Learning Analytics and Big Data: Huge Potential to Improve Online Education

Learning management systems (LMS) in the online education sector have led to a huge amount of data from the interaction between the student and the student environment that generates a lot of digital traces. This colossal amount of data cannot be processed by traditional learning analytics. This has led to the insertion of Big Data technologies and tools in education to handle the large amount of data involved. The process of collecting, analyzing, and intelligently using this learner-generated data to understand and help the learner is called Learning Analytics. LA is a new lens through which teachers can address the needs of individual learners to a greater extent. This work examines and explores the concepts of big data and learning analytics. In particular, this study aims to conduct a systematic review of big data and LA technologies in education to explore trends, categorize research topics, and highlight the contributions of these technologies in online education.