This chapter describes an open learning analytics system focused on learning process measures and designed to engage instructors and students in an evidence-informed decision-making process to improve learning.

In the field of special education there is a dearth of group experimental studies that establish evidence-based practice. The effort to establish evidence-based practice has been associated with emphasizing experiments by using randomized controlled trial with large numbers of participants who are randomly assigned to a treatment. However,…

Education Leadership Data Analytics (ELDA) is an emerging domain that is centered at the intersection of education leadership, the use of evidence-based improvement cycles in schools to promote instructional improvement, and education data science. ELDA practitioners work collaboratively with school and district leaders and teachers to analyze,…

Americans share an expectation that government will serve the common good, creating inescapable pressure for public agencies--especially those that serve young children--to perform well. Yet education and human services agencies continually struggle to respond to the complex conditions in which children are born. How can they address the practical…

This article reviews two recent books on the rising use of digital data in schools and university education, reflecting on areas of further research, analysis, and action. The books discussed are: (1) "The datafication of primary and early years education: playing with numbers," by A. Bradbury and G. Roberts-Holmes, London, Routledge,…

Reviews of research in special education have a unique place in the scientific literature, with the potential to inform a broad audience about the effectiveness and acceptability of assessment and intervention strategies for a heterogeneous group of children and youth. Results from reviews are useful to school leaders, practitioners, parents,…

The UChicago Consortium, Network for College Success, and the To&Through Project's new paper, "Practice-Driven Data: Lessons from Chicago's Approach to Research, Data, and Practice in Education," shares key lessons learned from Chicago's approach to using data to foster ongoing improvement in students' educational attainment. This…

Learning Analytics (LA) and adaptive learning are inextricably linked since they both foster technology-supported learner-centred education. This study identifies developments focusing on their interplay and emphasises insufficiently investigated directions which display a higher innovation potential. Twenty-one peer-reviewed studies are…

There is an urgent need to develop an evidence-based framework for learning analytics whereby stakeholders can manage, evaluate, and make decisions about which types of interventions work well and under which conditions. In this article, we will work towards developing a foundation of an Analytics4Action Evaluation Framework (A4AEF) that is…

There is a vast amount of research on what goes on in schools, but how can school leaders sort credible findings from dubious claims and use these to make informed decisions that benefit their schools? How can abstract ideas from research be translated into dynamic plans for action? This book is a practical guide to evidence-based school…

Randomised control trials (RCTs) are an evidence-based research approach which has not yet been adopted and widely used in open and distance education to inform educational policy and practice. Despite the challenges entailed in their application, RCTs hold the power to robustly evaluate the effects of educational interventions in distance…

With the widespread use of learning analytics (LA) tools, there is a need to explore how these technologies can be used to enhance teaching and learning. Little research has been conducted on what human processes are necessary to facilitate meaningful adoption of LA. The research problem is that there is a lack of evidence-based guidance on how…

Purpose: Whilst beneficial, the use of evidence to improve teaching and learning in schools is proving difficult to achieve in practice. The purpose of this paper is to shed new light on this issue by examining the applicability of a model of rational behaviour as relates to the notion of evidence-informed practice (EIP). Specifically, exploring…

The disconnect between data collection and analysis across academic and administrative units within institutions of higher education makes it challenging to incorporate diverse data into curricular design. Understanding the factors related to student retention and success is unlikely to occur by focusing on only one unit at a time. By promoting…

Knowledge derived from practice forms a significant portion of the knowledge base in the education field, yet is not accessible using existing empirical research methods. This paper describes a systematic, rigorous, grounded approach to collecting and analysing practice-based knowledge using the authors' research in teacher leadership as an…