The Hastings Effect: Netflix Big Data Approach Is Transforming Education

THE HASTINGS EFFECT

by Dave Feinleib

Thought Leader (ART+DATA) Institute

THE HASTINGS EFFECT

by Dave Feinleib

Thought Leader (ART+DATA) Institute

Netflix is known for its personalized recommendations. By analyzing data on what you and other people have watched, they know what movie to recommend to you next. Customers are happy because they get suggestions for movies they like. Netflix is happy because you’re more likely to watch another movie, according to Mohammad Sabah, who spoke at the Hadoop Summit. Now that same approach is changing how colleges educate. By recommending courses and majors to students based on data, colleges and universities are increasing graduation rates.

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Better Data = Better course selection

“Only 31 percent of students at public colleges get their bachelor’s degree within four years, and 56 percent graduate within six years,” according to a New York Times article. The article details how universities like Arizona State, which has some 72,000 students, are using Big Data not just to make recommendations on majors but to adjust course content as well. Personalized recommendations on majors and dynamically changing coursework means fewer dropouts.

Open source platforms offer a new future for education

Companies like Ellucian, Knewton, and others, in addition to the wide availability of open source and cloud-based analytics capabilities, are making this possible. Such applications are a great example of Big Data Apps, which are transforming entire sectors like education.

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