Digital footprints (2005–2019): a systematic mapping of studies in education

Abstract

Digital footprints (DF) offer relevant information about educational activities and processes related to strategies of academic assessment, identification of skills and psychological traits of students, and permanence and dropout trends, etc. This study analyzes scientific evidence on the use of DF in education, and shows the results of a systematic mapping of literature carried out based on the analysis of documents published in the last fifteen years (2005–2019) in two databases: Scopus and Web of Science (WoS). Findings reveal that educational research on DF is focused on learning analytics, the study of digital presence and psychometric modeling. Likewise, the article reports on the scarce investigation of DF in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) environments and highlights the multiple meanings of DF as an action and as a service, beyond the generalized conception of data. These findings suggest the importance of preparing educational institutions to implement DF use and management practices in order to favor processes that range from DF curation, to cognitive evaluation, digital equity, prediction of school success and/or failure, etc. Hence, DF meanings (data, action and service) could aid to generate proper administration and policy-making actions, placed at the service of all students and their educational communities.