Big Data Analysis

        In the digital area we live in, technology is a staple of education. Instructional technology has forever shaped how teachers and students instruct, learn, and assess. Digital assessments now have the power to provide a multitude of data that can drive instruction and impact students learning in meaningful ways. The idea is to use data and analysis at the root of creating a successful educational journey to meet each student's needs.  When we can extract meaning from data, it empowers us to make better decisions. And we’re living in a time when we have more data than ever at our fingertips. The data can then be utilized and tailored to the individual learning needs of each student.

Big Data

Through big data analysis, educators can identify areas where students struggle or thrive. They can better understand the individual needs of students, and develop strategies for personalized learning. Big data has become a much-used phrase in public discourse, optimistically as well as controversially. In more optimistic moments, big data heralds “a revolution that will transform how we live, work, and think” (Mayer-Schönberger & Cukier, 2013). There is a mix of feelings bt educators and schools when it comes to big data. On the one hand, it is claimed that big data promises teachers and learners a new era of personalized instruction, responsive formative assessment, actively engaged pedagogy, and collaborative learning (Cope  & Kalantzis, 2016).  On the other hand, some worry about certain issues like students' privacy, pedagogy, and test-driven teaching. Like many things, data can have its good and bad sides with an array of benefits and possible downsides. 

Computer-Based Text Analysis

One method of collecting and analyzing digital assessment, specifically an online writing test, is computer-based text analysis. Computer-assisted text analysis or text analysis for short, is the use of computers as an aide in the interpretation of electronic texts. Automated assessment applications have achieved better than human reliability and other methods of assisting assessment have opened up additional venues for utilization in the classroom and beyond. However, a lack of understanding of the differences between the different types of applications and their limitations has made selecting the appropriate application a difficult task (Aken, 2017). It is the process of using computer systems to read and understand human-written text for insights. Text analysis software can independently classify, sort, and extract information from text to identify patterns and relationships. Textual analysis techniques in education have been successfully applied to analyze students' answers and make better judgments on their performance. This can act as a crucial factor in a student's educational journey because it is used to critically analyze their abilities. 

Food for thought ...

References 

Aken, A. (2017).  An Evaluation of Assessment-Oriented Computer-Based Text Analysis Paradigms. Higher Education Research. Vol. 2, No. 4, 2017, pp. 111-116. doi: 10.11648/j.her.20170204.12

Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2016). Big Data Comes to School. AERA Open, 2(2), 233285841664190. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858416641907

Mayer-Schönberger, V., & Cukier, K. (2013). Big data: A Revolution that will transform how we live, work, and think. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.