Research Methods Assignment: Annotated Bibliography - Process Mining

This assignment presents an annotated bibliography exploring the application of process mining in learning analytics. The bibliography examines five research papers, each analyzed based on the IEEE referencing style, search terms, and rationale for selection. The analysis delves into the papers' objectives, methodologies, peer-review status, author expertise, and key findings related to learning management systems, educational data mining, and student behavior. The annotated entries highlight similarities and differences between the papers, offering insights into the benefits and challenges of using process mining to analyze student data, improve learning outcomes, and personalize learning experiences. The papers cover topics such as skill estimation, behavior detection, data visualization, and attrition risk prediction within online learning environments, with a focus on the use of process mining techniques to derive valuable insights from educational data. The assignment concludes with a reflection on how these readings contribute to broader research in data mining and learning analytics, including the potential for enhanced learning in occupational training programs and real-time data analysis of student performance.

Research Methods Annotated Bibliography
Sin, K., & Muthu, L. (2015)
1. What is the paper’s reference in the IEEE style?
The reference style of this research paper is IEEE.
2. How did you find the paper? If applicable, write a list of the search terms you used.
The paper was found over Google scholar website. The search terms used were learning
analytics, process mining, educational data mining, process mining.
3. Why did you select this paper?
This paper have focused on the learning management system in higher education which are
promoting discoveries through learning analytics. The paper included big data technologies and
its implementation in education and have been useful to get literature on data mining and learning
analytics.
4. Was the paper peer-reviewed? Explain how you found out.
The paper is peer reviewed which was confirmed since the paper included the journal name
“online learning” along with volume number and page number.
5. Does the author(s) work in a university or a government-funded research institute? If so, which
university or research institute? If not, where do they work? What does this tell you about their
expertise? Are they an expert in the topic area?
Katrina Sin and Loganathan Muthu are from Faculty of Education and Languages, Open
University Malaysia, Malaysia and Department of Computer Science, Bharathiyar University, India
respectively. Both have experience in teaching and supporting faculty within the field of education.
Katrina Sin works as editorial board member, assistant editor for online journal learning and active
member of Association for Educational Communication and Technology (AECT), and Loganathan
Muthu is a member of journal of Computers & Education. Both background suggests that they
have extensive knowledge to contribute in this research topic.
6. What was the paper about?
The paper focus on the learning management system and describes how it have been a benefit
by creating opportunity to smart phone users. This paper is a systematic literature review which
utilises various methods like skill estimation, behaviour detection, data visualization, attrition risk
prediction therefore making it suitable for research topic.
7. Is this paper similar to other papers you have read for this assignment? If so, which papers and
why?
No this is paper is not similar to other research papers as it produces a systematic literature
review.
8. Is this paper different to other papers you have read for this assignment? If so, which papers and
why?
This paper is slightly different from other articles as it only produces a systematic literature review
unlike complete research project where other papers had specific objectives to be met through
applying proper methods.
9. What do these similarities and differences suggest? What are your observations? Do you have
any new ideas? Do you have any conclusions?
The differences suggested that it only produces extensive secondary sources of information that
are valuable for understanding about big data analytics and its implementation in educational data
mining.
10. How do you envisage this reading contributing to your group’s research paper?
The group research paper will be based on data mining and learning analytics which can be
related with the present research article.
Page 1 of 7

Research Methods Annotated Bibliography
Vahdat, M., Ghio, A., Oneto, L., Anguita, D., Funk, M. and
Rauterberg, M., (2015)
11. What is the paper’s reference in the IEEE style?
The referencing style of the paper is IEEE style.
12. How did you find the paper? If applicable, write a list of the search terms you used.
The paper was found over Google scholar website. The search terms used were process mining,
data analytics, data mining, process mining benefits, challenges
13. Why did you select this paper?
The paper was selected as it covers the review of novel contributions in the advances of learning
analytics and educational data mining.
14. Was the paper peer-reviewed? Explain how you found out.
The paper is not a peer reviewed which was confirmed since the paper did not include the journal
name along with volume number.
15. Does the author(s) work in a university or a government-funded research institute? If so, which
university or research institute? If not, where do they work? What does this tell you about their
expertise? Are they an expert in the topic area?
Mehrnoosh Vahdat is currently pursuing PhD in interactive and cognitive environments as the
double degree programs at DITEN, University of Technology in Netherlands. She has her
expertise in Information science, data mining and Human Computer Interactions. She
collaborated with Infinity Technology Solutions in the LACE project on the workplace package.
She has immense knowledge on this particular field and are considered to be an expert.
16. What was the paper about?
The paper was about a review of research in educational data mining and learning analytics. It
have highlighted wide number of researches and practice on adaptation, personalization and
applications for technology enhanced learning (TEL) to improve instructional design.
17. Is this paper similar to other papers you have read for this assignment? If so, which papers and
why?
This paper is quite similar to the previous mentioned paper as it provide a collective information
for all the researches that took place in field like machine learning and data analytics.
18. Is this paper different to other papers you have read for this assignment? If so, which papers and
why?
This paper is different to three other research paper but similar to other two, which means this
paper have also provided literature review for the subject topic.
19. What do these similarities and differences suggest? What are your observations? Do you have
any new ideas? Do you have any conclusions?
From the similarities and differences it can be concluded that the application of learning analytics
and educational data mining is directly related to enhanced learning in occupational training
program.
20. How do you envisage this reading contributing to your group’s research paper?
Within the group research it will hold a great value as it can predict the performance among the
students applying the process mining in data analytics.
Page 2 of 7

