Learning Analytics Tailored to Higher Education in Ecuador. (LATHEE)

The goal of the SI project is to cooperate intensively between the Universidad de Cuenca (UCuenca), Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL) and KU Leuven with focus on realistic implementations of Learning Analytics Dashboards (LAD’s) at scale within the Ecuadorian educational and infrastructural context.

Learning Analytics (LA) uses data produced by educational systems and learners to improve education and learning. The centre of gravity for LA is historically limited to North America, Europe and Australia, while much of its potential lays elsewhere, e.g. in the Latin American countries. A showstopper there is the dependence of LA on large amounts of data and processing infrastructure. The Flemish promotor has invested significantly in research and implementation of LAD’s that do not rely on such big data, instead focusing on return-on-investment within short term. This approach does not displace other LA initiatives, but builds the foundation and maturity levels required for future LA efforts while increasing 21st century skills like data literacy along the way.