Learners’ needs and design principles for human-centred self-regulated learning analytics in lifelong learning

Abstract

Self-regulated learning (SRL) becomes significant for sustaining the effectiveness of lifelong learning in the current fast-changing world. Despite its importance, not all learners are able to practice SRL throughout their learning process. Learning analytics (LA) offers various promising affordances to provide personalized support for promoting lifelong learners’ SRL. However, further study is needed to address adoption and usability issues by incorporating learning theory and learners’ needs as the main users for designing human-centred learning analytics (HCLA) systems that support SRL. Thus, this study aims to explore learners’ needs based on multistakeholders’ perspectives, which are the learners, teachers, and experts, guided by SRL theory to be the foundation in conceptualizing the design principles for human-centred self-regulated learning analytics (SRLA) in lifelong learning. To do so, this study adopted Design Science Research (DSR) methodology with a qualitative participatory design approach to design human-centred SRLA. The data is collected through focus group discussions for ten groups of learners (N = 27) from non-formal online professional development courses, semi-structured interviews for the teachers (N = 5) who facilitate the courses, and evaluation from experts (N = 3) in the domain of SRL and LA. The results present the learners’ needs which consist of the challenges in each phase of SRL and the desirable SRLA features to support them. Accordingly, it proposes the design principles for human-centred SRLA as prescriptive statements that guide the future development of human-centred SRLA. This study provides methodological, empirical, and practical implications to the field of SRL and HCLA by providing the foundation to design an effective human-centred SRLA for lifelong learners.