People produce around 2.5 quintillion data every day. Most of it belongs to the tech-savvy Internet users, within every industry. Among which is Education.
In this industry, an immense amount of data is produced through teaching and learning activities. To be exact, by schools and college students and a variety of online courses. The question is, how to process this amount of data and take advantage of it? Here comes technology.
How big data is transforming the industry? Inoxoft shares some of the most common uses of big data in education.
Big data can help all educational institutions, whether schools or universities, transform their teaching approaches and monitor educational systems. And also, improve students’ academic outcomes and professors’ effectiveness.
Defining Big Data
Big Data is a technological tool that refers to the process of collecting and processing large sets of data. Scientists extract, structure, and analyze complex data to gain insights that allow industries to predict tendencies, and create new solutions. Why big? Such an amount of information is too large and complex to be processed by traditional approaches. It is described by the following concepts: volume, velocity, variety, variability, and veracity.
The Value of Big Data in Education
Today academic institutions rely on different technologies to run their daily operations. For example, Inoxoft’s educational software development services focus on three main directions e-learning software development, custom LMS development, and school management software development. As for Big data, according to the statistics, the global Big data education market is forecasted to reach up to $57.14 billion by 2030, compared to $13.58 billion in 2020. The technology provides educational institutions with more possibilities to gather information related to the teaching environment, transform the way they analyze this information, and create efficient pedagogical methodologies.
Usually, there are three uses of Big data in education: Data Analytics, Data Mining, and Web Dashboards. The insights gained from them areas bring the following benefits. It:
- enhances productivity by providing information about best practices and opportunities for improvement.
- analyze the best teaching methods to improve a learner’s capacity.
- helps teachers analyze their teaching methodology and affect changes according to students’ requirements.
- ensures data-driven decision-making in academic performance and technology efficiency.
- defines financial planning to optimize the institution’s resources
With help of technology, teachers got access to students’ academic performance and learning patterns. Big data analysis help educators determine areas where students struggle, develop strategies for personalized learning and understand the individual needs of students.
It also creates a more personalized approach to education and maximizes students’ academic progress. By identifying the reasons for students leaving college, Big data analytics is helping administrators develop strategies to enhance student retention.
Use of big data in Education
So, now let’s discover examples of how academic institution uses Big Data in Education.
Measurement of accomplishments
Today, universities, research institutions, and other educational institutions can be equipped with analytics and statistical information that will benefit their daily operations. Big data can helps with analyzing students’ achievements and give meaningful insights into their performance, and motivation. And, also review the efficiency of online courses.
Enhancing Results
Usually, a student’s performance is analyzed by their grades obtained in assignments and exams. With the use of Big Data in education, these grades can be accumulated to provide valuable insights. Thus, by monitoring simple actions like
- response time for test questions
- additional sources students use to study
- questions students skip
- successfully answered questions, etc
teachers are able to understand more deeply the performance of students and offer better solutions.
Effective evaluation
Insights, gained from big data analysis provide important information that allows institutions effectively evaluate courses and adjust their programs if needed. Analytics tools can help to create a better learning experience and ensure output for students in future semesters.
Personalized learning
Big data make it possible to define what methodology is the most effective for each student. Thus it makes the learning process personalized which help upgrade student’s skills, and communicative abilities, or cope with different subjects faster.
Using digital solutions to create interactive learning experiences, adapted to learners’ needs is now a reality and worth great attention from educators.
Improved grading system
When it comes to educational institutions, the lack of accuracy in grading systems is something they are faced with constantly.
Today there are different applications available on the market that help monitor the performance and students’ behavior in real-time. Big Data analysis enables teachers to understand the performance on an individual and a collective level. Thus, the grading system can be improved to highlight the directions where the student succeeds.
Technologies also help teachers to provide more valuable feedback to their students which can significantly improve results. And assist in making the right career choice.
Reduced dropouts
The dropout rate at schools and universities is increasing and that’s another issue, these institutions are dealing with. However, the analysis simplifies access to data on attendance, allowing to detect students who are likely to fail or leave classes. Academic institutions use predictive analysis to notice unusual learning behavior in time and immediately react. Or even define how students will perform in the future. Big data tools can also help monitor the job market and how students perform after graduation.
University admissions
Big data technologies allow educational institutions, especially universities predict demand, the influx of applicants, and analyze the factors that affect the application process more accurately. In this case, institutions can adjust their recruitment strategies accordingly. For instance, they can establish new educational directions, temporarily close outdated and unpopular programs to save funds, increase the number of places, manage scholarships, adjust the budget, etc.
Final Thoughts
The world is changing and each industry embraces new technologies. Education is no different. The role of big data in this area is growing with the development of the technology itself. More and more educational institutes use cutting-edge technologies to enhance data-driven decisions and improve the quality of the learning process for everybody involved.
