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How Data Analytics Impacts Students’ Success
Nitin Sharma
August 30, 2023

How Data Analytics Impacts Students’ Success

Data analytics has a long-standing history and has played a significant role across industries for many years. Its utilization and application have evolved alongside advancements, such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. These groundbreaking developments have not only enhanced the capabilities of data science but also made it more potent and readily available than ever before.

The field of education plays a vital role in modern life, and today, thanks to its rapid digitization post-pandemic, data analytics in education is now possible to help drive data-driven decision-making for the betterment of students. Data analytics in education is rapidly growing at a CAGR of 15.3%. Based on this figure, it is poised to reach a valuation of USD 57.14 billion by 2030. 

This blog will explore how data analytics can play a significant role in improving student’s learning outcomes, help educational institutions identify areas of improvement, and discuss a few key points to keep in mind when mining student data. 

Table of Contents:

What Data is Analyzed in the Education Sector?

To understand how data analytics can make a difference in the educational sector, it’s best to understand what kind of data is available to work with. 

  1. Student data: Educational data mining of student data can give valuable information such as the age, gender, and demographics of students, their attendance, course completion percentages, and grades. 
  2. Administrative data: Administrative Data encompasses instructors’ productivity levels, effectiveness, and classroom and resource allocation. 

When used effectively, the combination of the two can arm policymakers, administrators, and educators to make well-informed decisions to enhance education programs.

Also Read: Educational Content Development: Process, Benefits, Challenges & More

How can Data Analytics in Education Improve Learning Outcomes?

Data analytics in education offers many benefits to improve learning outcomes for students and educational institutions. Let’s look at the benefits of each. 

1. Benefits of Data Analytics on Student Data

The major applications of educational data mining of student data are as follows:

  • Real-time evaluation of student performance

Traditional teaching methodologies followed a one size fits all approach to learning as well as assessments. They did not take into account the fact that each classroom has varying skill levels. When evaluations were out, it was time to move on to the next set of courses.

Data analytics can give educators a real-time evaluation of student performance. These insights can then be used to address the learning needs of students who cannot keep up. 

  • Adapative learning approach

Adapting learning is a personalized learning approach that can alter the content and pace and give real-time feedback according to each learner. It is the new norm in education, and its global market size is poised to reach USD 14,114.58 million by 2030. 

Adaptive learning uses AI to analyze student data and closely monitor their progress, identify areas of improvement, and provide tailored interventions to help improve student learning outcomes. As a result, students show increased levels of engagement and enhanced knowledge retention, which in turn help boost student self-confidence. 

  • Identify at-risk students and enable timely intervention

One of the biggest issues that plague higher education today is student attrition. Predictive analytics in education is the solution to this predicament. Educational institutions can use protective data analytics to identify students at risk of dropping out based on their learning progress and assessments.

Data analytics can also go one step further and analyze variables such as financial well-being, engagement, health, and wellness to determine the risk factors for each student. This enables data-driven decision-making to provide personalized feedback, additional tutoring, counseling, and financial aid to at-risk students.

2. Benefits of Data Analytics on Administrative Data

Analysis of administrative data has merits of its own and also plays a critical role in improving students’ overall learning outcomes.

  • Ensure ESSA compliance

ESSA, the Every Student Succeeds Act, is a federal K-12 education law that aims to ensure all children have a fair and equal opportunity to obtain a high-quality education, regardless of their background or circumstances. 

Data analytics can assist educational institutions in meeting the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requirements. Educational institutions can use data analytics to track student learning outcomes, identify and support low-performing schools, report and communicate school performance data, and employ data-driven decision-making to improve the effectiveness of their practices and policies.

  • Monitor and improve educator performance

Educators play a major role in the overall development of students. They can use data analytics to identify areas of improvement and the effectiveness of their teaching methodologies. These insights can enlighten them on how to adapt their teaching style or alter specific learning plans revolving around topics students are struggling with. 

Administrators can also utilize said data to monitor their teaching practices, plan for training sessions, and make better hiring decisions in the future. 

  • Determine the effectiveness of the current curriculum

Data analytics in education can be used to analyze and improve the efficacy of a curriculum by collecting and analyzing various types of data relating to student learning results, engagement, feedback, and satisfaction.

Educators can then use this information to adjust the curriculum to the needs and preferences of individual students, as well as to monitor and assess the impact of any changes or interventions. As a result, data analytics can offer a data-driven and evidence-based approach to curriculum creation and development.

Best Practices for Working with Educational Data

Data Analytics in education can do wonders to improve student learning outcomes. Certain best practices must be followed when dealing with sensitive and personal data.

  • Ensure each student has control over their data: This entails allowing students to choose whether they participate in data collection. Care should also be taken to maintain transparency regarding data utilization and its management.
  • Restrict access to student data: Student data is sensitive information, and limiting access to only those who need it is paramount. Additional protocols should also be implemented to ensure that data is used only for its intended purpose.  
  • Use data ethically and responsibly: Students’ data should solely serve the student’s interests and should never be employed in a manner that could cause them harm. 
  • Be mindful of the possibility of bias within algorithms: Since algorithms are based on training data, any biases present in the data will also manifest themselves within the algorithm. Care should be taken to avoid any biases when performing data analytics on student data.

Summing It Up

Data analytics can be a potent tool for improving student learning outcomes. When used effectively, they can significantly improve all the major pillars that constitute the educational system; the students, the teachers, and the curriculum itself.

To summarize this topic succinctly, data analytics is a key ingredient for educational excellence; it enables students to learn more efficiently, teachers to teach more effectively, and the curriculum to adapt more dynamically.

If you want to elevate your students’ learning experience, look no further than Hurix Digital’s Higher Education Solutions. At Hurix Digital, we can help you design and deliver competency-based education to improve learning outcomes. We also offer instructional design services and videos as a service.

Contact us to know more.