Comprendiendo el potencial y los desafíos del Big Data en las escuelas y la educación

In recent years, the world has experienced a huge revolution centered around the gathering and application of big data in various fields. This has affected many aspects of our daily life, including government, manufacturing, commerce, health, communication, entertainment, and many more. So far, education has benefited only a little from the big data revolution. In this article, we review the potential of big data in the context of education systems. Such data may include log files drawn from online learning environments, messages on online discussion forums, answers to open-ended questions, grades on various tasks, demographic and administrative information, speech, handwritten notes, illustrations, gestures and movements, neurophysiologic signals, eye movements, and many more. Analyzing this data, it is possible to calculate a wide range of measurements of the learning process and to support various educational stakeholders with informed decision-making. We offer a framework for better understanding of how big data can be used in education. The framework comprises several elements that need to be addressed in this context: defining the data; formulating data-collecting and storage apparatuses; data analysis and the application of analysis products. We further review some key opportunities and some important challenges of using big data in educationEn los últimos años, el mundo ha experimentado una gran revolución centrada en la recopilación y aplicación de big data en varios campos. Esto ha afectado muchos aspectos de nuestra vida diaria, incluidos el gobierno, la manufactura, el comercio, la salud, la comunicación, el entretenimiento y muchos más. Hasta ahora, la educación se ha beneficiado muy poco de la revolución del big data. En este artículo revisamos el potencial de los macrodatos en el contexto de los sistemas educativos. Dichos datos pueden incluir archivos de registro extraídos de entornos de aprendizaje en línea, mensajes en foros de discusión en línea, respuestas a preguntas abiertas, calificaciones en diversas tareas, información demográfica y administrativa, discurso, notas escritas a mano, ilustraciones, gestos y movimientos, señales neurofisiológicas, movimientos oculares y muchos más. Analizando estos datos es posible calcular una amplia gama de mediciones del proceso de aprendizaje y apoyar a diversos interesados educativos con una toma de decisiones informada. Ofrecemos un marco para una mejor comprensión de cómo se puede utilizar el big data en la educación. El marco comprende varios elementos que deben abordarse en este contexto: definición de los datos; formulación de aparatos de recolección y almacenamiento de datos; análisis de datos y aplicación de productos de análisis. Además, revisamos algunas oportunidades clave y algunos desafíos importantes del uso de big data en la educació

Kinetic and dynamic data structures for convex hulls and upper envelopes

AbstractLet S be a set of n moving points in the plane. We present a kinetic and dynamic (randomized) data structure for maintaining the convex hull of S. The structure uses O(n) space, and processes an expected number of O(n2βs+2(n)logn) critical events, each in O(log2n) expected time, including O(n) insertions, deletions, and changes in the flight plans of the points. Here s is the maximum number of times where any specific triple of points can become collinear, βs(q)=λs(q)/q, and λs(q) is the maximum length of Davenport–Schinzel sequences of order s on n symbols. Compared with the previous solution of Basch, Guibas and Hershberger [J. Basch, L.J. Guibas, J. Hershberger, Data structures for mobile data, J. Algorithms 31 (1999) 1–28], our structure uses simpler certificates, uses roughly the same resources, and is also dynamic

An Instrument for Measuring Teachers’ Trust in AI-Based Educational Technology

Evidence from various domains underlines the key role that human factors, and especially, trust, play in the adoption of technology by practitioners. In the case of Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven learning analytics tools, the issue is even more complex due to practitioners’ AI-specific misconceptions, myths, and fears (i.e., mass unemployment and ethical concerns). In recent years, artificial intelligence has been introduced increasingly into K-12 education. However, little research has been conducted on the trust and attitudes of K-12 teachers regarding the use and adoption of AI-based Educational Technology (EdTech). The present study introduces a new instrument to measure teachers’ trust in AI-based EdTech, provides evidence of its internal structure validity, and uses it to portray secondary-level school teachers’ attitudes toward AI. First, we explain the instrument items creation process based on our preliminary research and review of existing tools in other domains. Second, using Exploratory Factor Analysis we analyze the results from 132 teachers’ input. The results reveal eight factors influencing teachers’ trust in adopting AI-based EdTech: Perceived Benefits of AI-based EdTech, AI-based EdTech’s Lack of Human Characteristics, AI-based EdTech’s Perceived Lack of Transparency, Anxieties Related to Using AI-based EdTech, Self-efficacy in Using AI-based EdTech, Required Shift in Pedagogy to Adopt AI-based EdTech, Preferred Means to Increase Trust in AI-based EdTech, and AI-based EdTech vs Human Advice/Recommendation. Finally, we use the instrument to discuss 132 high-school Biology teachers’ responses to the survey items and to what extent they align with the findings from the literature in relevant domains. The contribution of this research is twofold. First, it introduces a reliable instrument to investigate the role of teachers’ trust in AI-based EdTech and the factors influencing it. Second, the findings from the teachers’ survey can guide creators of teacher professional development courses and policymakers on improving teachers’ trust in, and in turn their willingness to adopt, AI-based EdTech in K-12 education

Using Multiple Accounts for Harvesting Solutions in MOOCs

The study presented in this paper deals with copying answers in MOOCs. Our findings show that a significant fraction of the certificate earners in the course that we studied have used what we call harvesting accounts to find correct answers that they later submitted in their main account, the account for which they earned a certificate. In total, ~2.5% of the users who earned a certificate in the course obtained the majority of their points by using this method, and ~10% of them used it to some extent. This paper has two main goals. The first is to define the phenomenon and demonstrate its severity. The second is characterizing key factors within the course that affect it, and suggesting possible remedies that are likely to decrease the amount of cheating. The immediate implication of this study is to MOOCs. However, we believe that the results generalize beyond MOOCs, since this strategy can be used in any learning environments that do not identify all registrants.Madrid (Spain: Region) (eMadrid Grant S2013/ICE-2715)Spain. Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Grant RESET TIN2014-53199-C3-1-R

