At an Educause roundtable discussion Aneesh Chopra, United States Chief Technology Officer, called last week for liberation of education data. After the release of http://data.ed.gov last June, the Federal CTO continues his push for open government as a means for networking and information technologies to benefit education through innovation. He puts it in three main ideas: one, blue button for student transcripts; two, a “reverse RFP” where startups ask universities to liberate student data; and three, a guidance memo to clarify open data requirements for courses. As Chopra adds:
“Imagine if every student could get a downloadable document of his/her assessment, a personalized platform that translates from student performance to market reality. We need personalized platforms for each of our children that can translate into something meaningful. This is the kind of thing that can fuel products and services. Find where the data sits and find out a way to liberate that data.”
Idea 1: Blue Button for student transcripts.
The open government initiative pushes for higher education institutions to release student’s course records and other relevant data that allows students to have access and download them upon demand. The idea of the capability is to provide students with tool that let’s them track their academic path towards a career goal. According to Mr. Chopra the Blue Button initiative has been implemented in Medicare allowing veterans to download their health records. During the roundtable at Educause, institutions like Georgetown University, Montgomery College, and Oakland University volunteered to participate in the Blue Button initiative in Education, according to this article from The Chronicle.
As in “allowing” Spotify, Scribd, Scoville, NYTimes, Klout to “access” my Facebook account and data, there’s potential for startups to come up with innovative solutions that “allows” (upon student’s permission) them to do something with that data. For instance, as I’m back in grad school now I’d love to I sign up for an app that would read my school transcripts and resume and tell me how far I am from becoming a programmer. Or according to my grades, what’s my GPA and how that affects me on a variety of career paths. Or a button that tells me what online resources can I use to improve my grade in Algorithms’ class. Similarly to Facebook, it’s absolutely possible, and prime, to publish data privacy policies with settings students have control at all times.
This College Retention Report published in 2004 (by act.org) identifies non-academic and academic factors affecting student’s decision in dropping college. All four factors pointed out as having “strong” influence are: ACT assessment scores, HSGPA, academic self-confidence and achievement motivation. Would it be helpful for them to have an app that could guide them? How far are you from your dream career? How can you get there? What loans can you apply for to help you get there? It’s something like your personal advisor, a mentor. A dream, yes. A possible dream.
Idea 2: a “reverse RFP” where startups ask universities to liberate student data
In continuing idea one in two, reports that do not carry personal information or individual records could contribute to the innovation of these startups and bringing solutions that can lift enrollment, dual-enrollment, transfers, as well as graduation and retention rates. Can, in one hand, sharing course catalogs, campus news, and other information that are already publicly accessible through institutions’ websites bolster the innovation of technologies, allowing startups like Inigral and Scrible? As a heavy socialnetworking user, and a student always seeking for web resources that help me with my coursework, I can see that start-ups like these bring innovative solutions to leverage higher education institutions’ outreach. Can students consider colleges that make use of socialnetworking channels? Considering it helps building a sense of community integrating incoming students, yes it may. Can applicants and parents be impressed with an institution’s innovative approach of cloud based technologies adoption? Certainly. Has it happened yet in ways it can be measured? Not in concrete numbers. That’s how socialnetworking comes into play. Institutions connecting through Twitter, for instance, could share how their enrollment numbers have been affected by Inigral, for instance. What about surveys students respond during orientation week? Can they measure how technology has influence their decision-making process? Or how they’ve heard about the school such as in a social app that tells them where’s everyone enrolling, admission rates, how are they paying for it? Last weekend, as I was sitting at a cafe an writing a couple of articles, a girl and a man sitting at a table next to me talking about which schools to apply and why. As they were talking, it sounded like she had hired him as a College Admission Consultant. As I eavesdropped, I thought what if all that information she’s asking she could’ve gotten from one single app? For certain professions there exists already but they mostly entail min GPA required, admission fee, admission rates and other superficial data. What about something that includes a social tone to it like Facebook? It’s a possibility. While I should be careful in trying to predict what would happen, I’d just add it could be very interesting.
Idea 3: guidance memo to clarify open data requirements for courses.
My question in this idea is who. Who will design the guidance memo? Is it the DOE? Or the institutions?
