remain globally shared but vary in prominence across countries. These six topical centers, which encompass LA research, are: self-regulated learning, dashboards and theory, social learning, automated feedback, multimodal analytics, and outcome prediction. Our findings highlight key challenges for the future: widening participation, reducing dependency on a narrow set of funders, and ensuring that emerging research trajectories remain responsive to educational practice and societal needs.