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Ten Level Taxonomy of Data: Potential Sources of Learner Insights

Part 3 of our 4 part series on big data in learning.

Learning data can be harvested at ten different levels. The included inverted pyramid shows a hierarchy of levels from which data can be harvested. Note that it moves through different categories, but, in general, it describes the move upwards towards big data, as each level does, potentially, include those below.

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Learning Data Is Incompetent: Refocusing Education Measurement

Part 2 of our 4 part series on big data in learning.

Let’s start with a dose of reality: education and training have always coveted data. But in any honest appraisal of this data collection, we have to admit that it is largely the wrong data. There has historically been too much focus on start and end point data. All dull inputs and outputs. What we need to focus on is the cognitive improvement of the learner. Included are five examples of data, mostly superficial, that account for the vast bulk of the data collected in education and training.

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Big Data in Learning: The Emerging Value of Online Learning Datasets

Part 1 of our 4 part series on big data in learning.

Big Data, at all sorts of levels in learning, reveals secrets we never imagined we could discover. It reveals things to you, the user, searcher, buyer, and learner. It also reveals things about you to the seller, ad vendors, tech giants, and educational institutions. Big data is now big business, where megabytes mean megabucks. Given that less than 2% of all information is now non-digital, it is clear where the data mining will unearth its treasure—online. As we do more online, searching, buying, selling, communicating, dating, banking, socializing, and learning, we create more and more data that provides fuel for algorithms that improve with big numbers. The more you feed these algorithms, the more useful they become.

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Coffee Talk with CogBooks: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work When Fostering a Community of Online Learning

Shortly after universities across the country went fully remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CogBooks was fortunate to host a panel during Online Learning Consortium’s virtual Innovate event with partners from Arizona State University regarding the evolution of online learning. The pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we learn and deliver learning experiences, and our partners at ASU have uncovered a number of useful insights about online education in today’s world. The following is pulled from a transcript of our conversation.

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72 Hours to Move Online: A Conversation with Susan Holechek

In March of this year, the sober reality of the COVID-19 pandemic forced colleges across the country to quickly move from on-campus to remote learning. For any college, that would be a significant challenge. But for Arizona State University, the stakes were even higher due to its huge population of over 50,000 students.

Dr. Susan Holechek, a faculty member in ASU’s School of Life Sciences since 2014, found out about the transition during Spring Break and had three days to work with her team to prepare her 450 students for online learning.

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