Educational data mining has allowed for large improvements in educational outcomes and understanding of educational processes. However, there remains a constant tension between educational data mining advances and protecting student privacy while using educational datasets. Publicly available datasets have facilitated numerous research projects…

Traditional student information systems were designed primarily to collect and manage records of course enrollment and credit hours earned, as well as other data elements needed to monitor each student's progress to graduation. Now, institutions want to monitor and improve the quality and equity of students' learning experiences in courses and the…

Student privacy is a critical area of higher education that deserves greater focus, particularly as student data digitalization increases. Many colleges and universities use data literacy as a way to prepare students, sometimes from different disciplines, to work with others' data postgraduation. Data literacy can be an avenue for helping all…

Since 2010, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association's (SHEEO) Strong Foundations survey has reported on the evolution and value of postsecondary student unit record systems (PSURSs) by illuminating the condition of state postsecondary data in the U.S. In the "Strong Foundations 2023" survey, which was administered from…

As support continues to grow across the country and across the political spectrum for the federal student-level data network (SLDN) proposed in the College Transparency Act (CTA), IHEP partnered with AEM Education Services, with input from RTI International, to further build out a roadmap to support the implementation of the SLDN. "Frameworks…

Libraries remain one of the last places on campus where the purging of usage data is encouraged and "tracking" is a dirty word. While some libraries have demonstrated the usefulness of analytics, opponents bring up issues of privacy and debate the feasibility of student-generated library data for planning and assessment. Using a study…

Big data is an important part of innovation that has recently attracted a lot of interest from academics and practitioners alike. Given the importance of the education industry, there is a growing trend to investigate the role of big data in this field. Much research has been undertaken to date in order to better understand the use of big data in…

Students, families, colleges, and lawmakers need clearer information on postsecondary outcomes to make informed decisions. By leveraging data available at institutions and federal agencies, a nationwide student-level data network (SLDN) would close information gaps that persist in our higher education landscape to answer critical questions about…

This publication describes the methods and procedures used for the 2017-18 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, Administrative Collection (NPSAS:18-AC). It also provides information that will be helpful to analysts in accessing and understanding the restricted-use files containing the NPSAS:18-AC data. NPSAS:18-AC includes cross-sectional,…

Analyses of student data in post-secondary education should be sensitive to the fact that there are many different topics of study. These different areas will interest different kinds of students, and entail different experiences and learning activities. However, it can be challenging to identify the distinct academic themes that students might…

Inclusivity in data reports for undocumented students can be difficult to achieve. By nature of those students' status and livelihood, there is contention among academics and practitioners on whether this is a population that should not be formally tracked or identified, for a variety of reasons. Concerns about tracking arise because of the…

Current college-aged students, broadly referred to in this article as Gen Z, are entering adulthood with the concept of gender as a spectrum rather than a binary. However, student information systems (SISs) in use throughout U.S. higher education institutions were built with retention and collection practices relative to binary sex and identity…

Digital data are transforming higher education (HE) to be more student-focused and metrics-centred. In the UK, capturing detailed data about students has become a government priority, with an emphasis on using student data to measure, compare and assess university performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the governmental and commercial…

Recent technological advances have led to tremendous capacities for collecting, storing and analyzing data being created at an ever-increasing speed from diverse sources. Academic institutions which offer open and distance learning programs, such as the Hellenic Open University, can benefit from big data relating to its students' information and…

In this article, we argue that the contributions of documentation studies can provide a useful framework for analyzing the datafication of students due to emerging learning analytics (LA) practices. Specifically, the concepts of individuals being 'made into' data and how that data is 'considered as' can help to frame vital questions concerning the…