Companion Proceedings of the 9th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (LAK’19)

It is with great pleasure that we welcome you to Tempe, Arizona, for the 9th International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge (LAK19). The Conference is organized annually by the Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR) and is hosted this year by Arizona State University (ASU).

We are delighted to welcome our Keynote Speakers: Professor Ryan Baker, Professor Lise Getoor and Professor Shirley Alexander.

This year we received 384 submissions, a record number. Of these, 115 were full research papers and 97 were short research papers. The acceptance rate was 39% for full papers and 28% for short papers – an overall acceptance rate for papers on the research track of 33%.

The theme for LAK19 is ways in which learning analytics can be used to promote inclusion and success. We define inclusion broadly and this definition may cover the engagement of marginalized groups, groups who have not been as successful as others at achieving educational success, learners who find their current curriculum either too challenging or not sufficiently demanding, or other forms of inclusive inquiry. It may also address issues of accessibility in terms of educational opportunities and learning analytics. Success is also defined broadly and may be viewed from the perspective of learners, educators, institutions or society more broadly.

As with past LAK conferences, we put significant effort into matching submissions with reviewer expertise, and ensured that all papers received three reviews. We continued the practice of double-blind reviewing to disguise authorship. Once again, the Program Committee all acted as meta-reviewers, overseeing initial reviews and encouraging reviewer discussion in order to resolve differences, before making recommendations to the Program Chairs. While no peer-review process is perfect, our view is that these measures are effective in increasing reviewer objectivity, and in scaling the peer-review process. We will once again present a ‘Best Reviewer’ award at the conference dinner, to recognize the fantastic work put in by so many of our reviewers.

LAK19 also has a full Companion Proceedings, archived on the SoLAR website, incorporating practitioner papers, workshop outlines and papers, descriptions of demonstrations, and poster abstracts.

Finally, we are indebted to the members of the Program Committee and the Reviewers for their thoughtful and helpful reviews, comments and meta-reviews. Their work was not easy given the diversity and high quality of the works under review. Only with their support are we able to provide you with this program for LAK19.

Rebecca Ferguson, Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, UK
Ulrich Hoppe, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Christopher Brooks, School of Information, University of Michigan, USA