This is a single article from Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment publication. http://www.cambridgeassessment.org.

uk/research-matters/
© UCLES 2014

not enter early would have performed worse if they had taken two or more Gill, T. (2013). Early entry GCSE candidates: Do they perform to their potential?
GCSEs early. Further research could also estimate the average treatment Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment Publication, 16, 23–40.

effect for the treated in the case of two treatment groups, to see if taking McCaffrey, D.F., Ridgeway, G., & Morral, A.R. (2004). Propensity score estimation
two or more GCSEs early is beneficial to these students or not. with boosted regression for evaluating causal effects in observational studies.
Psychological Methods, 9(4), 403–425.
Finally, it will be interesting to see the impact of GCSE reforms on
the amount of early entry. Students will still be able to sit GCSEs in Year Morgan, S.L., & Harding, D.J. (2006). Matching Estimators of Causal Effects:
Prospects and Pitfalls in Theory and Practice. Sociological Methods & Research,
10, but changes to accountability measures mean that only the result
35(1), 3–60.
from the first sitting of a GCSE will count in performance tables. This is
Ofsted (2013). Schools’ use of early entry to GCSE examinations. Its usage and
likely to lead to a fall in early entry because schools may want to wait
impact. Manchester: Ofsted.
until students are ready to achieve their best possible grade, rather than
Rosenbaum, P.R., & Rubin, D. B. (1983). The central role of the propensity score in
getting them to sit GCSEs early and then re-sit if they underperform.
observational studies for causal effects. Biometrika, 70(1), 41–55.

References

Caliendo, M., & Kopeinig, S. (2008). Some practical guidance for the
implementation of propensity score matching. Journal of Economic Surveys,
22(1), 31–72.

Big data and social media analytics

Vikas Dhawan and Nadir Zanini Research Division

Introduction Big data

‘Big data’ is fast becoming an area of great importance for businesses Technological advances in recent years have led to a significant amount
in many areas, including education. In simple terms it refers to the of data which is now generated in everyday life, such as shopping,
combination of data from various sources and understanding patterns travelling, banking, manufacturing and trading, public utilities, state
in the data which can be used for various purposes such as improving and governance, sports, entertainment, science, education and health.
market intelligence and educational research. Businesses, large and Commercial organisations, research bodies and governments have started
small, are implementing (or planning to implement) big data strategies. to realise the importance of using this data for their growth. As a result,
Apart from market intelligence, it is being applied in diverse areas such the study of big data has gained prominence among scholars in different
as healthcare and other scientific research, complex manufacturing areas of research (Einav & Levin, 2013; Mayer-Schönberger & Cukier,
industries such as aviation and heavy machinery, improving public 2013) as well as generating interest from the non-academic world
utilities and traffic management, oil and gas exploration, telecoms, retail, (BBC, 2013; Lohr, 2012).
banking and insurance, defence and security. The concept of big data encompasses the collection of data, the
In this article we give an introduction to big data and some of its combination of the data collected from various sources, processing it
applications in various fields, including education. We also describe the and using the results so obtained. Specifically, big data is a term used
use of big data for the monitoring of social media (for instance LinkedIn, for large databases requiring complex processing and visualisation which
Facebook and Twitter) for market growth and brand management. Some cannot be efficiently handled by traditional data processing software
training courses in big data offered by various universities are mentioned (Wikipedia, 2014a). According to the McKinsey Global Institute, “Big data
in the article. refers to datasets whose size is beyond the ability of typical database
Applications in the education industry mentioned in this article include software tools to capture, store, manage, and analyze” (Manyika et al.,
the combination of various sources of information about pupils such as 2011). A well-known model (known as 3V’s model) of big data attributed
test records, behaviour patterns, and teacher observations over a period to Gartner Inc. defines it as “Big data is high volume, high velocity, and/
of time for providing more accurate and timely interventions. In addition or high variety information assets that require new forms of processing
to this, we discuss new forms of assessment such as e-assessment and to enable enhanced decision making, insight discovery and process
adaptive testing which will provide new streams of data which could be optimization” (Beyer & Laney, 2012). The term ‘volume’ here indicates
tapped for studying the performance of test takers in more detail and for the complexity of datasets and not necessarily their size. ‘Variety’ refers
monitoring and evaluation of tests. to the different type of structured or unstructured data such as text and

