Decoding a decade. Trends and evolution in learning analytics: A comprehensive synthesis

This article concludes the special issue “Learning Analytics 10 Years After: A Retrospective and Research Agenda” with a summary of the contributed studies. To assess their representativeness of the last decade’s learning analytics research, a literature analysis was performed based on topic extraction. Following PRISMA guidelines, 3,897 journal articles and conference papers in Learning Analytics were analyzed with Latent Dirichlet Allocation with Gibbs sampling to uncover common topics. Nine primary topics emerged: skills assessment and program evaluation; adoption of learning analytics in higher education; educational tool design and teacher support; student engagement in online courses; predictive modeling in education; technology integration in education; social learning and collaborative knowledge building; data mining in educational research; and online learning environments and student behavior. Time and publication type significantly influenced topic presence. The articles selected for this special issue spanned the most frequent publication themes, demonstrating their representativeness. Furthermore, the review underscores the importance of integrating methodology with educational theory, as highlighted in the authoritative review that opens the issue, paving the way for continued advancements. • We cover the rapid evolution of learning analytics (LA) since the early 2010s. • Using topic modelling, we identify nine key research topics in learning analytics. • Conference papers showcase LA innovations and journals provide in-depth LA studies. • The analysis shows increased interest in predictive modeling in education. • The articles in the special issue cover the most frequent publication topics.