In response to the 2017 NMC Horizon report, Mike Sharkey recently observed that analytics had disappeared from the educational technology landscape. After being on the horizon for many years, it seems to have vanished from the report without pomp or lamentation. For those of us tracking the state of analytics according to the New Media…
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Overcoming early analytics challenges at UMBC
In 2011, Long and Siemens famously announced that big data and analytics represented “the most dramatic factor shaping the future of higher education.” Now, five years later, conversations about the use of data and analytics in higher education are more mixed. In 2016, the Campus Computing Project release an annual report that used the language…
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Traversing the Trough of Disillusionment: Where do Analytics Go from Here?
Co-Authored with Mike Sharkey Last month we argued that analytics in higher education has entered a trough of disillusionment. We posited that this is actually a good thing for higher education, because it means bringing attention to the hype itself. It means that we are making progress towards true productivity and student success. We need…
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Eliminating barriers to innovation at scale: Fostering community through a common language
The Latin word communitas refers to a collection of individuals who, motivated by a common goal, come together and act as one. Community is powerful. Common approaches to college and university rankings can sometimes have the unfortunate effect of pitting institutions against each other in a battle for students and prestige. As the U.S. turns its…
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Your stuff doesn’t have value anymore
It has recently become very apparent to me that the value of the things that I own is increasingly elsewhere. Let me provide two examples. Basis Watch Several months ago, Intel announced that it was shutting down all support and service for its Basis line of watches. The announcement came in light of a safety…
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Has Analytics Fallen Into the Trough of Disillusionment?
Co-Authoered with Mike Sharkey In direct contradiction to Betteridge’s Law, we believe the answer is yes. Analytics in higher education is in the trough of disillusionment. The trough of disillusionment refers to a specific stage of Gartner’s Hype Cycle. It is that moment when, after a rapid build up leading to a peak of inflated…
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Climbing out of the Trough of Disillusionment: Making Sense of the Educational Data Hype Cycle
In 2014, I wrote a blog post in which I claimed (along with others) that analytics had reached a ‘peak of inflated expectations.’ Is the use of analytics in higher education now entering what Gartner would call the ‘trough of disillusionment’? In 2011, Long and Siemens famously argued that big data and analytics represented “the…
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