This paper argues that learning analytics (LA) can make contributions to learning research, in addition to aiming for improvements in learning and teaching practices in a solely applied sense. Indeed, there is potential for transforming learning research if certain approaches developed in LA were used more extensively to study learning. The potential to advance learning research is explored along four dimensions: (1) data quantity, (2) longitudinal data, (3) data from multiple levels, and (4) data from multiple locations. This is followed by a description of how design-based research as practised in the learning sciences can serve as a bridge to LA, and how it would transform LA into a methodology that is also useful for advancing theories and models of learning.

Laser-based directed energy deposition using metal powder (DED-LB/M) offers great potential for a flexible production mainly defined by software. To exploit this potential, knowledge of the process parameters required to achieve a specific track geometry is essential. Existing analytical, numerical, and machine-learning approaches, however, are not yet able to predict the process parameters in a satisfactory way. A trial-&-error approach is therefore usually applied to find the best process parameters. This paper presents a novel user-centric decision-making workflow, in which several combinations of process parameters that are most likely to yield the desired track geometry are proposed to the user. For this purpose, a Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) model, which has the advantage of including uncertainty quantification (UQ), was trained with experimental data to predict the geometry of single DED tracks based on the process parameters. The inherent UQ of the GPR together with the expert knowledge of the user can subsequently be leveraged for the inverse question of finding the best sets of process parameters by minimizing the expected squared deviation between target and actual track geometry. The GPR was trained and validated with a total of 379 cross sections of single tracks and the benefit of the workflow is demonstrated by two exemplary use cases.