Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

Sense-making of data-based feedback and self-regulated learning/ Enhancing data-based feedback through storytelling/ Value-driven adoption of learning analytics

20162026

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Biography

Yi-Shan Tsai is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Information Technology and a member of the Centre for Learning Analytics at Monash (CoLAM). She is also a member of the Digital Education Research Group at Monash and an associate scholar of the Centre for Research in Digital Education and the Centre for Research in Education Inclusion and Diversity at the University of Edinburgh. Before joining Monash, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh (2016-2020) where she had a lead role on several multi-national projects, collaborating with a wide range of partners in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Australia. She is particularly known for her achievements on an award-winning project, SHEILA (Supporting Higher Education to integrate Learning Analytics), which has informed policy development for learning analytics in over 200 higher education institutions around the world. During her time in Edinburgh, she was affiliated with the Centre for Research in Digital Education and was first based in the Moray House School of Education and Sport before moving to the School of Informatics. Yi-Shan holds a PhD and an MPhil degree in Education from the University of Cambridge where she focused her research on children's engagement with multimodal texts including picturebooks and comic books. Prior to working in the higher education context, she worked extensively with children aged between 9 and 15 as a school teacher. 
 
Yi-Shan's current research aims to enhance learning, teaching, and educational environments with the adoption of digital and data technologies. In particular, she investigates social-technical issues and pedagogical implications around the use of data and digital technologies in education from multi-stakeholder perspectives. She is also interested in developing effective data-driven feedback and literacy based on educational theories and storytelling principles. She is one of the early pioneers on feedback analytics, which apply learning analytics techniques to track learner engagement with feedback and provide personalised support to scaffold feedback literacy. As an interdisciplinary researcher, she has research expertise in areas including learning analytics, digital education, feedback, multimodal literacy, and reading cultures. Yi-Shan has participated as a PI or co-PI in several research grants internally and externally funded grants totalling over AUD$11M.
 
Yi-Shan is a Fellow of UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA)(Advance HE). She was an Honorary Fellow at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh (2019 -- 2024). She served as an executive member of the Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR) between 2019 and 2024, and had the honour to hold positions including Vice President and the Communication Working Group Chair. During her service on the SoLAR committee, she started a podcast programme (SoLAR Spotlight: Conversations on Learning Analytics) and established the SoLAR ECR Grant Programme to support early career researchers.

Supervision interests

Areas: social informatics, learning analytics, digital education, digital humanities

Learning analytics specific topics:

  • learning analytics-based feedback processes
  • feedback literacy
  • institutional adoption strategy and policy
  • applications of storytelling methods
  • human-centred learning analytics

Monash teaching commitment

FIT4005 - IT research and innovation methods

FIT5125 - IT research and innovation methods

FIT2002 - Project management

FIT5057 - Project management

FIT3174 - IT strategy and governance

FIT5102 - IT strategy and governance

ITO5005 - Educational theories and processes in learning analytics

ITO5006 - Human-centred learning analytics

 

Education/Academic qualification

Education, PhD, University of Cambridge

Award Date: 18 Jul 2015

Education, MPhil, University of Cambridge

Award Date: 23 Feb 2008

Foreign Languages and Literatures, BA, National Chung Hsing University

Award Date: 30 Jun 2005

Research area keywords

  • Learning Analytics
  • Digital education
  • Multimodal feedback
  • Educational policy and leadership
  • Multimodal literacy and storytelling

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  1. SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
    SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
  2. SDG 4 - Quality Education
    SDG 4 Quality Education

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or