Reflection 3 – Data Literacy

The potential for research to assist educators in enhancing their data literacy is significant. There are many aspects to the question of how well schools help teachers in higher education learn how to use data learning analytics and improve their teaching methods. Big data has been around for a while, and most schools have needed help figuring out what to do with it. People gathered, analyzed, and made sense of the data at one point. In recent years, schools have reduced costs and optimized their operational expenses for educational data mining thanks to improved infrastructure, innovative technologies, and adopting cloud-based services. Digitalized data is everywhere, and colleges and universities aren't exempt from this trend. People are excited about how data-driven practices could make teaching and study more efficient, open, and creative. However, teachers typically do not get professional development training in data literacy and usage to impact or enhance their teaching instruction and materials. Learning analytics and educational data mining are new ways to gather and look at information about students and how they learn. Knowing how data analysis is taught and used is essential to improve teaching in this area.

I hope the research will find evidence-based learning strategies and innovative, evidence-based methods to help instructors be more proficient and effective in assisting students to learn. As I was reviewing and reading articles and preparing the draft literature review of the first two paragraphs, I was excited about how it can take pedagogical best practices to another level. I am also considering comparing the institutional effectiveness of data literacy, learning analytics, and pedagogical practices with one or more case studies. Examining multiple case studies can yield valuable insights into how institutions approach data literacy and instructional techniques. I want to learn colleges' techniques and methods to analyze, test, and improve their programs. More specifically, I like to understand how teachers use data and best practices for teaching in case studies and even dig deeper if instructors integrate cultural relevancy pedagogies into their curriculum to create an inclusive learning environment. I'm just thinking that could be another article. I am currently developing a plan to examine the integration of data literacy into educational curricula, strategies for enhancing teachers' data literacy skills, and ensuring a proper balance between data usage, privacy, and equity. One of my research questions is whether teachers' improved data literacy improves learning outcomes.

I learned recently that some universities may have an institutional effectiveness department and have archives of institutional post-secondary data. If this archival data is available, it will help me tremendously mitigate the timeline utilizing the research's large data sets (secondary data). Using secondary data will help me streamline the data collection process to focus on the research and findings. The data sets may uncover strategies, innovative concepts, gaps, or disparities at UT in Austin, Harvard, Howard University, or an HBCU. Institutions should cultivate a robust understanding of data among educators, enabling them to effectively and discerningly interact with data. Knowing how data analysis is taught and used is essential to improve teaching and make evidence-based decisions. The research has the potential to be intriguing, as it explores research problems and identifies significant correlations relevant to the learning technologies field. It can offer valuable insights to improve pedagogical methods as it recognizes data literacy's importance in higher education. I recently learned about an organization referred by my AGF that works with Institutional Post Secondary Systems (IPEDS). I have confidence that I can complete my dissertation within a year.