The Difference between Academic Analytics and Learning Analytics

ACADEMIC ANALYTICS AND LEARNING ANALYTICS - is there a difference?

Phil Long and George Siemens wrote an article in 'Educause Review' in September/October 2011 that provides a handy definition of Academic Analytics and Learning Analytics. The article states that “learning analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimising learning and the environments in which it occurs". Academic analytics is the "application of business intelligence in education and emphasizes analytics at institutional, regional, and international levels". The table below from page 34 of the publication, delineates the level of analysis and the end user of these analytical approaches:

Here is a link to the source article:
https://er.educause.edu/~/media/files/article-downloads/erm1151.pdf%20

I think that both play a key roe in education analytics, and consider academic analytics to be more focused on the student and outcomes, and learning analytics to consider the behaviours and interactions that occur throughout the process. 

Here's some criteria that I apply to determine whether an institution has advanced beyond academic analytics to learning analytics:

(1) are they using data from a learning management or related system?
(2) are they applying statistical methods, e.g. clustering or regression? and
(3) have they linked learning behaviours to characteristics of the student, and their outcomes?

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