Data is Driving our Lives, as well as our Education System
We often associate data with the professional world and think that it is only useful for experts. However, data usage and interpretation is not limited to any specific industry, it is everywhere! Be it in office, be it in learning institutes or be it in our daily transactions, data is driving our daily lives.
Importance of Data Analytics
The decision-making involved in our daily lives is driven by data analytics. Today, we are dependent upon a plethora of applications and web-based services for our daily transactions and our routine. Now think about it! Google can complete your search before you’ve even typed the third letter, and Netflix predicts which television shows you would like to watch. Facebook suggests that you should add a new friend and a dress that you missed purchasing on an e-commerce website can appear in another search. How do you think all this happening? Each activity, transaction or shopping done online is recorded and mapped and the result of this reflects in the choices that the digital world serves in front of you. Hence, not just in workplaces but even in personal consumption habits, data is predicting our behaviour and our options even if we are unaware of it.
Efficient Learning Through Data Analytics
In the realm of education, thanks to digitization, data analytics has had a pivotal as well as a constructive role to play. Digital services such as E-books, learning management systems, applications, and web-based content are assisting instructors in a powerful manner. This digital landscape allows educators to curate, develop, use, and reuse digital learning objects. One of the useful aspects of data in digital technology is the ability to track usage and predict the potential of each user. Data can be used to provide insight into students’ engagement with the teaching module as well as mapping their patterns of performances. The report thus generated can be useful for teachers and parents alike to gain deep insight into individual student learning needs, thereby facilitating informed intervention. The great thing about data is that it helps each student pursue his/her own unique learning curve.
In Extramarks as well, we have evolved a system where we track the individual progress of each child and generate extensive reports which clearly delineate areas of strength and possible improvement. Extramarks has also developed a robust testing system which is adaptive in nature. This implies that our tests progress in levels of difficulty along with a student’s progress in comprehension of a certain concept. These smart algorithms help prompt users to either go back and learn more rigorously or to jump on to the next level of testing. All of this put together helps enable an independent ecosystem of learning; with data acting as the modern-day mentor.