The field of learning analytics in higher education becomes more and more complex with each passing day – just like the algorithms many employ in an effort to identify and analyze data that can help optimize students’ learning. There have been webinars, articles, white papers, and books written in an effort to parse out what learning analytics is and is not, how it does and does not work, or what should or should not be considered when deploying and employing tools. The authors and presenters of these works have done well in their efforts, but often leave the uninitiated or uninformed reader with more questions and confusion than answers or sense-making. Niall Sclater’s Learning Analytics Explained does not create this confusion, but instead provides a breath of fresh air for the literature in this field
