Analytics in Learning and Education

The article Analytics in Learning and Education opened a new perspective for me to look at the process of learning and teaching. It is likely to establish a new platform on which the future of the higher education will be based. Big data or analytics, as new tools of observation, will enable us to watch the educational processes from a new dimension which has never been revealed before, and gather an astonishing array of data that will have the greatest impact on higher education.

Every click, every update, every social interaction as also mentioned by Daphne Koller in the video material, can leave a digital footprint. I had a chance to examine this footprint in the file posted in the Moodle. I immediately started thinking about correlational studies which could find the relationships between a number of variables. This kind of learner-produced data will give us new insights in teaching and learning and transform our practice from ‘clinical’ to ‘evidence-based’ practice, as in medicine.

The difference between academic analytics and learning analytics is that the former focuses on data analysis at an institutional level, whereas the latter focuses on a specific environment in which learning takes place. Both can bring valuable impact on understanding the learning process. One of the biggest values that I could observe is that analytics can help us identify Ls at risk and provide immediate intervention to assist him in his educational success.

I strongly agree that the most crucial factor is not just the transformation of our perceptions or concepts about what is actually happening in the learning process, but the corrective transformation of processes connected with teaching and learning.

It was interesting to find out about the implications of the learning analytics, and one that I found, in the article is that assessment is no longer end-of-course activity, and each L can find learning content relevant to his background.

The same conviction was put forth by Daphne Koller in the video material who presented that the content of online courses they provide worldwide for free is divided into modules for different Ss with different backgrounds which allows Ss to follow much more personalized curriculum where every single S has to get engaged with the material.

She also presented the way they graded the Ss’ assignments. The solution is peer-grading or self-grading which very well correlated with the T’s grading. I believe this solution is also a useful strategy for Ss to learn from their learning experiences where there is a lot of collaboration. One interesting fact about feedback was the finding of the study that a S who would pose a question at 3 am was likely to receive a response within 22 minutes. I am quite sure that the ability to interact actively and receive immediate feedback or be told when or where you are right or wrong is really essential.

Technology allows not only for personalized feedback based for example on the distribution of wrong answers on the map but also solves the 30-year old problem connected with personalized curriculum.

Mark Twain’s words help me describe Armenian universities as a typical example of providing lecture-based format of education where “a professor’s lecture notes go straight to the Ss’ lecture notes, without passing through the brains of either”.

We need active learning, interactive learning, and the learner performance will increase in all parameters.