“Educational Data Mining is an emerging discipline, concerned with developing methods for exploring the unique and increasingly large-scale data that come from educational settings and using those methods to better understand students, and the settings which they learn in.” (http://www.educationaldata mining.org)

When most people see the word, data mining, they think about technology, and more specifically electronic technology. For example, in a nutshell, Big Data is data mining your shopping habits, internet surfing habits, etc, to present to you products or articles (blogs, news, etc) that would be of interest to you. However, data mining does not have to be electronic, though, it likely makes reviewing and acting on the information a little easier.

The purpose of Educational Data Mining is to improve the experience for the learner. According to a paper on a government educational site (https://tech.ed.gov/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/edm-la-brief.pdf), the data mining analytics are being used to improve the services that education institutions have and increase student grades and retention. By collecting the data, the facility, and educator, has the knowledge of where to adjust the curriculum for the learner(s) to allow them to understand the subject in a clearer fashion.

In a TEDx Talk by Khurram Virani (https://youtu.be/L3eO8gYmWCc) he discusses the purposes of data mining and how he has used it in the school he created. I think many of us can agree to his first three points that

1. Teaching is hard
2. Building a curriculum is harder
3. Improvement is hardest

The third point is where education data mining comes in. An adequate teacher will follow and teach the learners the curriculum. An exceptional teacher will learn about the learners and improve the curriculum, or way of teaching, to help the learner learn the subject. Sometimes, this means stepping outside of the curriculum box. He points out that you can use technology, an excel spreadsheet, or just notes that you’ve written down. He also pointed out that of the three areas that he pulls data, only one involves testing. A better data gathering is from multiple areas of the learner experience.

Let me provide some examples, starting with my own kids. Both my kids have learning disabilities. They are both now in High School and the one is unable to do multiple subjects a day, she just can’t divide her focus in that way. Since she’s been in an online school for her entire high school career, she has received permission from her school to do one subject a day, each day of the week. So, Mondays she does math, Tuesdays she works on Social Studies, and so on. The school recognizing that this is the best way for her to learn, has accommodated this action, and she is able to pass her classes. My other daughter while she is able to read, and read well, she is completely unable to comprehend what she reads. It must be read to her or, she must perform the action, for her to comprehend. So, when it comes to math, I sit down with her and we read the problem together, write it down, and we speak each step out loud and she writes each step down as she is doing it. She typically fully understands the concept by the end of the second try.

So, with those examples, how would, or did, data mining help? In a traditional setting, both fell behind because the educator, in the past, held a firm belief that the curriculum was flawless and didn’t need to be adjusted. However, in the case of these two learners, they needed a little out of the box thinking to bring them to where they could learn the subject well. Had a past educator been observant, they would have noted the struggles and looked for ways to reach the kids.

But, what about learners that are adults and in the workplace? From personal experience, it holds true there as well. I’ve been in my current position for 20 years and have trained quite a few people in the aspects of this job and processes as they come up. I’ve learned to watch how my teammates learn and have had to come up with multiple ways that help them learn the new process the best way for them. Some of them just need to read the new process. Others need to see it step by step with pictures, and so on. Through mental Data Mining, I’ve been learning to adapt my training processes to best accommodate my teammates, in an effort to help them learn the processes.

The examples provided are not necessarily technology driven but could be as needed. But to answer the question, is Educational Data Mining worth it? Yes, it is. The purpose of educating it to allow the learner to learn, and understand, and in most cases, be better than they were before the knowledge was provided. If we user Data Mining in the correct way, the learner is better for it.