This exploratory qualitative study examined how instructional designers use data to make decisions during the instructional design process. Participants included full-time instructional designers (n = 9) who were involved in one or more phases of the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) across different job sectors,…

Assessment data play a crucial role in facilitating informed decision-making. In the context of student affairs professionals aiming to empirically demonstrate the significance of connection, belonging, and wellness within a holistic campus learning environment, the need for formative data is becoming increasingly valuable. The article outlines…

Background: There is growing recognition in the education sector of the critical role empirical data plays in aiding strategic decision-making and supporting personalised learning. The call for increased and more nuanced data-driven decision-making has been primarily addressed by the institutional use of student learning dashboards and learner…

Data- driven decision making DDDM in school settings is often guided and influenced by various sources of data that assist in improving students' outcomes. School principals as the main educational leaders, play a pivotal role in DDDM using the available school data. Semi-structured interviews with 24 school principals were conducted to…

The purpose of this article is to offer both theoretical and practical support to evaluation professionals preparing to facilitate the utilization phase of evaluation with a program or organization team. The Systems Evaluation Protocol for Participatory Data Use (SEPPDU) presented here is rooted in a partnership approach to evaluation and is…

Misleading data visualizations have become a significant issue in our information-rich world due to their negative impact on informed decision-making. Consequently, it is crucial to understand the factors that make viewers vulnerable to misleading data visualizations and to explore effective instructional supports that can help viewers combat the…

Data ethics have emerged as an essential topic in education. Educators must know how to use data effectively and responsibly. This is a complex and systemic issue that involves bringing awareness to all stakeholders, building human capacity, modifying policy, and considering equitable solutions to data use. This article posits an initial framework…

Because data-informed decision-making (DIDM) can help teachers meet diverse learners' needs (van Geel et al., 2016), educator preparation programs (EPPs) must ensure that preservice teachers (PSTs) develop the data literacy skills needed for effective data use. However, little is known about the ways in which EPPs work towards building PSTs' data…

Purpose: School leaders are critical to organizational change and school improvement, particularly through their role in facilitating teacher development. Yet the literature is thin regarding the extent to which various sources of evidence influence school leaders' decisions and regarding conditions that may shape differences in school leader…

Data is ubiquitous and inseparable from the human experience. It constantly informs and transforms interactions, decisions, and understanding. If the total amount of all the data created daily was printed on paper, it would fill a library the size of 110 Libraries of Congress. As a senior research consultant for an education market research and…

While research on Learning Analytics (LA) is plentiful, it often prioritises perspectives on LA systems over the practical ways instructors use data to analyse and refine the learning process per se. The present study addresses this inadequacy by investigating how student data is employed by educators in UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and…

Those asked to make valid decisions with data don't have the technical knowledge to understand nuance around data quality, assessment aims, and statistical limitations that influence how they should interpret the data. This reality is what Greg Thompson, Leslie Rutkowski, and David Rutkowski call the validity paradox. Educators can surmount this…

Adapting interventions based on learner progress is paramount to the effectiveness of interventions in special education and applied behavior analysis. Although there is some research on effective methods for training practitioners to make general instructional decisions (e.g., modify an intervention) based on graphed performance data, research on…

The COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected the quality of data from educational testing programs. These data were previously used for many important purposes ranging from placing students in instructional programs to school accountability. In this article, we draw from the research design literature to point out the limitations inherent in…

This chapter explores the potential of integrating conversational AI tools such as ChatGPT with data visualization (DV) tools such as Power BI in higher education settings. A brief history of chatbots is summarized and challenges and opportunities in higher education are outlined. The highlights include AI's prospects for enhancing data-informed…