Dive Brief:
- Wearable tech like Fitbit that tracks movement and aggregates data about steps, calories burned, and sleep patterns to affect users' health behavior could offer analytics lessons to higher ed when it comes to influencing academic participation.
- Frederick Singer, CEO and founder of Echo360, writes for edSurge that data analytics in higher education has largely been concentrated in analyzing past behavior to predict future behavior and support needs by students.
- Instead, Singer argues colleges and universities could better affect student and faculty behavior by giving them real-time data — with Fitbit, awareness of this data is often enough to prompt positive changes.
Dive Insight:
Echo360 offers in-class communication tools that encourage students and faculty to continue the conversation beyond class time. Faculty have used the tools to gauge student understanding of a lecture topic before moving on in class and have tailored their instruction based on real-time feedback. Students can even answer each other’s questions in class without having to pause the professor.
Importantly, Singer advocates for the analysis of big and “little” data to transform behavior on college campuses. Consumer technology is already there. Higher education institutions simply need to catch on and find the right tools for their populations.