Collective intelligence and learning analytics for online learning and teaching support

Collective intelligence (CI) is the behavior performed by individuals acting as an aggregate in a social context with favorable outcomes as a group. With the support of online learning platforms and social learning tools, individual learning activities can be effectively organized and connected to generate knowledge collectively. This study discusses the use of learning analytics (LA) to acquire CI for online learning and teaching support. It explains collective intelligence learning analytics (CILA) for informed pedagogical decision-making in four aspects, including objectives setting, data collection, data analysis, and application of results. There are two levels of the usage of CILA, namely, information and insights. The temporal factors and the corresponding application areas of these two levels of usage will be further examined according to the interests of teachers and learners. Copyright © 2016 Global Chinese Society for Computers in Education.