As the drive to move from traditional face-to-face classroom learning to e-learning is ever in demand, the knowledge corpus exposed to students can be overwhelming because there is a need to automate certain functions of the e-learning framework. One of these functions is the course recommendation feature. Course recommendations help students save…

Data-driven decision making, popularized in the 1980s and 1990s, is evolving into a vastly more sophisticated concept known as big data that relies on software approaches generally referred to as analytics. Big data and analytics for instructional applications are in their infancy and will take a few years to mature, although their presence is…

The authors describe the University of Central Florida's top-down/bottom-up action analytics approach to using data to inform decision-making at the University of Central Florida. The top-down approach utilizes information about programs, modalities, and college implementation of Web initiatives. The bottom-up approach continuously monitors…

Web-based collaboration tools and groupware are uniquely qualified to address the emerging business opportunities heretofore hindered by location barriers, constraints of time, and expensive travel costs. Global business enterprises are implementing online collaboration software to augment their face-to-face meetings and group decision making in…

Assessing campus needs for educational technologies and support is no small undertaking, so ensuring that one collects information that truly will help decision making requires careful planning. Data collection can be time-consuming and expensive. A well-organized educational technology needs assessment should add value to campus IT resources, not…

These days, "data-driven decision making" is on every school district's buzzword bingo game board. Accountability pressures and lean budgets make translating data into information a major focus of school systems that are trying to improve district outcomes in all areas. As such, data warehousing has become an essential district tool. Historically…

To support schools as they move into the 21st century, the Massachusetts Department of Education is developing improved systems to collect, analyze, and report data, which will ultimately allow districts to make decisions about instructional practices that will better meet students' needs. Many Massachusetts school districts are using these…

This monograph presents a set of emerging theories, along with current practices and recommendations, that focus on the effective management of knowledge in educational settings. It provides a set of simple designs for linking people, processes, and technologies, and discusses how organizations can promote policies and practices that help people…