Model-Based Learning Analytics for a Partnership of Teachers and Intelligent Systems: A Bibliometric Systematic Review

Abstract

This paper presents a bibliometric systematic review on model-based learning analytics (MbLA), which enable coupling between teachers and intelligent systems to support the learning process. This is achieved through systems that make their models of student learning and instruction transparent to teachers. We use bibliometric network analysis and topic modelling to explore the synergies between the related research groups and the main research topics considered in the 42 reviewed papers. Network analysis depicts an early stage community, made up of several research groups, mainly from the fields of learning analytics and intelligent tutoring systems, which have had little explicit and implicit collaboration but do share a common core literature. Th resulting topics from the topic modelling can be grouped into the ones related to teacher practices, such as awareness and reflection, learning orchestration, or assessment frameworks, and the ones related to the technology used to open up the models to teachers, such as dashboards or adaptive learning architectures. Moreover, results show that research in MbLA has taken an individualistic approach to student learning and instruction, neglecting social aspects and elements of collaborative learning. To advance research in MbLA, future research should focus on hybrid teacher–AI approaches that foster the partnership between teachers and technology to support the learning process, involve teachers in the development cycle from an early stage, and follow an interdisciplinary approach.