Big Data Analytics to Enhance Student Academic Performance

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of Big Data Analytics in higher education, focusing on its potential to enhance student academic performance. The report begins with an introduction to the increasing significance of Big Data Analytics in various sectors, particularly in higher education. It then provides a comparative analysis of traditional data analytics methods versus Big Data approaches within the educational sector, emphasizing the limitations of traditional methods. The core of the report uses a qualitative research methodology to examine the impact of Big Data on student performance, including surveys, interviews, and analysis of data from various online sources. The report discusses different case studies where Big Data applications can bring changes within the educational sector. The research also addresses the research problems, highlighting the importance of data management and the development of computerized learning modules. The report concludes by emphasizing the benefits of applying Big Data Analytics, such as improving learning outcomes and providing personalized support to students. The report also acknowledges potential limitations and offers insights into the future of education through Big Data.

Running head: BIG DATA ANALYTICS IN HIGHER STUDIES
Big Data Analytics to Improve Student Academic Performance in Higher Studies
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1BIG DATA ANALYTICS IN HIGHER STUDIES
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Comparative Analysis based on the application of Traditional approach and Big Data
Analytics method in the Educational sector:...............................................................................2
Comparative analysis on the chosen method of approach to critically analyze the impact of Big
Data in the Higher Educational Field helping to evaluate the performance of the students:......3
Comparative analysis of different cases where Big Data application can help in bringing in
changes within educational sector:..............................................................................................5
Analysing the research problems:....................................................................................................8
Significance of the research:..........................................................................................................10
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................12
References:....................................................................................................................................14

2BIG DATA ANALYTICS IN HIGHER STUDIES
Introduction:
There has been an increasing significance of the application of Big Data Analytics in
different sectors and of this one of the most researched sectors is in the ground of higher
education. The major purpose of using the Big Data analytics is mainly concerned about the
development of beneficiary information while driving the data that are obtained through the
decision-making process. The idea of Big Data has gained a novel trend in modern world and is
the most researched topics with its application in several fields (Bello-Orgaz, Jung and Camacho
2016). Related to the outdated way of collecting information, the Big Data technology is a more
advanced way by which data can be analyzed further and can be applied to gain more insights on
the future application of the gained data in empowering the future information economy. In
today’s technologically advanced world, Big Data Analytics is gaining a great value day by day
and its different field of research areas are expanding in a rapid way from its different
perspective based on the information industry. This part of the report is hence prepared so as to
provide a brief analysis of the research proposal that is carried out based on the research topic-
“Big Data Analytics to Expand Student Academic Performance in Higher Studies”.
Comparative Analysis based on the application of Traditional approach and Big
Data Analytics method in the Educational sector:
Big Data technology is one the most researched topics as for analysis. It has several
applications in various industries such as IT, healthcare, business sectors and even in educational
sectors. Different research proposals have already been proposed by various researchers about
the potential influence of Big Data Analytics in the area of commercial sectors but few were
considered so as to evaluate its impact in determining the performance in Higher Educations.

3BIG DATA ANALYTICS IN HIGHER STUDIES
Application of Big Data Analytics is an important aspect to solve several issues that are
experienced within the educational sector helping student to learn and develop their
performances within the educational sector. Till now the use of traditional way of data analytics
have been used and is regarded as a highly ineffective way of improving the performance of the
students while making them incapable of retaining the factors that are required within the
educational sector.
In order to find a better approach, towards data analytics, the Big Data Analytics is now
being used widely so as to address the urgent issues that are faced within the educational sector
while helping student to evaluate their performances based on the data collected through the data
analysis. Hence, this part of the study proposal is mainly engrossed on estimating the possible
impact of the Big Data technology on evaluating the academic performance of the students
undertaking higher studies while aiming to provide suitable measures so as to improve the
education system of the contemporary society.
Comparative analysis on the chosen method of approach to critically analyze the
impact of Big Data in the Higher Educational Field helping to evaluate the
performance of the students:
The entire research based on the proposed topic is carried out via qualitative research
methodology. The different factors that are considered while incorporating the Big Data
technology within the higher educational field are hence identified while performing a qualitative
research practice. The qualitative research method is defined as the type of research methodology
is defined as the type of research methodology that is mainly focused on obtaining data from
open end communication sources such as via internet. Qualitative research method is one of a
kind of research method that seeks in understanding the different solutions of a research problem

4BIG DATA ANALYTICS IN HIGHER STUDIES
from gaining information via different perspectives of the population that is involved within the
research.
Qualitative research is very much effective while information about any specific values
or social context. Hence, qualitative research is the best way to analyses the given research
proposal as it is mainly focused on the application of big data analytics on population of students
acquiring hiring education and how the application helps in evaluating their performances within
their academic career. Different surveys along with interviews and recording of available
information are carried out through the entire research process for the proposed topic. Different
information is also gathered based on the ways by which different universities and educational
institutions are gathering information taking help of the Big Data Analytics so as to evaluate
student’s performance via different internet sources.
Based on the research that has been done with the help of the qualitative research
methodology, different kinds of Big Data diagnostic methods have been identified that are
significant enough to identify relevant solution to the identified research questions for the
proposed topic of the research. The method also included gaining of analytical data using the
NLP method. It included the data that were previously collected from the part A of the research
from various analytics that were carried out such as text, Audio, video and social media content
analytics. Thus, applying the qualitative type of methodology, the entire research can be broken
down into two pars one is the impact of Big Data and the other is how the Big Data technology
can be applied to the education system so as to evaluate the performance of the students in their
academic field. The primary set of data that is considered for the entire research proposal was
collected from the LVCSR or from the Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition.
Besides qualitative method, the model simulation software also helped in checking the