Research Methods Annotated Bibliography
Siemens, G., & d Baker, R. S. (2012, April)
21. What is the paper’s reference in the IEEE style?
The paper have followed IEEE referencing style.
22. How did you find the paper? If applicable, write a list of the search terms you used.
The paper was found over Google scholar website. The search terms used were process mining,
learning data analytics, educational data mining, process mining benefits, challenges
23. Why did you select this paper?
This paper was selected since it focused on the emergence of the big data analytics through
educational media and combined advances in computation which will contribute well to the
research topic.
24. Was the paper peer-reviewed? Explain how you found out.
The paper is not a peer reviewed since the paper did not include the journal name along with
volume number.
25. Does the author(s) work in a university or a government-funded research institute? If so, which
university or research institute? If not, where do they work? What does this tell you about their
expertise? Are they an expert in the topic area?
Ryan Baker is presently the director of Penn Centre for Learning Analytics. He did his Bachelor of
Science in Computer Science from Brown University, Masters of Science as well as PhD in
Human Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University. He has got incredible knowledge
in the field of process mining as well as data analytics.
26. What was the paper about?
The paper was about the data and analytics within the teaching, education and learning
processes which raise the priority for high quality research models and impact of analytics. This
paper argues for increased collaboration between learning analytics and knowledge and
educational data mining to develop the process leaning.
27. Is this paper similar to other papers you have read for this assignment? If so, which papers and
why?
This paper is less similar compared to other articles since the research has taken place at a
university with limited resources providing a brief comparison to only electronic data mining and
learning analytics
28. Is this paper different to other papers you have read for this assignment? If so, which papers and
why?
As discussed above this paper is different from others as it only contains limited information and
discuss few specific impact of learning analytics and educational data unlike explaining every
aspect.
29. What do these similarities and differences suggest? What are your observations? Do you have
any new ideas? Do you have any conclusions?
The differences suggests that the data can be taken into consideration for few specific aspects
and also differentiating between learning analytics and process data mining.
30. How do you envisage this reading contributing to your group’s research paper?
This reading can be contributed for studying the overlaps in research interests, goals, and
approaches between educational data mining and learning analytics.
Page 3 of 7

Research Methods Annotated Bibliography
Mukala, P., Buijs, J. C., Leemans, M., & van der Aalst, W. M. (2015,
December)
31. What is the paper’s reference in the IEEE style?
The paper have followed IEEE referencing style.
32. How did you find the paper? If applicable, write a list of the search terms you used.
The paper was found over Google scholar website. The search terms used were process mining,
learning data analytics, educational data mining, process mining benefits, online learning.
33. Why did you select this paper?
The paper was selected since it demonstrated the most appropriate research topic for learning
analytics through a process mining approach and what are is effectiveness in students learning.
34. Was the paper peer-reviewed? Explain how you found out.
No, the paper was not peer reviewed. It did not include the journal name and volume number.
35. Does the author(s) work in a university or a government-funded research institute? If so, which
university or research institute? If not, where do they work? What does this tell you about their
expertise? Are they an expert in the topic area?
Willbrordus Martinus Prancratius van der Aalst is a Dutch computer scientist as well as a full
professors at RWTH Aachen University and also the head of the Process and Data Science
department. He has done numerous research on workflow management, information systems,
process mining etc.
36. What was the paper about?
The paper focus on the massive open online courses (MOOCs) and its increasing effectiveness
within the learning program. Learning analytics provided useful insights into the educational data.
37. Is this paper similar to other papers you have read for this assignment? If so, which papers and
why?
The other paper which I read and this paper is different as this paper directly finds out the
students experience in learning process, general viewing habits and impact of such habits on the
overall performance. All these are observed in real time from the primary data collected.
38. Is this paper different to other papers you have read for this assignment? If so, which papers and
why?
Yes the paper is different from the others paper followed in this assignment as it visualises the
result of process mining within learning analytics in real time data.
39. What do these similarities and differences suggest? What are your observations? Do you have
any new ideas? Do you have any conclusions?
The differences of this paper have been exceptionally useful in gaining detailed insights and
considers the process discovery by measuring correlation between performance and learning
behaviour.
40. How do you envisage this reading contributing to your group’s research paper?
By observing the real time educational data, it can contribute towards present research paper
know more about traditional data mining and learning analytics.
Page 4 of 7

