Big data in education: a state of the art, limitations, and future research directions

Abstract

Big data is an essential aspect of innovation which has recently gained major attention from both academics and practitioners. Considering the importance of the education sector, the current tendency is moving towards examining the role of big data in this sector. So far, many studies have been conducted to comprehend the application of big data in different fields for various purposes. However, a comprehensive review is still lacking in big data in education. Thus, this study aims to conduct a systematic review on big data in education in order to explore the trends, classify the research themes, and highlight the limitations and provide possible future directions in the domain. Following a systematic review procedure, 40 primary studies published from 2014 to 2019 were utilized and related information extracted. The findings showed that there is an increase in the number of studies that address big data in education during the last 2 years. It has been found that the current studies covered four main research themes under big data in education, mainly, learner’s behavior and performance, modelling and educational data warehouse, improvement in the educational system, and integration of big data into the curriculum. Most of the big data educational researches have focused on learner’s behavior and performances. Moreover, this study highlights research limitations and portrays the future directions. This study provides a guideline for future studies and highlights new insights and directions for the successful utilization of big data in education.

A Proposed Framework for Big Data Analytics in Higher Education

“…On a higher level, the ability to find meaningful data and turn it into useable information by identifying patterns and deviations from patterns might be said to constitute BD's added value. According to [4], BD is now in a good position to begin tackling some of the major difficulties that HEd is currently experiencing. It could serve as the foundation for HEd to rethink both its financial model and the evidence used to make judgments about educational outcomes [2].…”

“…[34] Stated that countries may take advantage of the numerous BD opportunities that are accessible to them in order to gain value from the huge volumes of data that are generated and, in the long term, aid in their development. BD and analytics in HEd have the potential to be transformative, affecting existing processes of administration, teaching, and learning, as well as contributing to policy outcomes by assisting in the resolution of existing difficulties facing educational institutions [4,35]. The following are some examples of how successful institutions have made use of BD.…”

“…Furthermore, the integration of BD analytics is not an easy process. The lack of skills and expertise in the HEd sector of will pose a challenge in data storage, collection and management of data [4]. Data privacy will be another concern along with the potential ethical concerns such as purpose of data collection and analysis.…”

“…As well as this, it assists in the discovery of patterns and the detection of anomalies across a wide range of data sources. Education is not an exception to the growing demand for BD in a variety of industries [4], which is increasing all the time. Certain parties, on the other hand, are still unwilling to engage with BD as a result of the application's specific constraints.…”

A Comprehensive Framework for Big Data Analytics in Education

“…At present, there has been various works being carried out towards analyzing such education data. Existing studies on big data is found to use sophisticated tools and framework [5][6][7][8]. However, such complex adoption cannot be taken into consideration in real cases.…”