36 | R E S E A R C H m atters : i ssue 1 8 / summe r 2 014

numeric, video and audio and log files. ‘Velocity’ refers to the speed with This gives an idea of how much traffic is likely to flow through
which data can be made available for analysis. Sometimes other V’s such the internet in the coming years, and the investment being made by
as ‘Veracity’ (aiming at data integrity and the ability of the organisation governments (and private organisations) realising the potential impact of
to confidently use the data) or ‘Value’ (does new data enable an this data revolution (Wikipedia, 2014a).
organisation to get more value?) are highlighted as well (Swoyer, 2012; According to CompTia (The Computing Technology Industry
Villanova University, 2014). Association), in 2013, 28% of UK companies were using big data, 36%
The rising potential of big data has led to the funding of several new were planning a big data initiative that year and 95% see data as crucial
initiatives by governments in recent years. The European Union has to success over the next two years (Raconteur Media, 2013). They also
recently launched the Big Data Public Private Forum (called the BIG report that there was a 5% annual global growth in IT spending in 2013
Project) to engage with academics, companies and other stakeholders compared to a 40% growth in data. There has been a phenomenal
to formulate a clear strategy for research and innovation in big data. explosion of data available from online usage in recent years. According
The outcomes of the project will be used as input for Horizon2020 – to some estimates (IBM, 2013):
an initiative aimed at securing Europe’s global competitiveness l 1.43 billion people worldwide visited a social networking site in 2012;
and creating new growth and jobs in Europe (BIG, 2014; European
l nearly one in eight people worldwide have their own Facebook page;
Commission, 2014). The US Government announced funding of $200
l one million new accounts were added to Twitter every day in 2012;
million for the “Big Data Research and Development Initiative” in 2012
which aims to gain insights from large and complex collections of data l three million new blogs come online every month;
in the fields of science and engineering, national security and teaching l 65% of social media users say they use it to learn more about
and learning (Kalil, 2012). The United States National Security agency brands, products and services.
is constructing a data centre in Utah to handle information they
collect over the internet. There may be some concerns over privacy The amount of data collected in organisations is expected to grow
related to this development because it might result in the collection in the coming years. This could be due to an increase in the efficiency
of personal data of individuals, such as internet access history, private and declining cost of data storage and processing capabilities, the
communications, credit card usage and health records, etc. spread of digital technologies, and volume of data available from internet
The amount of data which is expected to be processed (not stored) at and digital devices and sophistication of algorithms for processing.
the facility in Utah is likely to be in ‘yottabytes’ – the largest unit prefix in A significant amount of this data would be generated online which would
the International System of Units (SI) and which was added in 1991. One require substantial investment in data storage facilities. It has been
yottabyte (prefixed as YB) is equivalent to 1024 bytes. Table 1 gives the data recently reported that Facebook is currently building a data centre in
storage units in use. Gigabyte is still the most commonly used measure for Sweden the size of 11 football fields, along with two others in America,
the capacity of hard disk, however terabyte and petabyte have started to to collect and process their data (Bradbury, 2013).
be used as well. Today a 1-terabyte disk drive (about 2.5 inches wide) can There is a considerable amount of interest in educational organisations
fit within a laptop. It is fascinating to note that, according to one estimate, in exploiting the applications of big data and analytics, which is expected
storing a yottabyte on terabyte sized drives would require a million city to rise in the near future. However, in order to make the most of big data,
block size data-centres, as big as the US states of Delaware and Rhode organisations should be clear about what exactly they want to investigate
Island (Wikipedia 2014c; 2014d; Diaz, 2010). and how they plan to use the information. We believe that businesses
need to consider the following questions while implementing big data/
social media policies:
Table 1: Data storage units (Wikipedia, 2014d). 1. Are we future ready?
2 Is it hype or necessity?
Metric prefixes (multiples of bytes)
3. Are there any simpler and/or more economical ways of getting
Decimal Binary similar results?
———————————— ———————————————————–
Value Metric Value JEDEC1 IEC2 4. Is it better to develop in-house capability or hire external resource?
5. Would our customers/stakeholders be comfortable with such
1000 kB Kilobyte 1024 KB Kilobyte KiB kikibyte
monitoring?
10002 MB megabyte 10242 MB Megabyte MiB mebibyte
6. Do we need to disseminate our policy to the stakeholders? If yes,
10003 GB gigabyte 10243 GB Gigabyte GiB gibibyte have we done that?
7. What is the state of preparedness of our competitors?
10004 TB terabyte 10244 TB Terabyte TiB tebibyte
8. Are we adhering to the data privacy laws?
10005 PB petabyte 10245 PiB pepibyte
9 How much value can be placed on the online behaviour of people?
10006 EB Exabyte 10246 EiB exbibyte
10. Are we also using traditional sources of information (such as
10007 ZB zettabyte 10247 ZiB zebibyte interviews and focus groups) to complement online metrics?
11. Are we also relying on human judgement for interpreting the data
10008 YB yottabyte 10248 YiB yobibyte
(and not only on software-generated results)?

