A Step by Step Methodology for Software Design of a Learning Analytics Tool in Latin America: A Case Study in Ecuador

One main objective for software developers is to find the right approach to design and develop a tool faster and effectively. In the context of Learning Analytics (LA) in Latin America, this becomes more complicated due to a lack of clear guidelines that could guide Higher Education institutions (HEI) to the design of LA tools. Thus, this study describes a step by step methodology for software design of a LA tool. The methodology combines the phases of Design Thinking and the testing components of Human-Computer Interaction theory. It starts from the LALA framework, a set of methodologies that guides HEI to create a baseline of LA needs in the context of a project named LALA (Learning Analytics in Latin America). The needs are then materialized into a tool after a user-centered iterative process takes place. The methodology is not only adaptable for HEI that have never implemented LA tool, but also for HEI that have implemented an LA tool and need to make some upgrades. For validation purposes, this article presents a case study of adopting this methodology in the design of visualizations of an academic counseling tool, and discusses the results to illustrate its use for other HEI.