Big data can benefit higher education. Community colleges need to use big data but, step one is to determine what is valued. Big data does not bring magic, but it can bring information together in a cohesive, interpretable format such as Perdue’s Signals, a predictive analytic model (2013). Community colleges should develop systems to such as Signals. Gathering data from many sources and analyzing trends. But is this what we want?
A few weeks ago I ended up in a meeting during a company demonstration. This company uses big data to analyze scheduling patterns and trends. The goal is to use this data to increase student completion by achieving maximum space utilization and predict registration patterns. The product showed trends and patterns along with problem areas. The product is not as important as what the vendor said: “After showing the patterns to the institution and documenting suggestions for improvement, most institutions institute 5-7% of the suggested improvements” (Ad Astra, September 29, 2016). WHAT? Why would a college pay over $70,000 per year to analyze data and then not use the information? Do the colleges’, not value having enough sections of a course to meet demand? Other comments revealed that even the systems that are in place are only used at a fraction of their potential and analyzing patterns is not done.
There is a great benefit in using big data to analyze trends, avoid missed opportunities for intervention, and create new ways to look at trends. By using substantial volume and variety of information, the veracity is increased. Volume and variety is important to community colleges so that they can confidently move away from the business as usual business plan and truly embrace change that can increase student success. Antidotal naysayers are abundant in higher education; data is protected, and the term academic freedom is thrown around like a lifeline, but this system is not evidence-led and does not result in successes. Let us use data to continually improve academia. Use the tools that are available to their full potential and examine the trends to drive improvement.
References
Ad Astra. (2016, September 29). Platinum analytics demonstration. Conference Call.
Educause (2013, July). Signals: Using Academic Analytics to Promote Student Success. Retrieved: http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/signals-using-academic-analytics-promote-student-success
Edwards, C. (2014, April 8). Gollum [Photograph; .JPG]. Retrieved from http://coryedwards.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Gollum.jpg
Point well taken. Big Data is indeed essential, but the rush to hop on the bandwagon means that much time and money will be wasted by schools that lose sight of the signal-to-noise ratio.