What can learning data help us see?

Have you ever thought about the effect that our well-intended lessons have on student behavior and learning?  For example, we plan to have a midterm and comprehensive examination and this has the effect of getting students to concentrate their learning (cramming) just before those exams. Students behave in ways that are not optimal for their learning (long-term retention).

Many of us teach the way we were taught and because, well, what students do is for the most part invisible to us. We close our eyes and plug our ears and pretend we don't know. Often, we ignore the learning damage that our lessons perpetuate.

However, what if we did know what our students are doing? What if it wasn't so easy to plug our ears. I think this may be one of the potentials of learning analytics. If we can see what students are actually doing, we can reflect on our learning design(s) and just maybe improve on those designs. Furthermore, well-designed visualizations may nudge students toward embracing behaviors that will benefit them throughout their lives as life-long learners.