Education Revolution Through Technology and Big Data
Utilization of Big Data in the Education sector has taken a long time to be embraced, but it is finally here, and the utilization is going up steadily. Large amount of information was already stored, but never used. Now, with Big Data tools, they are being used to make meaningful decisions. Here are some of the ways Big Data is generated and utilized in education to improve students and teachers experience daily.
Data Sourcing
Traditionally, data collected by the educational institutes was disjointed and not always digital, be it attendance records, written essays and graded papers, background information collected during admission, and so on. Now, the education management system has been integrated into every students and teachers’ activities. Gone are the days of just tracking the student performance and interests through exams/quizzes and class participation. Now, school portals can track when students browse for material online or click a referral link. The time taken to read a book online, time spent on a page, mouse hovers, time taken to answer questions, all factors are monitored to understand the psyche and the abilities of the students.
In the upcoming times, more data sources will be added. Some of the vital sources of education data will be the shared information on social media platforms such Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and all the online forums and discussion panels. There may also be, in the long run, the full incorporation of other IoT (Internet of Things) components like wearable tech, motion detection, audio/video recording etc. to track students’ interest areas, lack of understanding, or even health issues. But, there are a lot of security and privacy concern question to answer before a system like that can be fully implemented and utilized.
Improve Learning Experience
Max Ventilla, Founder and CEO of AltSchool imagined of a school where technology is used as part of the education system, and the curriculum is shaped according to the interests and abilities of the students. The performance is reported through monitoring of tasks (or “playlists”) completed, and the playlists are setup based on quantified metrics of the students’ abilities, interests, energy level, social skills, and input from parents and teachers. This approach to education is remarkably different from our regular classroom system and can offer insights into what is to come as part of educational reforms and usage of Big Data and Analytics as part of education.
Big Data and analytics have also revolutionized the higher education through technological innovations. As students progress over the years, the classroom interaction between teachers and students reduce dramatically. Sometimes due to peer pressure or social anxiety, and sometimes because of disinterest. This can change again through anonymous questions and small tasks between the lecture. For example, Lecture Tools (acquired by Echo360) has enhanced class learning through integrating students and professor presentation. Students can follow the presentation from their devices. During the presentation, students can ask anonymous question relating to the area that they have not understood. This helps students ask questions even if they are too afraid of asking it out loud. This interactive tool encourages student participation in class, and better understanding through clarification.
Global Learning
Big Data provides a broad source of information for students learning and research globally. Each day, there are thousands of articles, research papers, and books that are uploaded online and there are more globally accessible learning resources such as the Google Scholar, Social Science Research Network, Online Encyclopedias, educational YouTube videos and LinkedIn. The online databases have become the center of learning. Students and researchers can access almost every information they require from any field online and learn on their own and enhance student’s performances. The way Big Data plays a role in all this is through identification of education gaps in the market and provide courses and learning modules to meet the requirements of the job market.
According to a report by Babson Survey Research Group on online learning, there were an estimated 5.8 million US higher education students (making up almost 28% of all US higher education students) enrolled in at least one online course for Fall 2014.
Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCS) have also changed the learning and skill acquiring sources for people. There is a rise in eLearning courses provided online. They enhance learning process by providing the knowledge where and when needed, from the comfort of the person’s home. Schools have adapted to creation of online leaning as well, by providing the courses online for the courses that happen in class, in live settings. This allows for proper classroom type interaction even if the students are not in the classroom. According to the same Babson Survey Research Group report, there were 11.3% higher education institutes in 2015 providing MOOC.
All these online courses, people who use it, their background, their performance for the course, problem solutions, time taken to fully grasp the course, everything can be tracked to get a general idea about the interest in the field, upcoming ideas, famous tools and so on.
Current Issues
The biggest issue surrounding usage of Big Data in education revolves around privacy of the students and security of the data. Security is a primary concern for any Big Data implementation, and it is an ongoing battle to increase the security of stored data.
Privacy is just as big a concern. Being able to identify individuals based on data available is a threat to the privacy of the individual, who doesn’t want to be tracked. It then becomes the responsibility of the person or the organization using the data to make sure privacy of the users are upheld to the highest standards, and all concerns are taken into consideration. One such example of shift in taking privacy concern seriously is the GDPR Regulation recently passed by the European Union.
The Future
The Big Data utilization in the education sector have not fully been established, and so many potentials opportunities are yet to be explored. The collection of data from the education sector is expected to increase exponentially in the coming years as its utilization is fully adopted into the education system.
There will be more investment by education sector in Information technology infrastructure to keep up with the data demand and remain competitive in the different aspect of education. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other investors have invested over $133 million in the AltSchool projects for the model to be reproduced and expanded.
The increased use of Big Data Analytics in the education system will improve efficiency and facilitate new platform of learning that is being adopted, and the future of education seems better than ever before.
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