Data Interoperability in Learning Analytics - Review of Literature

Learning analytics (LA) and educational data mining (EDM) are two complementary approaches to modeling and understanding teaching-learning processes and, in general, data from academic environments. LA is applied to data from various sources, which can vary in format, granularity, and structure. Integrating these data is key to addressing the challenge of scalability in LA, a fundamental aspect. To this end, interoperability, understood as the ability of different systems, devices, or applications to connect, interact, and work together effectively, is crucial and generates the need for specifications for the case of academic information systems and Learning Management Systems. According to this context, the objective of this work was to address through a literature review the following main question: What are the main challenges for modeling architecture to support the interoperability of educational data to apply Learning Analytics? To develop the review, the team used Parsifal, an online tool designed to conduct systematic literature reviews in the context of software engineering. The initial search was done in six databases, deciding to include twenty papers in the final report. The results showed that there are still many open spaces for research and development in terms of the design and use of educational data specifications for the subsequent application of LA, to make the transition from models built on data coming from a single source to the construction of models that report results from the integration of several sources using specifications like Caliper Analytics or Experience API.