Dear Commons Community,

The International Journal of Interactive Multimedia and Artificial Intelligence has just published a special edition on multisensor user tracking and analytics to improve education and other social applications. Sponsored by UNESCO, the eight articles in this edition provide a plethora of information and insights on issues and applications appropriate to the theme. Multisensor user tracking and learning analytics have attracted a lot of attention across the globe as more countries attempt to provide greater access to education and other social services via online technologies.

This edition includes an article I was invited to contribute on learning analytics and blended learning. Entitled, Big Data and Learning Analytics in Blended Learning Environments: Benefits and Concerns, I attempted to contextualize analytics and to provide a critical overview of the field, with a special focus on blended learning situations. The article reviews how learning analytics can benefit from the already existing work (e.g. with Herbert Simon’s “bounded rationality” theory) with data-driven decision making models and therefore can help in the advisement and other decision-making processes for teachers and learners. My conclusion is that big data and analytics are not panaceas but can provide quite valuable tools to improve educational systems. I also caution that a data gap may take place in blended learning situations that may hinder the effective application of learning analytics tools.

The entire special edition is available at: http://www.ijimai.org/journal/node/679

Tony