In standard statistical data analysis, the effects of intervention or prevention efforts are evaluated in terms of variable relations. Results from application of regression-type methods suggest whether, overall, intervention is successful. In this article, we propose using configural frequency analysis (CFA) either in tandem with regression-type…

The article positions mixed-method research (MMR) as a principled complementary research method to the traditional quantitative and qualitative research approaches. By situating MMR in an analysis of some of the common research paradigms, the article presents it as a natural choice in order to complement and cater to the increasingly complex needs…

The purpose of this dissertation was to develop and use a platform that facilitates Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) replication research. Replication and the verification of previously published findings is an essential step in the scientific process. Unfortunately, a replication crisis has long plagued scientific research, affecting even the…

Researchers often assess causal effects of educational programs or policies using educational assessment data. This dissertation explores novel methods of estimating causal effects in educational assessment data and is broken into three parts. The first part proposes a regression discontinuity design with an ordinal running variable to assess the…

Learning Analytics (LA) has had a growing interest by academics, researchers, and administrators motivated by the use of data to identify and intervene with students at risk of underperformance or discontinuation. Typically, faculty leadership and advisors use data sources hosted on different institutional databases to advise their students for…

School districts' racial/ethnic and economic compositions are strongly related to average student achievement. Relationships between districts' demographic compositions and average student growth are much weaker, and many believe growth measures are a more accurate indicator of student learning. We seek to understand if the dissemination of growth…

Teacher professional development (PD) that supports the emergence of professional learning communities (PLCs) is effective for teachers' learning and instructional improvement. Our work focuses on supporting the emergence of online PLCs and an emergent issue in this work is how to maintain the quality of teachers' experiences in online PLCs when…

In the fall of 2019, Nebraska Indian Community College [NICC] became the first tribal college to participate in a new data service of the National Student Clearinghouse called the Postsecondary Data Partnership (PDP). A small college with high aspirations for its students, NICC was in the process of building data capacity and adopting data-driven…

Social media can contribute to an inclusive society, but they are also asymmetrical and polarised communication spaces. This requires competent teachers to build critical digital citizenship. The aim of this article is twofold: to present web scraping and text analytics as tools that define teachers' digital competences, and to investigate which…

In this paper log data on e-book usage is used as part of a learning analytics approach to generate user models which describe university students' characteristics in multiple dimensions. E-book usage is logged and analysed to extract information on how users use e-books for academic purposes. Two cases contributing to user modelling are…

Nitrogen- or phosphorus-based fertilizers, used in agriculture, can run off into nearby waterways during periods of heavy rain or high flow and cause harmful blooms (Paerl et al. 2016), low oxygen (Joyce 2000), and decreased biodiversity (Sebens 1994). Studies of the effects wetlands can have on water and habitat quality (Verhoeven and Meuleman…

Extension professionals are increasingly using geographic information system (GIS) technology to develop and inform programs and services. In this article, we use a mapping exercise to demonstrate how the unit of data can be applied and inadvertently misrepresented in GIS mapping. We contrast the use of counts, percentages, and location quotients…

This article addresses school counselor evidence-based accountability practice by summarizing the findings of a hands-on evaluation of readily accessible, free online accountability software that can be used for data collection, management and analysis, and presentations. Using germane school data, four preservice counselors individually rated…

Because pre-academic and social-emotional capabilities at kindergarten entry predict later academic and social success, there has been great concern with the level of "readiness" at kindergarten entry. Many states require a kindergarten readiness assessment (KRA). However, how readiness is defined, who or what entity is doing the…

The new research results on the online- testing method in the Latvian education system for a learning process assessment are presented. Data mining is a very important field in education because it helps to analyse the data gathered in various researches and to implement the changes in the education system according to the learning methods of…