Data Mining and Analytics are the latest trends in the eLearning industry – and rightly so! Our online lives leave huge digital footprints – everything from our likes and clicks to our hobbies and shopping choices are logged and stored somewhere. And recently eLearning companies have also started collecting and analyzing our learning behaviour to make the entire process of education more personalized and smooth.
How Is Data Being Used In eLearning?
Everything you do about your selected course and on your eLearning platform is stored, and the latest artificial Intelligence technology is used to create algorithms that analyze the data on certain predefined parameters. The source of data is pretty vast and can include social media, discussion forums, how you behave on the LMS platform, emails, polls, and tests – all these are mapped and digital learning companies then use this data to generate help guides, personalized content, predict new learning schedules and so on.
For example, a leading Indian ed-tech firm called Talentedge has created its own platform called SLIQ which functions as a one-stop dashboard that not only manages the entire learning process but also uses advanced machine learning to provide guidance tailored to the learner’s needs. The company also uses a variety of innovative tech tools – facial recognition, chatbots, mood qualifiers etc. – to enhance the entire learning experience and drive classroom engagement.
But What About The Human Angle?
Data is only as good as the person using it. While it is incontestable that data is very valuable in the eLearning sector, it will be wrong to take it at face value – what is needed is the human touch. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy, and the experience and instinct of an educator are essential to making sure data insights are utilized correctly.
The perfect symbiosis of the two – data and experience – is what will create the best eLearning experience and for this, educators have to use data as one of the tools in their teaching arsenal – use it to perfect your teaching, but don’t let it drive the entire process.