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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Is it ethical for marketers to ‘nudge’?
They almost got me. As I reached for the gasoline nozzle, I realized at the very last minute that what I thought was regular gasoline was actually ‘plus,’ a grade that I did not want and that I would have paid a premium for. The reason for my near mistake? The way my options were…
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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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Equestrian Data Science: Ranking Eventers in 2016
Coming up with a list of the top eventers based on their performance in 2016 is hard. The sport of three-day eventing is complex and multi-faceted, and the decisions we make about which factors to consider make a significant difference to the final result of any evaluation process. It is a result of this complexity,…
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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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