Big Data, Small Data, and Data Shepherds

• In Event: Learning Analytics in Higher Education: Exploring Big Data on Campus

Abstract

The development of detailed online data collection platforms provides educators with an intimate window into student behaviors. However, analysts must still make difficult decisions about how to conceptualize key educational constructs and, further, must identify what large-scale quantitative analytics can and cannot show. This presentation explores a mixed-methods approach to learning analytics in higher education, gathering additional data sources that complement existing analytic platforms and complexify the data ecosystem. With thoughtful data shepherds managing the conceptualization, measurement, and study of such a data ecosystem, the combination of big data and other information sources has the potential to inform complex decision making in higher education.

Author

• Jennifer Deboer, Purdue University