5BIG DATA ANALYTICS IN HIGHER STUDIES
estimation and characteristics of the entire process that is carried out for the research. Here in
this respect, the Model simulation software called GNU octave is used so as to simulate the
entire process of data collection for the proposed research topic. Similarly, a detailed research
planning is also developed for the proposed research proposal where the entire research is broken
down into several tasks with their specific duration of starting and ending point.
Based on the discussion over the report, it could be discussed that a comparative research
analysis could be followed within the research based on the perspective of a qualitative research
methodology. This kind of analysis would help in the understanding that different questions
could be framed based on determining whether the chosen subject of research have been able to
meet up to the standards required for gaining a certain output. In this discussion, the primary
topic of research is based on performing qualitative research in the areas of the impact of Big
Data technological impacts made over the educational sector. From the discussion and
understanding of qualitative research, it can be discussed that the new technology could prove to
have a high positive impact over the future of education sector. Based on the qualitative research
approach, the study over the understanding of new software have been properly been understood.
However, the resources that would be used for completing each of the task remained the
same as information was gained mainly from the internet sources. Thus, to summarize the entire
methodology that was followed for the specified research proposal incudes extraction of
information through qualitative approach, summarization of the texts, conducting a survey-based
question answering and finally analyzing the sentiment.

6BIG DATA ANALYTICS IN HIGHER STUDIES
Comparative analysis of different cases where Big Data application can help in
bringing in changes within educational sector:
With the increasing importance of Big Data in various sectors, higher educational sectors
are considered to be one of the most challenged one in this respect as they face different types
financial as well as opportunity-based challenges in terms of technology where the demands of
the students and staffs gets increased day by day based on accountability. As huge amount of
data gets stored within the data base challenges are often faced with the management of data as
organizations are highly incapable to analyses the data and to utilize them within research
process so as to evaluate the students based on their performances. Data management is regarded
as one of the most important aspect towards Big Data Analytics as while evaluating students’
performances, the educational institutions needs to come up with data from various sources such
as real time data, data generated from social media, data generated from different analytical
methods and many more. Thus, all these types of raw as well as semi-structured data needs to be
analyzed while dealing with the evaluation results of the students based on their performances.
Another area that has gained importance now a days in the educational sector is the
growing development of the learning modules via computerized methods that enables students to
assess themselves in a systematic way while making use of real; time data. Thus, data obtained
from this respect also needs to be analyzed so as to evaluate a student’s academic performances
and needs to have a highly advanced data analytic software that would help in analyzing the data
and provide immediate response to the student as well as to the teacher evaluating individuals’
academic performances. Thus, it is very much important to use or rather apply the Big Data
Analytics within the performance evaluation technique so as to allow the mentors to evaluate the

7BIG DATA ANALYTICS IN HIGHER STUDIES
pattern of the learning outcome of the students and evaluating their performances in the chosen
field.
Different scholar argues that there are several factors or performance metrices hat needs
to be considered within the Data analytics metrices so as to evaluate the feedbacks and to help in
improving the learning ability of the student. For this it is thus required to clarify the actual
meaning of good performance and to what parameters does the performance of the students
would depend so as to evaluate each and every one of them unbiasedly. Assessing the learning
outcomes of the student while analyzing the data obtained from different analytical approach
needs to close the gap in between them so as to reach to the desired performance that is required
from a particular student.
According to Shahiri and Husain (2015), applying Data analytics in educational sector
has got several benefits that includes accommodating the entire learning process while ensuring
the availability of the learning responses with suitable support from the mentors that would help
each and every student to improve their performances in the specified field of study. Application
of learning analytics in the educational field will also help in improving the overall functionality
of the teachers while providing them with selective information about their students so that they
can evaluate them based on the data obtained while applying suitable learning approach to
measure their academic advancements (Williamson 2016). With the use of Big Data analytics in
the educational field, the way off teaching will earn a new dimension of experience where
evaluation can be made of students who needs extra attention or help in the academic curriculum
that will help them in performing better in future.
However, some of the authors stated their view against the use of Big data analytics as
well. Big data analytics use may tend to change the patter of education and the study materials

