A recent article published by The Economic Times titled- “How EdTech startups are helping teachers perform better” reveals how tech companies use their own algorithms that factor in many of the parameters to produce a comprehensive student analysis. This feedbacks offer teachers to infer comparative analysis of their performance with other teachers.
Similarly, other tech companies are introducing their own products that use different algorithms and concepts of measuring performance and providing teachers meaningful insights. The thus obtained data motivates the teachers to turn the assimilated student data into actionable insights. By actionable insights here means adopting appropriate measures to reward students according to their performance, correcting their mistakes, providing reachable targets, etc.
Role of EdTech companies in providing actionable insights for teachers
EdTech companies focus on data analytics to make educators’ lives easier. However, as the competition gets fierce, EdTech competes to stand out from the crowd. Recent years have seen a heightened escalation in EdTech companies competing to make actionable data accessible for teachers to provide helpful insights. Actionable data presents a viable solution for teachers to address educational needs.
The teacher fraternity is expected to handle data produced including reading, writing, and understanding along with challenges such as managing steep learning curves of technology tools. It is understandable that not all teachers hold degrees in Information and Technology. As a consequence, few difficulties in turning data into admissible decisions consume time.
The National Cooperative Education Statistics System suggests a complete cycle of education data use. The cycle includes 5 steps: Step-1- Defining Goals, Step-2-Access and gather data Step-3- Analyze and interpret data, Step-4- Act, and Step-5- Evaluation.
During this cycle, EdTech companies provide support till steps 2 & 3. Teacher’s efforts are daunted by various factors and it is at this stage most educators stop carrying the cyclical process any further. EdTech companies must focus on the following four attributes to make the actionable insights for teachers more meaningful.
Under one roof solutions- student data can be retrieved from various sources in the institution and in different forms. These forms can be student participation in cultural activities, behavioral patterns in inside and outside classrooms, credit scores in tests, attendance final assessments, etc. Teachers cannot possibly track all students together. For instance- an English professor cannot gather student achievement results in other academic subjects. EdTech companies should idealize one roof data input for affordable analysis.
Communicability- Represented data should be easy to understand with a simple operating interface. When designing visualizations, Edtech companies must avoid complex graphs and charts for straight operations. Complexities in understanding the data might lead to miscommunication gaps in the communications channel and become barriers in actionable insights for teachers.
Audience recognition- EdTech companies should mind that schools, universities, and institutions are a combination of heterogeneously formed unique groups: teachers, students from various backgrounds, subject experts, counselors, administrators, principals, sports, music centers.
EdTech companies should consider these strands to design products for a better insight into the pace of other classes. This facilitates thorough data researching to understand student needs and question the variables for actionable insights. For example, which class has lagged behind the rest of the groups.
Easy to transfer
After careful analytics, teachers are required to collaborate the scattered data into a single unit and share their present findings with the group leaders such as principals, headmasters, coordinators, and vice-principal to record their performance. For these purposes, teachers must be able to extract these data analytics through USB, pen drives, share screens, etc. There should be sufficient options to port the data to turn the insights into actionable data which means as forms of guidelines for the smooth operation of the institution.
EdTech companies have access to thousands of institutions that are engaged in constant efforts to help their teachers make learning meaningful for students. EdTech companies should adopt approaches to provide goal-oriented actionable insights to teachers to create successful education platforms.
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