How Big Data Makes Learning Interesting

The electronic systems of universities store massive amounts of information about the educational process. Information on students’ academic performance and attendance, teachers’ educational and administrative activities, and teaching materials are entire archives. To process, analyze, and use the findings to improve educational processes, Big Data technology is used.

The experienced writers from https://writemyresearchpaper.me/ have prepared an article on the use of Big Data in universities, which includes real-life cases and examples. 

What Big Data can do

In the field of education, there are five types of big data for analysis: 

• personal data;
• student learning data: what e-textbooks, online courses, page views, number of opt-outs;
• instructional use data: what content students choose to prepare for classes; 
• administrative data: attendance, absences due to illness; 
• forecasts of student participation in a particular university activity.

Thanks to the ability to generalize and operate with large amounts of information, Big Data technology helps make the learning process more interesting. 

1. An analysis of teachers’ and students’ experiences will suggest suitable teaching methods. This will be the result of mass practical application, not the experience of one or a few specialists. Analytics data can influence the change in the program of training courses and the creation of such a curriculum, where there will be only those techniques, whose effectiveness has been proven by the results. Only what is interesting and useful to students. 

2. The processed data show what type of student uses what content for learning, what learning materials they are interested in, what materials they refuse, how they take this or that course, where they ask for help. In the future, such analysis will help to select an individual study program for each student and to make personal homework.

3. The technology helps to identify underachieving students and guide them in choosing the direction that best suits their personal qualities and abilities. 

However, it is important to note that technology cannot do everything for us. As students, we still have to do the work and put in the effort to actually write our essays.  This is where essay writing services such as typemyessay.me come in. These services can help us organize our thoughts and present them effectively in essay form, but ultimately it is up to us to provide the substance and unique perspective that will make our essay stand out. 

Motivation to study

In Western educational practice, Big Data technology is used to motivate students to study. 

Nottingham Trent University set up a panel to monitor student results. The monitor displays each student’s academic performance compared to their classmates: attendance, frequency of library use, courses taken. Each student sees their own activity and compares themselves to others to see how involved they are in their studies and university life, where they fall behind or don’t show up enough. If a student is not active for two weeks, the platform signals about it to the course supervisor so that he or she can support the student, if necessary – help. After three years of the system, 72% of freshmen report that student monitoring motivates them to devote more time to their studies.

At Austin Peay State University, Big Data technology recommends which educational course a student should enroll in to match his interests, abilities and curriculum. To do this, the system analyzes the results of previous course, academic performance and information about students with similar interests. The accuracy of recommendations for a suitable course is 90%. 

Carnegie Mellon University’s experience is also intriguing. They created an online platform with training courses that gives students a comprehensive report on their progress. The outcome of its function displayed that near-immediate feedback and the chance to see their own growth and activity in detail speed up the time it took for students to finish taking online courses by double.

Machine learning and Big Data algorithms can be used for more than just giving relevant advice on educational course selection. For example, the University of North Carolina (USA) introduced a multitasking system in early 2020. The system predicts the probability of a student’s correct answer based on his previous behavior in a game-based learning process. This will come in handy for notifying teachers when a student may need additional instruction and facilitating adaptive learning functions during the game itself. For example, changing the storyline, adding hints, etc.

Key Benefits of Information Technology in Education

Benefits for students:

1. Promote independent learning. Students can obtain information without help from parents or teachers.
2. Provides easier access to information.
3. Promote engaging learning for students, which motivates them to learn.
4. Accessibility and greater participation. The advent of online classes opens doors for many students who might not otherwise have been able to participate in educational programs due to time and financial constraints.
5. Preparing students for the future. It is now clear that the future will be digital and technological. Good use of technology will help students collaborate, communicate, compete and find better jobs in the future.
6. Search for research materials. There are still many resources online that a college or university library cannot provide.
7. Acquiring a variety of writing skills – The Internet helps students develop their hypertext skills. The internet also gives cheap essay help through online writing services like https://cheappaperwriting.com/cheap-essay-help/, or free samples and templates found online. 

Benefits for teachers:

1. IT makes it easier to share resources, experiences, and advice.
2. They provide greater flexibility for teachers to complete different tasks at different times.
3. IT promotes the skills, confidence and enthusiasm of teachers, enable them to use different teaching methods.
4. They help teachers in facilitating planning, lesson preparation, and development of instructional materials.
5. Through graphics, drawings, teachers can present material in more interesting and attractive ways.
6. Teachers can assist students in finding quality material.
7. Students learn interactive technology and the teacher helps them to do so. He can diagnose problems and help students find solutions.
8. Using modern technological devices, teachers can expand their knowledge and develop their professional teaching skills.

Conclusion

Big Data technology provides educators with timely information on student progress, helps monitor instruction, modifies curricula to make them more useful and interesting to students, and recommends appropriate courses for students.