Past, present, and future directions of learning analytics research for students with disabilities

Abstract

We examined the learning analytics literature over the past ten years (2011-2020). Our results show that only 33% of articles we retrieved focused on students with disabilities and 67% of articles we retrieved engaged with students with disabilities tangentially on several themes: detecting difficulties to provide early intervention, using learning analytics as tools to promote learning, addressing accessibility issues and challenges, and discussing ethics and privacy concerns. Articles that focused on students with disabilities reveal that learning analytics can be used to evaluate and optimize the design of educational technologies for students with disabilities and function as a tool to enhance learning experiences for students with various disabilities. We conclude with recommendations for future research of learning analytics community to create an inclusive platform.