Check out how Business Intelligence can be your greatest ally when it comes to generating teaching data in Distance Education institutions
Digital transformation is here to stay—in every industry and every segment, from logistics to retail to education. If you need more evidence, just look at the exponential growth of Distance Education institutions, especially since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
So it’s no surprise that research from Brazil’s INEP (National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira) has found that, for the first time ever, more students are enrolling in Distance Education courses than traditional ones. This means that the number of students at Distance Education institutes is 378 percent higher than it was ten years ago.
However, growth can lead to new challenges, and facing them head-on requires a solid foundation in data, as well as integrated information systems—and that’s precisely what Business Intelligence in Distance Education comes in.
Business Intelligence in Distance Education: What are the industry’s major challenges?
Check out the greatest challenges faced by Distance Education institutions and how data analysis can help you overcome them.
1. Market prejudice
One of the key issues faced by Distance Education institutions is prejudice against their alumni, both in the labor market and in the education industry. This leads many potential students to enroll in traditional in-person schools or universities, impacting their enrollment numbers and targets.
By implementing BI in their daily management systems, institutions can collect data on student performance, both in tests and exams administered by the schools themselves and in national examinations, such as ENEM and competitive civil service exams. Accessing and publicizing this information in studies may help fight the myths bolstering the prejudice against Distance Education students.
2. Student commitment
One advantage of Distance Education is that you can study at any time, on any day of the week, and this can be challenging for less disciplined students, who can wind up putting classwork on the back burner. To stop that from happening, Business Intelligence allows you to monitor individual student access data, checking how often they participate.
This allows you to send alert to students, reminding them their absence has been noticed, and emphasizing the need to complete their courses properly and in a timely fashion, following the institution’s school calendar.
3. Instructor performance
Another common issue in Distance Education is the lack of instructor performance tracking, which is just as important as measuring student performance. This is how the institution can identify failures and opportunities, and they can make all the difference in the classroom and in educational outcomes.
Here, key indicators include tracking dropout rates for each class, student test scores, student pass rates, number of hours worked for each instructor, and student perception regarding teachers, professors, and other education professionals. Once again, this is the sort of problem we can solve by adding data analysis to an institution’s daily management processes, this time focused on instructors.
Metrics every Distance Education institution should monitor
Regardless of market segment or industry, defining key performance indicators (KPIs) is an excellent way of analyzing our results and comparing them to our goals. At Distance Education institutions, we can look at:
1 – Number of students enrolled
Organizations absolutely have to track this number right from the beginning for each new class or course. It’s the only way to measure their performance in comparison with future results.
If enrollment numbers rise over a given period, this means student retention strategies and service levels are meeting expectations. If they fall, this signals the need for new communications techniques.
2 – Student and instructor performance level
This is a key indicator the success of Distance Education courses, and it needs to be analyzed in minute detail. It gives you insight into student performance and development and, consequently, into the quality of services provided by instructors.
The indicator can be measured based on how classes and individuals score on assessments developed by the institution (or on national tests and examinations, as suggested above). Rising and falling numbers throughout the semester can help identify the need to change learning strategies and methods.
3 – NPS (Net Promoter Score)
NPS consists in subtracting the percentage of detractors (who spontaneously spread the word about the business’s weaknesses) from the percentage of promoters (who also spontaneously talk up your brand). To learn about the three types of customers, you need to conduct a customer satisfaction survey, with answers on a scale from 0 to 10.
Customers can be classified as:
Detractors (score 0-6): Those that claim that their lives have turned for the worse after purchasing the service. In addition to never doing business with the institution again, they badmouth it in public;
Neutrals (score 7-8): Those that purchase services only when strictly necessary. They have no brand loyalty and are not fans of the institution;
Promoters (score 9-10): Those that claim that after starting their relationship with the company or purchasing the service, their lives have improved. They’re loyal, engaged, and provide positive feedback in public.
4 – Engagement level
Alright, the institution has started a new course. But is that enough to keep students engaged and participating in activities? To make sure of that, you need to keep your eyes peeled for student engagement and participation, a critical metric in Distance Education. Student engagement can be measured by analyzing user interactions, such as:
- Time spent on the platform;
- Estimated time for module completion;
- Forum participation;
- Number of times user logged in during the week.
By gathering this information, you’ll learn whether:
- The tools used to teach courses need improvement;
- The platform is or isn’t intuitive enough;
- The interface is or isn’t attractive.
5 – Staff satisfaction level
Students aren’t the only ones who make Distance Education what it is. They also share the credit with a wide array of staff members, such as professors, education experts, administrators, managers, etc. And there’s nothing better for measuring satisfaction levels among the people who actually make the institution work than using People Analytics.
Have you heard about People Analytics? It’s a data collection and analysis process to generate value regarding the people inside an organization. It can be divided in three stages. The first is operational analysis, which helps you understand your prior efforts and the effectiveness of your actions within the institution. Next comes strategic analysis to extract data from various sources and give you a better idea of what to do next.
The third and last stage is transformation analysis, that is, the moment where you leverage data to effect real transformations in your company. However, evolution first requires the whole company to use data and analysis to lean out processes and decision-making—and this is where Business Intelligence makes all the difference.
Implement Business Intelligence in Distance Education today
BlueMetrics is partners with Sisense, one of the world’s leading Data Analytics and Business Intelligence. It can help you implement the best data analysis solution for your educational institution.
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