Today, many educators think about how to adapt and use Big Data in education. Big Data is used to describe large volumes of information. It may be structured and unstructured and is commonly used in the business industry. These are huge masses of certain directions that are compiled to serve definite purposes. As students should make multiple types of research to compose different kinds of assignments, big data is important for them. If one uses this information correctly, it’s possible to organize, find, and use whatever sources are required extremely quickly.
How to implement it in education? It’s a good question, and we have a few answers to that. At first, we recommend reviewing some benefits of big data, stated by an expert team of academic writers from Custom Writings service designed to assist students with writing papers. These are as follows:
- A possibility to find “big” answers. People have a lot of important questions that are hard to answer. Thanks to access to multiple information sources, it became possible to assess everything that was gathered and find the clues.
- Accessibility. With the help of proper software, it’s much easier to collaborate. Thus, teachers can access the necessary data, analyze and discuss it. Afterward, they decide what to offer their students.
- Saving money. The use of the Internet already saves a lot of money, but things may get even better. If we analyze the case in the long run, educators save a lot of budget due to cloud-based systems. The latter gather specified and so to speak luxury information, which is really required.
- Quickness. Everybody knows that Internet searching is very fast. You can redouble the speed if you already have the necessary data. Educators store data on clouds and so, data is accessed even faster.
- Flexible for adaptation. Big data enables more precise determination of goals and their credibility. It’s possible to recognize trends and develop new strategies. Thus, monitoring may show how students’ progress in certain subjects and have a decline in others.
Now, we’d like to move on and review 5 ways of using Big Data in education.
Personalization and Enhancement of Effectiveness
Thanks to the systematized analysis of data, it’s much easier to define the most advantageous to progress. Gathering of information helps teachers and professors to understand the strongest and weakest sides of their students. Some students are good with natural sciences but fail when it comes to mathematics. Educators receive a possibility to analyze heaps of information in general and draw clear conclusions. They recognize a problem and undertake measures to prevent more difficult complications.
Different educational institutions gather all available data about their students. These may be ordinary surveys, results of tests and exams, participation in extracurricular activities, etc. After a careful analysis, it’s easier to adjust the program and make it more personalized. Consequently, it improves the productivity and progress of students.
Decreasing of Dropouts
Another positive aspect is the possibility to prevent a lot of dropouts. The statistics show that many students left their colleges or were ruled out due to various reasons. Thus, in 2016 there were reported 48% or over 2 million dropouts. The main reasons that led to such tendency were related to academics. Many students didn’t actually understand how difficult their specification may be.
With the help of big data, one may prevent this issue. It helps to assess the real capabilities and talents of students. A student who has high grades in physics and mathematics isn’t destined to become a genius engineer. A proper analysis helps to define the best academic specification to avoid a pitfall.
Customization of Curriculum
Big data helps to adjust current learning strategies. Why some of them should be adjusted? Traditional curricula are standardized and rather static. Learning plans are created for all students regardless of their background and main talents. Oftentimes, such approach suppressed the best in many students and didn’t allow advancing.
Thus, gathering and sorting out data becomes very useful. Educators can understand that some plan doesn’t work properly for a certain group of students. Timely adjustments may help students to advance and not to fall behind.
Improved Grading and Scoring
It’s not possible to rely on monotone tests that assess the progress of students. They are standard and out-of-date. One should take into account a lot of other factors that weren’t considered previously. These are critical and analytical thinking, creativity, consistency of results, enthusiasm, and similar factors.
They help to make the picture really big. Even some gaps may be filled with extra force and great wits. Teachers and professors should identify the whole arsenal of their students. Big data guarantees this necessity.
Improved Performance of Students
Of course, big data helps to improve performance of students. Standard tests are not enough to fully understand the gifts of a student. Due to the collecting of information, educators continuously monitor the progress of students. After an in-depth analysis, they can plainly realize the weak and strong sides of everyone.
Thus, some students may have a high level of creativity and critical thinking, but fail to hit high during their exams. It’s quite possible that aren’t able to clearly express their thoughts on paper. Educators recognize such issues and help to solve them.
These 5 ways are crucial, and it’s obvious that they are related to one another. Educators and students shouldn’t review them separately. It’s necessary to combine them and organize into an effective system to show better academic results.
