Nowadays, education is shifting more and more into different e-learning environments. This poses a new challenge to the learning institutions: how to effectively integrate these new technologies into teaching? As one solution to the problem learning analytics is presented. In learning analytics, e-learning environments utilize big data to reinforce both teaching and learning. In the thesis, different ways of utilizing big data in e-learning environments are presented and their benefits are assessed and compared to the traditional challenges of e-learning. As result, three ways to utilize big data were discovered: data visualization and prediction, recommendation systems and personalized learning environments. The main benefits of these technologies were more effective decision-making, learning and teaching based on the data collected. To the traditional challenges of e-learning learning analytics offered i.a. more versatile usage of the environment and the continuous development of the environment. The thesis was conducted as a literature review.