8BIG DATA ANALYTICS IN HIGHER STUDIES
that are being used by students in higher educational field. As per Sin and Muthu (2015), one of
the sure limitations that will exist in this case is the gradual change in the study approach as well
as the notes and lectures based on studies which will create an impact on the Big Data
technology (Sivarajah et al. 2017). Hence the research paper typically aims at suggesting
analytical way by which Big Data can be used to analyze the data consistently while being
capable of managing the data sets obtained from different resources of different level s of higher
studies.
For any technology, there exists both the positive as well as the negative sides of it which
the paper aimed at describing in a smooth way (Al-Emran, Elsherif and Shaalan 2016). Among
the different methods of learning that are prevalent in higher educational systems, e-learning is
one of them which consists of the semi structured form of data that can be managed easily within
any data management techniques (Daniel 2015). The categorization of the data obtained from
different subjects that are taken up by students based on different labels can also be done using
the Big Data Analytical technique which can further be applied to the NLP technique so as to
evaluate them further for better addressal (Tempelaar, Rienties and Giesbers 2015). The paper
suggested the application of Big Data while interpreting the classified data and making the
overall decision making process significant for the mentors as well as for the students pursing
higher education (Hazelkorn 2015). This type of decision-making technique will help the
students as well as the teachers to evaluate the performance of the pupils more effectively while
identifying the areas that needs to be improved so as to increase the performance rating within
the desired metrices scale to measure performance.

9BIG DATA ANALYTICS IN HIGHER STUDIES
Analysing the research problems:
The research problems that are identified within the entire research paper based on the topic
of- Application of Big Data Analytics so as to Improve Student Academic Performance in
Higher Studies includes-
 What factors are needed to be considered before considering this technology to improve
the academic performance?
 Which uncovered factors can limit the advantages of this technology in the higher
studies?
 How can the data security issue of data of the higher studies maintained?
While applying the qualitative research methodology and following the feedback to the
questionnaires to surveys conducted, the above-mentioned research problems of the study can be
easily evaluated.
Addressing the first research problem:
From the research analysis it is evident that the away by which the Big Data will reshape
the educational field will bring in a great revolutionization in the overall educational space.
While there are several factors that will get affected after the implementation of big data but
there are still some more features that needs to be measured so as to consider the improvement of
performances within the educational sector. Through analysis it has been found that several
factors such as attendance, teacher’s assistance, frequency of contacting with the mentors time
taken by individual to complete a task related to the course and various other factors particularly
serves as the metrices to measure performance of the individuals in the higher educational fields.

10BIG DATA ANALYTICS IN HIGHER STUDIES
It is evident that performances of an individual increases or improves with increased interaction
with the mentors. This will allow the teachers to better understand the students while analysing
their data based on different statistical data and will provide them the opportunity to improve
them performances through better interventions.
Addressing the second research problem:
Although Big data analytics has so many advantages in higher educational field helping
in to evaluate an individual to improve their performances in academic field, still there are some
challenges that may be confronted during the processing of data in Big Data analytical method.
This includes problem with ensuring the smooth flow of data where acquiring the desired data
will stand as a challenging factor as the lectures and notes based on the study materials tends to
differ day by day and hence accessing the secured data through the traditionally integrated
database systems would be difficult for the technology to show cast its effectiveness in this field.
Another limitation that may exist is the lack of trained practitioners. In order to analyse the data
obtained trained individuals or mentors are very much required so that the data gets analysed
appropriately. If not done so then the entire evaluation process may affect the performance of the
student affecting the educational system.
Addressing the third research problem:
One of the most important challenges of Big data application is maintaining the data
security of the data obtained and data analysed. With huge number of students taking up higher
education there comes huge number of data sets containing information of students which needs
to be secured while using them for the analysis purpose. In this case the data security risk can be
avoided while implementing a more advanced security architecture within the data analysis

11BIG DATA ANALYTICS IN HIGHER STUDIES
process that would include secured way of data management and streaming of data while finally
using them for the analysis purpose.
Significance of the research:
As technology is strengthening, higher educational institutions are facing more and more
challenges in the real of managing vast amount of data related to students. Though the higher
education institutions have their access to those data but still they lack behind in properly
analyzing those data so as to evaluate the performance of its students and also to improve their
way of decision-making process. Traditional way of data collection and analysis method has so
far been regarded as one of the most ineffective way of data analysis technique and hence there
is an increase demand of some new technology to replace it (Jin et al. 2015). In relevance to it,
the Big Data Analytics technique has shown its advancement in this field while helping the
higher educational institutions to prosper in their data analysis field while helping them to
evaluate their student’s data more efficiently. As the entire study proposal contracts with the
topic of application of Big Data analytics in the evaluation of act of students in Higher education,
the significance of the entire research lies within transforming the way by higher educational
institutions evaluates their student’s data (Shahiri and Husain 2015). Applying Big Data
analytics in academic field is one of the essential components for future. It will help in
encapsulating the future activities in higher educational centers which helping the entire
administration to research their resources while managing them efficiently. Conducting the
following research will generate an awareness of how the data and several evidences can be
managed effectively with the assistance of Big Data analytics while providing a greater value to
the higher education (Willis, Slade and Prinsloo 2016). Implementing Big data analytics in the
academic field will help in rating the success of the students while identifying the risk with their