Abstract:
This paper problematises a pervasive discourse around learning analytics as a hegemonic “régime of thought” (Foucault, 1980, p. 81), offering a “local character of criticism” (p. 81) to disrupt this discourse. My criticism has the following foci: obsession with learning management data, little analogous data being available for face-to-face teaching, and the undervaluing of academic analytics compared to learning analytics. Policy and practice shifts based on the “big data” disaggregated from LMS and related platforms—a poor indication of teaching and learning activity in most university courses, which are taught face-to-face—creates rather than mitigates risk for university institutes.
