have you heard of big data before

do you
know how it's going to be used to shape
the future of education

stick around and let's see if we can

explain that to you

hello my name is usam al-dahman i would

like to welcome you to this episode that
talks about
big data and how it's going to shape the
future of education

today's episode is based on an article

that was published in
review of research and education in 2020
by fisher ital

effectively this paper

was actually written by nine different
people which makes it a very
interesting paper because it provides
expertise from various
places

let's begin by talking about what

is big data

big data it differs from your regular

data because it comes from
large volumes

it comes from many

different places yet at the same time it
comes in a very speedy
manner

the paper talks about the root of

big data coming
now in education coming from two
specific places

one
student information system or sis now
this includes items such as
academic backgrounds for students their
status in terms of
where are they in the program their
performance and
along with demographics

also big data in

education comes from
learning management systems lms like
blackboard canvas
moodle

they provide us with information

about
students behavior this is information
that is difficult to obtain through
face-to-face interaction but they
provide us with something that is really
critical which is
timed stamped logs which could be used
as
data points

it's important to know

that big data has three different
levels level one is called the micro level
which is a
clickstream data

this is where we talk

about
interaction of individuals in their
learning environment and now we're
talking about
MOOCs we're talking about simulations
intelligent tutoring systems
games so this is where we obtain
information from
the clickstream of the interaction that
is
generated by the students

secondly
something called
mesolevel or text data this is where we
look at the learners
writing in a digital setting of course
this was not possible before but now
because we're using things like
discussion forums
online assignments social media
interactions so we can take whatever the
students have written
and analyze that and make that into big
data

the third level is a macro level

now this is where we were talking about
institutional data this is where we're
talking about the learner's demographics
admission data class schedules
enrollments
term grades

this is a you know data that

is available on a macro level
of course there's overlapping between
the three and we'll talk more about that
later in the video

the paper what it does it actually

reviews
multiple papers in the past and it
synthesizes them
and it takes the information and it
actually provides us with
the summaries now

this article
focused on uh 370 papers that
that looked at micro level big data
175 papers that looked at mezzo level
and 57 papers that looked at
the micro level let's begin with the
micro level data

now this data gives us

insight regarding the learner's actions
now this is important because
this gives us information about how
students
interact online however what's
important about this is that we don't
need a large number of students to
obtain this kind of data

one single
student could generate hundreds if not
thousands of data points

just think of a student and how they

interact online how many times they
click how many times they preview a
particular course
how many times they see a video all of
these different
interactions are actually tabulated and
recorded
and this is where we get that
information

so if you take that you

multiply that by 100 students 200
students and now you have a huge
amount of data which we call micro level
big data

for this particular information we're

talking
really about something called
self-regulated learning we're really
trying to understand how
students are learning and we're trying
to get this information
in real time the paper divides this
level into six different components

the first component is known as

knowledge component
now this is where we're trying to
identify
how performance relates to complex
cognitive skills
the paper talks about using automated
detectors
to show how students interact and how
they
transfer knowledge from one domain to
the next instructors could use this data
of course to scale up or scale down
student learning

the second component

that was talked about was something
called
metacognition and self-regulation
now this information is obtained through
LMS learning management systems like
blackboard or moocs
now this is where we're trying to
understand the students previewing and
reviewing of course materials
now we're talking about how they are
going to manage their time
and their tendency to procrastinate

the third component that was discussed

in this paper
was something called identifying
affective
states now this is where we get
information that helps instructors
understand non-cognitive constructs
that are related to engagement
motivation
affect examples of this could include
things like sensor based and interaction
based detectors by using
facial expressions and hand movements
these detectors could
reveal information about frustration or
the drop of interest
in the students when they of course are
interacting online

the fourth level that was discussed in

the paper of course which is perhaps
the most important which is identifying
and evaluating student knowledge now
this is of course
also known as knowledge inference or
latent knowledge estimation so we're
trying to understand how students
try to analyze particular problems that
are giving online

the fifth level talks about data being

used as
actionable knowledge now this is where
it's closely monitored by
administration so that they can actually
find out exactly how
there could be certain interventions for
students so for example we're trying to
detect how students become disengaged
from online courses
or we could use detectors as the basis
for interact intervention to find out
exactly how we can improve
student engagement and motivation
the last level or the last component
this is where
big data is used to cluster information
so that we can actually
get as much data as we can and then
understand how we can try to personalize
that data
and try to help each student on an
individual
level

the paper moves on to talk about

mesolevel big data this is where we have
witnessed a shift
in writing from paper to the digital
domain now because
students are writing in various
places online for example through lms or
through social media
we can actually find information about
how students understand the topics
through their writing so we can use
linguistic tools to identify
lexical or syntactic features in student
writing

