MMALA: Developing and Evaluating a Maturity Model for Adopting Learning Analytics

Abstract

Learning analytics (LA) adoption is a challenging task for higher education institutions (HEIs) since it involves different aspects of the academic environment, such as information technology infrastructure, human resource management, ethics, and pedagogical issues. Therefore, it is necessary to provide institutions with supporting instruments to deal with these challenges. Although there has been much research on factors that are associated with the adoption of LA in HEIs, there has been much less research on specific models that can be used to guide actual adoption. In this sense, we developed MMALA, a Maturity Model for Adopting Learning Analytics. It is a guide that describes the necessary practices for taking the first steps in this area and enables institutions to reach higher levels of maturity in LA use, culminating in an organized and systematic adoption. In this paper, we describe the development process of MMALA, focusing on the model evaluation, which used both the questionnaire and the expert opinion method. MMALA can also give institutions an overview of their current situation regarding LA adoption. In this sense, we present the results of the maturity evaluation of three Brazilian HEIs using MMALA.

Applications of Learning Analytics in Latin America

“…First, they tackle some of the needs for LA adoption that were previously identified by Hilliger, Ortiz-Rojas, Pesántez-Cabrera, Scheihing, Tsai, Muñoz-Merino, Broos, Whitelock-Wainwright, Gašević, and Pérez-Sanagustín (2020), such as students' need for timely support (Villalobos Díaz et al, 2024), instructors' need for quality feedback about their teaching practices (Kotorov et al, 2024), and authorities' need for actionable insights to evaluate curriculum decision-making (Talamás-Carvajal et al, 2024). Second, the insights of these studies shed light on growing interest in scaling adoption at an institutional level, not only offering a snapshot of the current adoption of data-driven strategies at different HEIs (Bautista Godínez et al, 2024), but also providing HEIs with a structured approach to scale up LA initiatives (Freitas et al, 2024).…”

“…Finally, the study titled "MMALA: Developing and Evaluating a Maturity Model for Adopting Learning Analytics" addresses the scarcity of models to guide the adoption of LA solutions in higher education institutions (HEIs) (Freitas et al, 2024). Through expert opinions, the study evaluates multiple academic aspects proposed in this model, such as technological infrastructure, human resources, ethics, and pedagogy.…”