10 Must-Read Articles About Big Data

Ever heard that once something gets on the internet it stays there forever? And that’s true. Everything we do, leaves tremendous amount of data and the same goes for learning. An amount so tremendous, it’s widely called big data. Can we use this data somehow to improve learning experience? Yes we can, in so many ways! This week we gathered top 10 articles about big data to show you the potential of assesing and analyzing various data for eLearning industry.

1. Big Data in eLearning: The Future of eLearning Industry

First of all we have to understand what exactly is Big Data in terms of the eLearning industry and here is an easy to understand definition. Then we have a short list of  significant benefits that big data offer to eLearning professionals and some of the most important reasons why big data may revolutionize the eLearning industry. 

2. Making use of Big Data in corporate training 

So far Big Data hasn’t change much in corporate trainging. In this article Jan Sramek shows the root causes of this situation and explains clearly how Big Data can impact learning in enterprise, what will this mean for how companies use elearning and what will the learners and course authors get out of this change. This text will help you understand how introducing Big Data can change elearning management.

3. The Big Data Revolution

This article shows how using Big Data can improve eLearning for both learners and trainers. Tobes Kelly points out how easy it is to make eLearning a more personalized experience for learners by peeking into their lives. He briefly shows on examples how you can tailor each module to suit a variety of learners’ needs and increase their motivation using Big Data.

4. 3 Facts about Big Data That Will Impact the Learning Industry

But why do we really need Big Data in e-Learning? A.D. Detrick briefly shows us three main facts about Big Data that Will Impact the Learning Industry. The Information Age is currently changing. The data becomes easier to capture and data storage becomes less expensive, so people are no longer satisfied to just have access to big amounts of information—now they expect that information to be completely personalized.

5. Big Data and Higher Education [Infographic]

Just like in our previous articles, this time we also found an infographic for you. The infographic shows the online landscape of higher education, it’s benefits and inherent barriers, it also lists the key players of online higher education today. The infographic points out how using big data can actually change (and already is changing!) the learning landscape of higher education and how will it reflect on students and the faculty.

6. Big Data: A Quick-Start Guide for Learning Practitioners

Learning-related big data is being laveraged by nearly one-third of organizations with more than 1,000 employees yet it’s still quite difficult to find tips on where to begin with gathering and analyzing big data in eLearning and even more difficult to find examples of success stories. Jenny Dearborn shares both advice from learning leaders and examples of successfull use of big data for learning improvement. 

7. Embracing Big Data in Complex Educational Systems

This is something we really like. Really extensive research on higher education policies, full of practical advice, mostly about planning frameworks developed to give practical guidance to those who are in charge of improving educational systems with learning analytics. If you’re looking for an in depth explanation of what big data can do for your learners, this is something you definitely shouldn’t miss.

8.Harnessing The Power of Big Data

There’s one question about big data that everyone interested in eLearning wants to find the answer for and almost every article we mentioned tries to answer – how can the learning industry benefit from big data? John Ambrose shared this presentation on Skillsoft research in collaboration with IBM that shows how big data can help create more personalized and adaptive learning experience based on real information about each learner.

9. Big Data, Learning Analytics, and the Learners

Big data is a buzzword, not only in the eLearning world but generally in almost every industry that ever gathered and analyzed users’ data. In his article David Hopkins cosiders the difference between eagerly used term big data and not so trendy in last few years term learning analytics. Hopkins also shares his fears related to assesing that much information about the learners by learning companies.

10. Big Data in Education: Big Potential or Big Mistake?

So we already know what Big Data is, how it can influence eLearning, what benefits it can provide and what are the ways of using it. But hey, there are two sides to every coin, right? This article shows both of them. Rich and comprehensive paper explains what potential big data in education has but it also minds the risks of the wrong data handling like privacy issues or dehumanization. Absolutely something worth thinking about.