There’s big talk these days about “big data” in education—looking for patterns of behavior as students click through online classrooms and using the insights to improve instruction. One start-up company that manages online discussion forums for thousands of courses recently performed its first major analysis of behavioral trends among students, and found what its leaders say amounts to advice for instructors.
The company, Piazza, shared the analysis with The Chronicle, without identifying any of the professors or students involved. The data set included online interactions among students and professors in 3,600 courses at 545 colleges and universities over a period of 18 months.
To read the original article: What a Tech Start-Up's Data Say About What Works in Classroom Forums - Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education
