This article introduces the evolution of themes and ideas related to the history, theory, and practice of learning analytics within the learning, design, and technology field through four eras. This review provides researchers with a fundamental understanding of the origin of learning analytics from a historical perspective and distinguishes learning analytics from educational data mining. This article also explores the relationship between theory and learning analytics, which provides some guidance for future related learning analytics research. Ethical concerns of learning analytics are also discussed in the hope of providing some guidance for practitioners and future research.