Applications of learning analytics in the study of academic performance in higher education: A pilot-tested meta-review protocol

Learning Analytics (LA) concerns the analysis of educational data to enhance learning processes and conditions. Its growing use in higher education has inspired synthesis studies on its applications and effectiveness in studying academic performance, which have had heterogeneous approaches and results. Previous meta-reviews have not provided comprehensive overviews, and have had methodological and substantive limitations, particularly in addressing socio-educational factors. The proposed meta-review outlined in this protocol aims to examine systematic literature reviews on applications of LA in the study of academic performance in higher education. This meta-review protocol has been preregistered in INPLASY (number 2024120119; doi: 10.37766/inplasy2024.12.0119), and has been developed following both the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) and the Preferred Reporting Items for Overviews of Reviews (PRIOR) guidelines. The meta-review will include systematic reviews of LA applications in the study of academic performance in higher education, written in English or Spanish, and published from 2000 onwards. Bibliographic searches will be performed across Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC and PsycINFO databases, and other gray literature sources, and the reporting and methodological quality will be assessed using the PRISMA and AMSTAR 2 checklists. This study develops and empirically tests a systematic and replicable meta-review protocol, providing validated search equations and reliable processes for study selection and data coding. The meta-review will aim to describe the main features of how LA has been applied in the study of academic performance in higher education, and to explore practical implications and research challenges.