Co-designing AI-powered learning analytics: bringing students and teachers together

There is a growing interest in involving students and teachers in the design of human-centered Learning Analytics (LA) systems to align them with authentic learning needs. Yet, limited prior research has explored the implications of integrating both students’ and teachers’ perspectives within a structured co-design process. To address this shortcoming in the literature, we report on a study that examined how undergraduate nursing students and teachers co-designed an AI-powered LA system to support post-debriefing reflection on teamwork and communication in the context of healthcare simulation. This qualitative study, using a co-design approach, examined the design process of an LA system from conceptualization to post-use evaluation. The study addressed two key questions: i) What tensions emerge from the contrasting perspectives of students and teachers in the co-design an AI-powered LA system? and ii) How do students and teachers perceive their joint participation in the co-design process? Three key design tension themes emerged from the contrasting perspectives of students and teachers: teaching–learning goals tension, privacy–utility tension, and human-AI guidance preferences tension. The collaborative design process revealed mutual benefits: students valued teachers’ guidance in refining ideas and aligning system goals with learning objectives, while teachers, initially cautious about student involvement, came to see co-design as an opportunity to empower students and deepen their own understanding of responsible data use in practice. These findings contribute to the broader understanding of co-design dynamics in educational technology, underscoring the importance of balanced stakeholder involvement in developing practical, context-aware LA systems.