So there’s quite a bit going around about Big Data these days.  We talk about it like a very important noun.  We anticipate getting lots and lots of actionable data that we can then put immediately into practice using as predictive analytics or as a way to intervene with a student as soon as they start to go south.  Here’s a real-life scenario that happened in my office.  A colleague had returned from a conference with some vendor swag.  One of these little chachkies was a pin that said “Got Big Data.”

Sasha:  (Holding the pin up to colleague)  I don’t know, got big data.
Colleague:  Oh we have it – we just don’t use it.
True story.  Then I tweeted the exchange.  Then I thought better of it and deleted my post.  No one likes a publicly smarmy employee.

So what is Big Data?  Why do we care?  Well, we should.  Not because it’s being used in such a crackerjack fashion now, but it will improve and be an integral part of the higher education landscape moving forward.  This great article from Inside Higher Ed shares what we can learn from Big Data:  http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-beta/learning-insights-big-data#sthash.DgmzSufG.dpbs

The great infographic below comes to us by way of datascience@berkeley (http://datascience.berkeley.edu/wef-online-education-infographic/. UC Berkeley has a new Master of Information and Data Science program.