now this is really important because

students are writing not just through
lms but also through social media so we
can actually obtain information from
there as well

now the paper divides this level into

four different components
cognitive social behavioral and
effective

let's begin with the cognitive now this

is where they're saying we're trying to
support and evaluate cognitive function through
this kind of data now the focus here is
on supporting and
assessing students cognitive function
knowledge and skills this is done by
offering
of course information about automated
student feedback and automated student
grading so this is where we're trying to
help faculty members
in grading essay papers
through the information that's provided
by this kind of big data

the other level that they've talked

about our component is supporting and
examining
social processes now when we talk about
social processes we say that it stems
from
online dialogue and discussion patterns
these are related of course to things
that they write in discussion boards
intelligent tutoring systems transcripts
of videos
so this information is really critical
because it provides us with information
on
the social interaction between students
and of course their instructor

the third
level that was talked about or the third
component
is detecting behavioral engagement now
this is related to the student's
course engagement and resource seeking
behavior
so for example students that view
lecture videos
sometimes they pause, sometimes they fast
forward, sometimes they rewind so we try
to understand exactly
what is this related to their behavior
how is this all tied to the way that
they're
understanding the course material

the last level that was discussed is

something called
examining effective constructs now this
deals with the learner's
self-concept or and sentiment
motivation and how they engage in
learning activities
an example would be the learner's
feeling about the course
how are they finding this course are
they
feeling that this is something that is
too much for them is this going to
impact the dropout rate in this course
so this is really critical important
information that gives us an idea about
the learner's self self-concept

the last level of data is called macro

level
data now this is data that is not often
updated so this is
information that is obtained on yearly
or maybe semesterly basis
often used for early warning systems
course guidance and information system
that is also obtained through this
gives the administrators information
about how to
deal with the students and how to
understand the students

let's talk about the different levels

that are included under this particular
categorization of big data which is the
micro level

first of all we're talking here about

institutional data
which includes student demographics
their admission data,
enrolment, grades this is information of
course as we've mentioned
is not updated quite often however it is
really critical of course when it's
combined with the other levels of data
as we just
discussed at the beginning of the video

so this is really important where we

take a look at
student demographics and their behavior
or student demographics and their
writing and what
they're trying to convey their admission
data and their enrollment their past
grades this is all critical information
that is
really important for the instructors
another really critical importance here
is looking at the early warning systems
that is provided by
this particular big data so
institutional big data could be utilized
to construct a preemptive early warning
system
so this gives us an idea if students are
on the cusp of failing
or if the if the faculty member needs to
intervene so they can understand exactly
what the student is facing

this is also important because it gives

us course guidance
this kind of level of data gives us
course guidance so
we can look at past information to
understand how
the student could behave in the future
to understand if they're able
to complete their degrees and if they're
eligible
to graduate and if there is an
intervention that is needed so that we
can actually step in
and say to the student well based on
your past records
it seems like you are facing certain
issues

there's also an administrative

component here
that talks about the relationship
between the institution
and the students so again we're trying
to
have information that could provide
valuable insight
into the institution's overall education
environment so we're trying to assess
the institution as a whole not just the
student

of course there are challenges with big

data three kinds of challenges were
mentioned in this paper

number one uh accessing this data

number two analyzing this data and

number three
using this data to make decisions

let's
begin with
accessing big data big data comes from
platforms sometimes that were not
designed for this kind of research as we
said the origins of big data
comes from student information systems
and from lms
information that was embedded there was
never meant to be researchable
so there are certain challenges of
obtaining information from sources that
were never designed
to provide us with that kind of
information

the second thing that is really important

that we need to talk about here are the
privacy issues
so educators and parents could be
concerned
with the way that this kind of data
could be used
so it's important that we are not going
to be using this information for any
marketing campaigns
for stereotyping or profiling students
so
this there this is a huge issue now
that is need that that needs to be of
course discussed and taken into account

now i would like to talk about analyzing

big data big data requires certain
research skills that are not abundantly
available
even if those skills are available there
are certain issues with error rates
and noise but let me go back to the
skills that are needed
analyzing big data requires certain
knowledge of
software and analysis which of course is
not
available with many of us

when it comes
to using big data
there's huge conflict between explaining
and predicting
so for example big data could help
explain a phenomena
but it might not help in predicting its
future occurrence and there's also the
possibility of bias that needs to be
taken into account

now in terms of recommendation the paper

offers the following
it says
number one there has to be
emphasis that needs to be placed on
providing
training on how we of course again
obtain
analyze and use big data and this has to
begin
at the graduate level in universities
and there might be a need for
interdisciplinary training between
education and computer or
data sciences