Learning analytics is a relatively new field of inquiry and its precise meaning is both contested and fluid (Johnson, Smith, Willis, Levine & Haywood, 2011; LAK, n.d.). Ferguson (2012) suggests that the best working definition is that offered by the first Learning Analytics and Knowledge (LAK) conference: "the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for the purposes of understanding and optimising, learning and the environment in which it occurs" (Ferguson, 2012 n.p.; LAK, n.d.). This author argues that there are two key limitations to learning analytics as it is currently envisaged. The first is that learning analytics has only limited usefulness from both a practical and pedagogical perspective. The second is that the scope of learning analytics is limited because it is largely focused on only a portion of the student body. In this paper Ellis proposes that assessment analytics has the potential to make a valuable contribution to the field of learning analytics by both increasing its usefulness and broadening its scope. She goes on to speculate as to why assessment analytics is underexplored and to propose a framework that can be used to begin to define what it might mean. (Contains 1 note.)