JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

While the application of learning analytics in tertiary education has received increasing attention in recent years, a much smaller number have explored its use in health care related educational studies.

Objective:

The purpose of this systematic review is to examine the use of e-learning analytics data in health care studies with regards to how the analytics is reported and if there is a relation between e-learning analytics and learning outcomes.

Methods:

Comprehensive searches of articles from four electronic databases (Medline, EBSCOhost, Web of Science, and ERIC) were carried out to identify relevant papers. Qualitative studies were excluded in this review. Papers were screened by two independent reviewers. Qualified studies were selected for further investigation.

Results:

A total of 537 articles were screened and 19 papers were identified. With regards to analytics undertaken 11 of the studies reported the number of connections and time spent on e-learning. Learning outcome measures were defined by summative final assessment marks/grades. Significant statistical results of the relationships between e-learning usage and learning outcomes were reported in 12 of the identified papers. In general, students who engaged more in e-learning resources would get better academic attainments. However, two papers reported otherwise with better students consuming less e-learning videos. A total of 14 papers utilized satisfaction questionnaires for students and all were positive in their attitude towards e-learning. Six of the 19 papers reported descriptive statistics only, with no statistical analysis.

Conclusions:

The nature of e-learning activities reported in this review was varied and not detailed well. In addition there appeared to be inadequate reporting of learning analytics data observed in over half of the selected articles with regards to definitions and lack of detailed information of what the analytic was recording. Although learning analytics data capture is popular, a lack of detail is apparent with regards to the capturing of meaningful and comparable data. In particular, most analytics record access to a management system or access to particular e-learning materials and these may not necessarily detail meaningful learning time or interaction. Learning analytics data should be designed to record time spent on learning and focus on key learning activities. Recommendations are made for future studies.