The Roles of Teachers’ Attitude Towards Learning Analytics in Higher Education Institutions: A Concept Paper

Abstract

The use of technologies for teaching and learning purposes is evolving at every level of education worldwide including higher education institutions (HEI), particularly in the universities. Such evolving technologies also include Learning Analytics (LA) which is basically the analysis of data obtained from students’ online interactions with various technologies used for teaching and learning in online classes and using such data to provide feedback on learner’s academic progression. For the purpose of ensuring integration and getting the best out of using technologies like learning analytics to support teaching, teachers (lecturers) at higher education institutions are expected to have a positive attitude towards using learning analytics in their online teachings since teachers are the central agent for bringing about the required change in terms of technology integration in schools. Teachers’ attitude entails engaging in teaching and learning using relevant technological tools like computers, the internet, smartphones, etc., and also having the right feelings, excitement and understandings of the tools as well as how to make use of the tools for achieving effective teaching and learning in schools. Teachers' attitudes toward using technology for supporting teaching is an important construct that educators use for determining the rate of using technology in schools. This paper aimed at laying out the concept of teachers’ attitudes towards using a technology tool like learning analytics in HEI for achieving effective teaching and learning and giving personalized feedback to students.