LALA HANDBOOK
The project “Building Capacity to Use Learning Analytics to Improve Higher Education in Latin America (LALA Project)”- co-financed by the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union has developed the LALA Handbook (or LALA Hanbook) that is intended to be a help for the adaptation of learning analytics (LA) solutions for Higher Education Institutions. This document is intended as a guide to support institutions in the adoption of LA solutions. The results obtained can be used both as an example of application or as a starting point to approach the implementation of LA solutions in those institutions with similar characteristics.
The document consists of four chapters. The first chapter shows a starting point for universities wishing to adopt the LA tools developed. On the other hand, chapter two presents a final version of the LALA Framework. The framework is composed of four fundamental dimensions, each of these dimensions is presented in a manual, and each manual describes methodologies and instruments to support different processes.
Chapter three shows the adaptation of the learning analytics tools developed by the four Latin American institutions that are regular partners in the project. The source code of all the tools developed is available at the following link for use and adaptation by any institution https://git.cti.espol.edu.ec/LALA-Project/. Finally, chapter four presents a compilation of the piloting experiences in the different Latin American universities that conform to the LALA consortium. We invite you to download the document that will allow you to learn more information on the following link.
LALA Pilots
The project Building Capacity to Use Learning Analytics to Improve Higher Education in Latin America (LALA Project) – co-funded by the Erasmus + Program of the European Union – presents a compilation of the experiences of pilot projects in the different Latin American universities that make up the LALA partnership (Universidad Austral de Chile, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Escuela Superior del Litoral and Universidad de Cuenca).
Prior to the execution of the pilots, each of the participating Latin American universities detected their needs using the recommendations of the LALA Framework (deliverable prior to project) and adapted or adopted LA tools (deliverable prior to project). In particular, these adaptations were inspired by the counselling tools using visualization dashboards designed at KU Leuven, and the tools for the early detection of dropout developed at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M). Likewise, the University of Edinburgh gave advice and support in the use of the OnTask tool to interested Latin American universities. Details of these previous activities are available at the following link.
As a result of these prior activities, the existing tools and services were adapted/adopted, resulting in four sets of tools, each one adapted to the four Latin American partners. They all include academic counselling tools and dropout prediction tools. The toolkit has different names according to each Latin American partner; these are: TrAC (Trayectoria Académica y Curricular) at Universidad Austral de Chile (UACh), NoteMyProgress and DaP-MOOC at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC-Chile) and AvAc (Avance Académico) at Universidad de Cuenca (UCuenca). In the specific case of the Escuela Superior del Litoral (ESPOL), since it already had an institutional tool, the counselling and prediction tools were embedded into its previously existing counselling system called SiCa (Sistema de Consejerías Académicas).
The pilots were coordinated by UACh with the support of UC3M and have participated all the partners of the LALA project and four universities extra to the consortium, Universidad de Chile (UChile), Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (UPS, Ecuador), Universidad Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UFRPE, Brazil) and Instituto Tecnológico de Zitácuaro (Mexico). The execution of the pilots was carried out from 2019 to 2020. This report includes experiences updated to October 2020 in which real users were involved in real use contexts. To this end, five phases were followed: 1) preparation, 2) agreement, 3) training, 4) use and 5) improvement. We hope that the information presented in this document can help other HEI move towards effective adoption of their LA initiatives. We invite you to know each of these experiences at the following link.
LALA Framework
In order to support the development and adoption of learning analytics in this region, the project “Building Capacity to Use Learning Analytics to Improve Higher Education in Latin America (LALA Project)“ – co-funded by the Erasmus + Program of the European Union- has developed the LALA framework (or LALA Framework). The objective of this framework is to guide the design, implementation and use of learning analytical tools in Higher Education Institutions in Latin America. This LALA framework has been developed in joint work with Latin American and European universities, taking as a reference the framework proposed by the SHEILA project and other European projects.
Specifically, the framework is composed of four fundamental dimensions: 1) the Institutional dimension, which considers the current and desired state of the institution in relation to policies and strategies for the incorporation of LA tools; 2) the Technological dimension, which considers the technical needs for the adoption and / or the design and implementation of LALA tools in the institution; 3) the Ethics dimension, which considers the necessary guidelines for the ethical use of data, safeguarding the privacy of users, maximizing the benefits associated with the use of educational data and minimizing the possible risks of their manipulation; and, 4) the Communal dimension, which proposes a series of guidelines for the institution to be integrated into a LALA Community and thus have support for research and development in this area.
Each of these dimensions is addressed in a manual, and each manual describes the methodologies and instruments to support different processes. This work has been protected by Creative Commons (CC) with the aim of facilitating adaptation and use for other contexts. The link to the LALA Framework document is the following: https://comunidadlala.com/deliverables/
LALA Tools
The project Building Capacity to Use Learning Analytics to Improve Higher Education in Latin America (LALA Project) – co-funded by the Erasmus + Program of the European Union – presents to the LALA Community, the learning analytics tools developed within the framework of the LALA Project.
The purpose of these tools is to ensure that project results have a beneficial impact on the operation of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Latin America in general. Likewise, the intention is to present examples of implementation and their possible uses.
These tools have been developed in joint work between universities in Latin America and Europe, based on the reference framework of LALA (LALA Framework) and European experiences.
We invite you to know each of the tools, as well as their source code, the demo version, videos and explanatory manuals at the following link: https://comunidadlala.com/demo/
