Content elements:
› How education is
using data for digital
transformation
› The mission and
business value of data
› Data, adaptability,
and agility
› Agility for data - 6 steps
› How can we use data to
bring adaptability to our
institution?
› In closing
› About the author
The mission and business value
of data
Data can be used by educational institutions to better retain students, foster
diversity, support online and hybrid learning, drive fundraising activities, manage
facilities more sustainably, personalize learning experiences, achieve operating
efficiencies, and advance student outcomes. But institutions have often found
it difficult to use data in these ways because they thought of data solely in the
context of operations and compliance; as a result, they locked it away in siloed
databases that were excellent for operational processing but less suited to open-
ended analysis. Because the mental model was that of operational aspects of
student information, class registration, billing, or course scheduling, data was siloed
into student information systems (SIS), learning management systems (LMS), and
other operational- and compliance-oriented databases. But using data to inform
decision-making and drive automated activity requires a different way of thinking
about it, and ultimately a different way of organizing it and working with it. Data is
no longer about one-off "transactions" like matriculation or course completion
but the subject of analysis and interpretation. Data has value beyond its
operational use.
How can we measure this value, and how can we maximize it?
Each piece of data can be used in any number of analyses that will drive mission or
business results. We can think of data, then, as an asset whose value lies in making
possible the mission results that follow from those analyses. A few examples help
illustrate the possibilities:
A leading Australian university worked with Amazon Web Services (AWS)
partner Versent to plan targeted intervention programs for student support
and retention. They discovered that 16% of the student population was at
risk of dropping out. The intervention programs they designed are expected
to improve student satisfaction by 14% and have the potential of avoiding
revenue losses of up to $189 million.
Oklahoma State University in Oklahoma City (OSU-OKC), a four-year
institution in the United States, used data to benchmark their programs
against those of other universities in their state. By analyzing publicly available
data from 30 of the state's other institutions, they can make faster and better
operational decisions to meet student needs.
BYJU'S, an Indian EdTech provider, analyzes student learning data from more
than 15 million students to personalize their learning journeys and provide
them with customized feedback.
Betha Systems, a Brazilian technology company, works with secretaries of
education in Brazil to reduce the dropout rate. Using AWS, Betha created
a predictive model that is fed with thousands of data points based on 17
variables from the students' profiles. In the first year of piloting the model in
the schools in Bombinhas (a city in the state of Santa Catarina), the schools
were able to reduce student attrition by 20%.
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