Researching for better instructional methods using AB experiments in MOOCs: results and challenges

We conducted two AB experiments (treatment vs. control) in a massive open online course. The first experiment evaluates deliberate practice activities (DPAs) for developing problem solving expertise as measured by traditional physics problems. We find that a more interactive drag-and-drop format of DPA generates quicker learning than a multiple choice format but DPAs do not improve performance on solving traditional physics problems more than normal homework practice. The second experiment shows that a different video shooting setting can improve the fluency of the instructor which in turn improves the engagement of the students although it has no significant impact on the learning outcomes. These two cases demonstrate the potential of MOOC AB experiments as an open-ended research tool but also reveal limitations. We discuss the three most important challenges: wide student distribution, “open-book” nature of assessments, and large quantity and variety of data. We suggest possible methods to cope with those.Google (Firm)Massachusetts Institute of Technolog

Understanding the potential and challenges of Big Data in schools and education

In recent years, the world has experienced a huge revolution centered around the gathering and application of big data in various fields. This has affected many aspects of our daily life, including government, manufacturing, commerce, health, communication, entertainment, and many more. So far, the education has only little benefited from the big data revolution. In this manuscript, we review the potential of big data in the context of education systems.  Such data may include log files drawn from online learning environments, messages on online discussion forums, answers to open-ended questions, grades on various tasks, demographic and administrative information, speech, handwritten notes, illustrations, gestures and movements, neurophysiologic signals, eye movements, and many more. Analyzing these data, it is possible to calculate a wide range of measurements of the learning process and to support educational various stakeholders with informed decision-making. We offer a framework for a better understanding of how big data can be used in education. The framework comprises several elements that need to be addressed in this context: Defining the data; formulating data-collecting and storage apparatuses; data analysis and the application of analysis products. We further review some key opportunities and some important challenges of using big data in education.En los últimos años, el mundo ha experimentado una gran revolución centrada en la recopilación y aplicación de Big Data en varios campos. Esto ha afectado muchos aspectos de nuestra vida diaria, incluidos el gobierno, la manufactura, el comercio, la salud, la comunicación, el entretenimiento y muchos más. Hasta ahora, la educación se ha beneficiado muy poco de la revolución del Big Data. En este manuscrito, revisamos el potencial de los grandes datos en el contexto de los sistemas educativos. Dichos datos pueden incluir archivos de registro extraídos de entornos de aprendizaje en línea, mensajes en foros de discusión en línea, respuestas a preguntas abiertas, calificaciones en diversas tareas, información demográfica y administrativa, discurso, notas escritas a mano, ilustraciones, gestos y movimientos, señales neurofisiológicas, ojo movimientos, y muchos más. Al analizar estos datos, es posible calcular una amplia gama de mediciones del proceso de aprendizaje y apoyar a diversos interesados educativos con una toma de decisiones informada. Ofrecemos un marco para una mejor comprensión de cómo se pueden utilizar los grandes datos en la educación. El marco comprende varios elementos que deben abordarse en este contexto: definición de los datos; formulación de aparatos de recolección y almacenamiento de datos; análisis de datos y la aplicación de productos de análisis. Además, revisamos algunas oportunidades clave y algunos desafíos importantes del uso de Big Data en la educación

Using Machine Learning to Detect 'Multiple-Account'Cheating and Analyze the Influence of Student and Problem Features

One of the reported methods of cheating in online environments in the literature is CAMEO (Copying Answers using Multiple Existences Online), where harvesting accounts are used to obtain correct answers that are later submitted in the master account which gives the student credit to obtain a certificate. In previous research, we developed an algorithm to identify and label submissions that were cheated using the CAMEO method; this algorithm relied on the IP of the submissions. In this study, we use this tagged sample of submissions to i) compare the influence of student and problems characteristics on CAMEO and ii) build a random forest classifier that detects submissions as CAMEO without relying on IP, achieving sensitivity and specificity levels of 0.966 and 0.996, respectively. Finally, we analyze the importance of the different features of the model finding that student features are the most important variables towards the correct classification of CAMEO submissions, concluding also that student features have more influence on CAMEO than problem features.The first and second authors want to thank the Madrid Regional Government with grant No. S2013/ICE-2715, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness projects RESET (TIN2014-53199-C3-1-R), the European Erasmus+ projects MOOC Maker (561533-EPP-1-2015-1-ES-EPPKA2- CBHE-JP) and SHEILA (562080-EPP-1-2015-BE-EPPKA3-PIFORWARD) for partially supporting this work. The authors would like to thank Zhongzhou Chen and Christopher Chudzicki for their help conducting our original research about CAMEOThe first and second authors want to thank the Madrid Regional Government with grant No. S2013/ICE-2715, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness projects RESET (TIN2014-53199-C3-1-R), the European Erasmus+ projects MOOC Maker (561533-EPP-1-2015-1-ES-EPPKA2- CBHE-JP) and SHEILA (562080-EPP-1-2015-BE-EPPKA3-PIFORWARD) for partially supporting this work. The authors would like to thank Zhongzhou Chen and Christopher Chudzicki for their help conducting our original research about CAME