"I Should, but I Don't Feel Like It": Overcoming Obstacles in Upper Secondary Students' Self-regulation Using Learning Analytics

Abstract

While research has been conducted on self-regulated learning in relation to learning analytics, there remains a knowledge gap regarding the obstacles secondary education students face in regulating their learning and how learning analytics can support their self-regulation. This paper investigates two questions: 1) What challenges do secondary education students experience in the process of regulating their own learning?, and 2) What information and data do secondary education students need to better regulate their own learning? We conducted a study at a mid-sized upper secondary school in middle Sweden, to better understand how these issues manifest among students. We analyzed data collected by the school twice annually between 2015 and 2022, and administered a questionnaire to 224 students to answer the research questions. Through descriptive statistics and a thematic analysis, we identify prevalent problems that students encounter, as well as the necessary information that is essential for scaffolding self-regulated learning. We discuss the implications of our findings for the design of systems that provide students with relevant data to enhance their learning experiences.