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Data mining hinges on one reality about life on the Web: what you do there leaves behind a trail of digital breadcrumbs. Companies scoop those up to tailor services, like the matchmaking of eHarmony or the book recommendations of Amazon. Now colleges, eager to get students out the door more efficiently, are awakening to the opportunities of so-called Big Data.

Big data, it seems, is everywhere-even in education. Researchers and developers of online learning systems, intelligent tutoring systems, virtual labs, simulations, games and learning management systems are exploring ways to better understand and use data from learners' activities online to improve teaching and learning.

"A number of experiments are using new kinds of data - such as how many times a student has clicked on an e-textbook or logged in to a class Web page - to measure and guide learning in new ways. That could improve the student experience, but it could also end up dumbing down college, argues Gardner Campbell, director of professional development and innovative initiatives at Virginia Tech."

In this session, we'll briefly describe Indiana University's e-text agreements with five publishers and with Courseload, the provider of the e-text e-reader software. These agreements are resulting in substantial cost savings for students and providing them with new tools for teaching and learning. The IU agreements evolved from two years of pilot testing and in response to substantial input from students, faculty, textbook publishers, and authors. We will also discuss how these agreements can be extended to other institutions through short- and long-term pilot programs, which will allow them to gather valuable data about student and faculty use of e-texts.

"'Learning Analytics' is a term used to describe an emerging professional practice that systematically applies statistics and research methods to large "n" data sets. Analysts look for patterns among the analyzed results that can inform more accountable decision-making."

Does anyone know if UD is a member of WCET (WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies)? I signed up to follow the blog. WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) accelerates the adoption of effective practices and policies, advancing excellence in technology-enhanced teaching and learning in higher education.

"A new service at Purdue, however, called BoilerBackpack, will give students, faculty and staff 100 gigabytes of personal storage, so everyone at Purdue will have a large amount of space to store their digital stuff. And that's just the first step in a new partnership between Purdue and storage giant EMC Corp."

The new company, named Rafter, has also introduced a free online database that provides real-time and historical views on economic trends, adoption patterns, and reviews for more than 11 million textbooks. 

"The QlikView Business Discovery platform delivers true self-service BI that empowers business users and drives innovative decision making."

Business intelligence and learning analytics have a lot in common. Just sharing a product that was mentioned in an EDUCAUSE list.

Collaboration Session at Sakai Conference Los Angeles 2011 on Learning Analytics

Steve Lonn is trying to see if there is interest for the 2012 conference to continue this discussion on learning analytics or in general he is asking "Where are folks in terms of their planning / development / deployment / study of learning analytics utilizing Sakai and/or other data sources?"