Ellucian To Launch New Higher Ed Big Data Model
A
company that provides software and services to
higher education has a patent pending on a new data model it says will
improve
the way data is shared across universities' departments, systems and
applications, providing a more accurate picture of students' progress.
Representatives
from Ellucian said they are working
with 15 higher education institutions to develop the model they claim
will cull
data from multiple platforms and transform it into a comprehensive,
"high-definition"
snapshot that can track progress students make from recruitment to
career
placement. It will act as a "language translation service,"
standardizing data
across as many as 20 databases.
"To
tackle this herculean task, we need to
systematically look to big data to ensure the decisions we make for
students
today will pay off in the form of degree completion and ultimately
career
success," said Ellucian CEO Jeff Ray.
Texas Tech
University is one of the 15
institutions partnering with Ellucian in the project.
"The
amount of data we take in for each student
and prospective student is overwhelming," said Texas Tech CIO Kay
Rhodes. "With
the Ellucian higher education data model, we'll help to create a single
definition
across the entire student lifecycle, giving us a more logical way to
access all
the data we've captured."
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.