Present
Analytics - its no longer only for business
Data Analytics was developed by business, but professional sports is a business, and the adoption of analytics by team management has been growing for many years, most famously chronicled in the movie "Moneyball" about the 2002 Oakland Athletics. Called sabremetrics in the baseball world, the use of analytics has grown from quatifying the value of a player to informing in-game decisions made by coaches--as illustrated during game six of the 2020 World Series.
"Analytics" is now a word known to every ten-year old playing baseball. The video to the left is a promotion for an amateur baseball scoring app, which promises to bring all the stats of the "pros" to your child's game.
Whats happening in K-12?
With the latest advances in data collection and learning analytics tools, presently educators are able to key in on individuals or student groups to improve their learning in a much more effective and timely way. There are a variety of learning analytic tools available that allow teachers to monitor student patterns, behaviors, and achievements to identify trends and areas to improve. The overall goal of these learning analytic tools is to improve a student's education experience and performance. Below are three examples of how learning analytics is being used in K-12 today.
Example 1: Monitoring Learner Progress
Current learning analytic tools are taking away the mundane and time consuming job of collecting and analyzing student data from teachers. This frees up teachers to focus on individual student progress and engage in more meaningful teaching. This comes as a relief for many teachers who are overwhelmed with the current challenges in education. For example: From a report like the on the left, teachers can save time collecting data and monitoring their students' progress and then spend more time helping students in those areas of learning with which they struggle.
Visualizations are valuable for efficient evaluation of data. The image on the left shows the results of an in-class Formative quiz. The teacher can watch the results load real-time, as the program machine-grades the quiz. With a quick glance, the teacher can spot those questions to spend class time with discussion (perhaps #4, #6 and #8) and review, or identify specific students to bring in for extra help or other interventions.
Example 2: Intervention
Many schools today are using learning analytic tools to track and monitor their students grades and behaviors. These tools can help identify potential problem areas of each student and allow teachers to take timely action to address them. For example, a student report could identify a sudden drop in student performance that doesn’t follow the students record. This could indicate that perhaps the student is struggling with an issue outside of class and therefore an intervention might be needed. See the student's drop in performance in the report to the left.
Example 3: Improving Classroom Experience
Learning analytic tools today allow teachers to review their lessons, students' engagement, and interests. These tools can create student reports and identify patterns in student behavior opening the doors to improve teacher's lessons. For example: From a report, like the one to the left, teachers can gain insights into student engagement to help identify which class activities are working and which activities should be modified or replaced.
Now let's discuss the variety of learning analytic tools on the market and review some that might meet your needs in education. Click the link below to move to Activity 2.