In the past year of reading about and covering technology topics for the NMC Horizon Report series, there are a few key points I’ve gleaned about big data and analytics: 1) the science of data mining is making major waves in education, 2) it is a field of study that is growing with urgency — organizations with access to data are actively seeking people who can study, manipulate, and leverage it effectively, and 3) the fruit of this research may help me decide to become a Navy Seal or not.
Stay with me.
You may have heard that some universities are experimenting with predictive analytic techniques to automate the advising process; these systems reveal the most productive path of study, or the path of least resistance (depending on how you look at it) based on a student’s past grades and standardized test scores.