Learning analytics (LA) promises understanding and optimization of learning and learning environments. To enable richer insights regarding questions related to learning and education, LA solutions should be able to integrate data coming from many different data sources, which may be stored in different formats and have varying levels of structure. Data integration also plays a role for the scalability of LA, an important challenge in itself. The objective of this review is to assess the current state of LA in terms of data integration in the context of higher education. The initial search of six academic databases and common venues for publishing LA research resulted in 115 publications, out of which 20 were included in the final analysis. The results show that a few data sources (e.g., LMS) appear repeatedly in the research studies; the number of data sources used in LA studies in higher education tends to be limited; when data are integrated, similar data formats are often combined (a low-hanging fruit in terms of technical challenges); the research literature tends to lack details about data integration in the implemented systems; and, despite being a good starting point for data integration, educational data specifications (e.g., xAPI) seem to seldom be used. In addition, the results indicate a lack of stakeholder (e.g., teachers/instructors, technology vendors) involvement in the research studies. The review concludes by offering recommendations to address limitations and gaps in the research reported in the literature.

Learning analytics (LA) is a field that examines data about learners and their context, for understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs. Integration of multiple data sources, an important dimension of scalability, has the potential to provide rich insights within LA. Using a common standard such as the Experience API (xAPI) to describe learning activity data across multiple sources can alleviate obstacles for data integration. Despite their potential, however, research indicates that standards are seldom used for integration of multiple sources in LA. Our research aims to understand and address the challenges of using current learning activity data standards for describing learning context with regard to interoperability and data integration. In this paper, we present the results of an exploratory case study involving in-depth interviews with stakeholders having used xAPI in a real-world project. Based on the subsequent thematic analysis of interviews, and examination of xAPI, we identified challenges and limitations in describing learning context data, and developed recommendations (provided in this paper in summarized form) for enriching context descriptions and enhancing the expressibility of xAPI. By situating the research in a real-world setting, our research also contributes to bridge the gap between the academic community and practitioners in learning activity data standards and scalability, focusing on description of learning context.

This is a pre-copyedited version of a contribution published in 2020 21th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning published by Springer. The definitive authenticated version is available online via