This study explored the core competencies, technological skills, functional proficiencies, and professional experiences of data scientists at higher education institutions. The specific population of interest was higher education administrators and staff professionals identified as data scientists. This study was informed by the following guiding…

This study conducted a systematic literature review of articles on learning analytics published between 2004 and January 2024. A total of 1,064 articles, identified using the keyword "learning analytic*" in the Scopus database, were analyzed. The study integrated systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis approaches to…

Speculative reform jumps the gun on notions of data-driven reform, requiring administrators to anticipate and act to ensure problems (and the data that would show them) do not materialize. Speculative reforms are incapable of delivering the outcomes they promise, as they are fueled by a fear of the future that their reforms do not extinguish. In…

Data-informed decision-making is no longer an optional or occasional practice, as higher education professionals now routinely respond to calls for accountability by providing data to show how their work impacts students. Institutions are operating with a culture that, at a minimum, includes the use of descriptive and diagnostic analyses to assess…

The need for data-driven decision-making primarily motivates interest in analysing Big Data in higher education. Although there has been considerable research on the value of Big Data in higher education, its application to address critical issues within the sector is still limited. This systematic review, conducted in December 2021 and…

With the development of the information age, the quality of physical education teaching in universities has become an important goal of teaching reform. Improving the quality of physical education and significantly improving students' physical fitness is one of the development goals of higher education. Therefore, this article proposes an…

Determining whether a state's young people are on track for a life of opportunity is a difficult task for governors and state leaders. States can be both awash in data and unable to easily access and use that data to inform policy. State longitudinal data systems that meaningfully connect workforce, higher education, K-12, and early childhood…

As institutions seek to shift into more advanced analytics and data-based decision-support, many institutional research offices face the challenge of meeting the office's current demands while taking on more intricate and specialized work to support decision-making. Given the great need organizations have for information that supports real-time…

Complete College America (CCA) is partnered with the National Student Clearinghouse in promoting the latter's Postsecondary Data Partnership (PDP), a data and reporting tool for tracking student success metrics. The PDP is offered at nominal cost, built for democratized data access, and encompasses transfer data native to Clearinghouse products,…

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…

This quantitative study investigates the predictive power of machine learning (ML) models on degree completion among adult learners in higher education, emphasizing the enhancement of data-driven decision-making (DDDM). By analyzing three ML models - Random Forest, Gradient-Boosting machine (GBM), and CART Decision Tree - within a not-for-profit,…

For decades, colleges and universities have strived to use data to take bold actions and make big decisions. The result is an expanding community of higher education professionals who are leveraging analytics to deliver optimal learning experiences for students. This chapter will describe the evolution of data use in higher education with a focus…

Institutional researchers are acutely aware of the systemic inequities pervasive throughout higher education in the United States because the data that we collect, analyze, visualize, and disseminate quantifies and reveals them. As calls for addressing issues of equity have intensified across campuses, the question of how institutional research…

The development of digital technologies has created a market need for specialists working with the big data that is necessary for making management decisions. This study aims to identify the skills structure of the data analyst profession (DAP) in Russia. The authors used a program code written in Python to examine relevant vacancies extracted…

This article presents the findings of a systematic qualitative analysis of research in the ethics of digital trace data use in learning and education. From the resulting analysis of 77 peer-reviewed studies, we (1) map the characteristics of research by study type, academic community, institutional setting, and national context; (2) identify the…