Rate My Professor Yi-Shan Tsai

Yi-Shan Tsai is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University, Department of Data Science & AI, 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. Tsai holds a PhD in Education from the University of Cambridge awarded in 2015, an MPhil in Education from the same university awarded in 2008 focusing on children's engagement with multimodal texts, and a BA in Foreign Languages and Literatures from National Chung Hsing University awarded in 2005. Prior to higher education research, she worked as a school teacher with children aged 9-15. Before joining Monash, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh from 2016 to 2020, holding lead roles on multinational projects such as the SHEILA project that informed learning analytics policy for over 200 higher education institutions across Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Australia. During her Edinburgh tenure, she was first based in the Moray House School of Education and Sport before moving to the School of Informatics.

Tsai's research aims to enhance learning, teaching, and educational environments with digital and data technologies, investigating socio-technical issues and pedagogical implications from multi-stakeholder perspectives. Her expertise spans learning analytics, digital education, feedback analytics, data-driven feedback and literacy based on educational theories and storytelling principles, multimodal literacy, and reading cultures. She has participated as PI or co-PI in grants totaling over AUD$11 million. Key publications include 'Analytics of Learner-Centered Feedback: A Large-Scale Case Study in Higher Education' (2025), 'Analytics of Self-Regulated Learning in Learning Analytics Feedback Processes: Associations With Feedback Literacy in Secondary Education' (2025), 'Designing relational feedback: a rapid review and qualitative synthesis' (2025), and 'Learning analytics in higher education – stakeholders, strategy and scale' with Gašević and Drachsler. Awards encompass Monash Graduate Association Supervisor of the Year (2025), Dean's Award for Research Impact (Economic and Social Impact, 2021), Learning Technology Research Project of the Year (2019), and conference best paper and poster awards. A Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and Honorary Fellow at the University of Edinburgh School of Informatics (2019-2024), she was an executive member of the Society for Learning Analytics Research including Vice President (2021-2022), initiating the SoLAR Spotlight podcast and ECR Grant Programme.