Research Methods Annotated Bibliography
Wise, A. F. (2014, March).
41. What is the paper’s reference in the IEEE style?
The paper have followed IEEE referencing style.
42. How did you find the paper? If applicable, write a list of the search terms you used.
The paper was found over Google scholar website. The search terms used were process mining,
learning data analytics, educational data mining, process mining.
43. Why did you select this paper?
This paper was selected as it tries to interlink learning analytics with student participation and
intervention design. It introduces unexplored area in learning analytics which can be used in
model of data mining.
44. Was the paper peer-reviewed? Explain how you found out.
No, the paper is not peer reviewed. It did not include the journal name and volume number.
45. Does the author(s) work in a university or a government-funded research institute? If so, which
university or research institute? If not, where do they work? What does this tell you about their
expertise? Are they an expert in the topic area?
Alyssa Wise is a professor at New York University and the director of Learning Analytics and
Research Network (LEARN). She did her Bachelor in Science degree in chemistry from Yale
University and masters in science degree on Instructional System Technology from Indiana
University.
46. What was the paper about?
The paper addressed the design of learning analytics interventions which help student engage
into three core processes, goal setting, grounding and reflection.
47. Is this paper similar to other papers you have read for this assignment? If so, which papers and
why?
This paper is not at all similar to other papers as it focused on one single aspect of learning
analytics which are further divided into processes to link with process mining making it one of a
kind research paper.
48. Is this paper different to other papers you have read for this assignment? If so, which papers and
why?
This paper is different as mentioned above due to its importance towards singular learning
analytical intervention design.
49. What do these similarities and differences suggest? What are your observations? Do you have
any new ideas? Do you have any conclusions?
The differences suggest helped in producing a preliminary model of analytics intervention design.
50. How do you envisage this reading contributing to your group’s research paper?
The paper will produce new concept of analytics intervention design into the present research
paper.
Page 5 of 7

Research Methods Annotated Bibliography
Lang, C., Siemens, G., Wise, A., & Gasevic, D. (Eds.). (2017).
51. What is the paper’s reference in the IEEE style?
The reference style of this research article is APA.
52. How did you find the paper? If applicable, write a list of the search terms you used.
The paper was found over Google scholar website. The search terms used were learning data
analytics, educational data mining
53. Why did you select this paper?
The paper was selected as the content were useful for the present research topic.
54. Was the paper peer-reviewed? Explain how you found out.
The paper is peer reviewed as the DOI number 10.18608/hla17.002 was available at this
research article.
55. Does the author(s) work in a university or a government-funded research institute? If so, which
university or research institute? If not, where do they work? What does this tell you about their
expertise? Are they an expert in the topic area?
George Siemens is a writer, speaker, theorist as well as researcher on learning networks,
analytics, technology as well as effectiveness of digital environment on the organizational level.
Siemens has a PhD with the University of Aberdeen and also received honorary doctorates from
Universidad de San Martin de Porres and University of Fraser Valley. He is also the founder of
the society for Learning Analytics Research (Solar).
56. What was the paper about?
The paper was about learning analytics that are applicable in algorithms and computational
methods of analysis.
57. Is this paper similar to other papers you have read for this assignment? If so, which papers and
why?
The similarity of this paper can be found with that of Avella, Kebritchi, Nunn & Kanai, (2016) which
presented both challenges and potential benefits of using process mining within learning
analytics.
58. Is this paper different to other papers you have read for this assignment? If so, which papers and
why?
It is different to every others paper except the one mentioned above as it focus on the
computational methods of analysis and relate with the process oriented data mining.
59. What do these similarities and differences suggest? What are your observations? Do you have
any new ideas? Do you have any conclusions?
These differences and similarities states that it is important to acknowledge that network analytic
techniques ad demonstrate variety of computational methods in the learning analytical
community.
60. How do you envisage this reading contributing to your group’s research paper?
This reading can be contributed to the group research paper by linking the learning analytics and
inferred with contingency links.
Page 6 of 7

Research Methods Annotated Bibliography
Bibliography
Lang, C., Siemens, G., Wise, A., & Gasevic, D. (Eds.). (2017). Handbook of learning analytics.
SOLAR, Society for Learning Analytics and Research.
Mukala, P., Buijs, J. C., Leemans, M., & van der Aalst, W. M. (2015, December). Learning analytics
on coursera event data: A process mining approach. In SIMPDA (pp. 18-32).
Siemens, G., & d Baker, R. S. (2012, April). Learning analytics and educational data mining: towards
communication and collaboration. In Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on
learning analytics and knowledge (pp. 252-254). ACM.
Sin, K., & Muthu, L. (2015). Application of big data in education data mining and learning analytics--A
literature review. ICTACT journal on soft computing, 5(4).
Vahdat, M., Ghio, A., Oneto, L., Anguita, D., Funk, M. and Rauterberg, M., 2015. Advances in learning
analytics and educational data mining. Proc. of ESANN2015, pp.297-306.
Wise, A. F. (2014, March). Designing pedagogical interventions to support student use of learning
analytics. In Proceedings of the fourth international conference on learning analytics and
knowledge (pp. 203-211). ACM.
Page 7 of 7