1. Joint Electron Device Engineering Council memory standards 12. Are we working with other departments within the organisation to
2. International Electrotechnical Commission units develop a comprehensive policy?

R ESEAR C H mat t ers : issue 18 / summer 2014 | 37

Applications of big data (www.behaviouralinsights.co.uk) which is jointly owned by the UK

There are many examples of how big data is being used in various fields. Government and Nesta www.nesta.org.uk. This organisation brings

Whilst these are not directly associated with the field of education, they together data from a range of inter-related academic disciplines

give us a picture of the impact of data in our day-to-day lives (Raconteur (Behavioural Economics, Psychology, and Social Anthropology) to

media, 2013). Examples include: understand how individuals make decisions in practice and how they are
likely to respond to options so as to enable the Government to design its
l IBM’s Deep Thunder weather analytics package: helps farmers
policies or interventions accordingly.
know when to irrigate their crops;
l SAS: uses big data to identify fraud in the insurance sector;
Applications of big data in education
l British Airways’ Know Me Programme: uses the data collected to
A large amount of data is being generated in schools and higher
get a better insight into personal preferences and buying patterns of
education. Big data in education could be used to:
its frequent fliers;
l understand performance and behaviour patterns of students;
l Transport for Greater Manchester: uses real-time traffic
l keep track of student progress throughout their education, allowing
information to avoid congestion on roads;
timely intervention if any anomalies are noticed;
l Bank of America Merrill Lynch: creates practical and effective
l develop personalised content and instructional methodologies for
solutions for clients based on a more comprehensive and holistic
each student in order to provide remedial help without stigmatising
understanding of their requirements;
or isolating students or embarrassing them in front of their peers;
l East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust: staff given
l estimate how students will perform on standardised tests
access to data to adapt to real-time changes such as re-allocation
(i.e. predictive assessment);
of doctors and nurses between sites based on changes in demand
across sites; l find out which instructional techniques work best for students and to
provide customised teaching (i.e. diagnostic assessment);
l Citi: estimates targeted predictive analytics according to customer
behaviour; l feedback in real-time to help improve student performance;

l Public Health England: creates highly targeted treatments according l conduct adaptive testing;
to how patients respond in real-time through recently announced l merge systems such as learning management and curriculum
national cancer database (the data contains 11 million historical management;
records and 350,000 new entries added every year); l integrate ICT devices used by students in classrooms and homes
l Ocado: delivers groceries purchased online. It keeps track of vehicle leading to a large amount of useful information about them under
location, driving styles and petrol consumption while delivering initiatives such as bring your own device (BYOD);
1.1 million items every week; l combine various data sources such as course records, student
l Royal Dutch Shell: spends £650 million a year compiling big data attendance, class rosters, programme participation, degree
across a number of sites so that they can more accurately predict attainment, discipline records and test scores which could enable
presence of hydrocarbon resources at a site – this may help save more efficient management of student recruitment, administration
them drilling costs (which for a single offshore drilling can cost up to and academic research; (Hoit, 2012; West, 2012).
£65 million);
In addition to the applications mentioned above, awarding bodies
l Accenture: collects social media analytics for the purposes of
could use data for more comprehensive research in areas such as test
sentiment analysis by using data and text mining, semantics,
development and marker monitoring. They could also make use of
linguistics and syntax processing;
large amounts of data which is likely to be generated by the use of
l Facebook: recently started to decode the content of photographs computerised assessment and through other IT-enabled initiatives such
(identifying faces and objects) and video; as computerised, interactive systems for producing questions.
l Apple: granted a patent to collect data on body temperature and
heart rate through audio buds; Educational courses in big data
l Google: tunes algorithms in language processing to be culturally McKinsey reports that by 2018 the United States alone will face a
relevant (for instance differentiating between American and British shortage of up to 190,000 people with analytical expertise and
idioms) and also improving its speech recognition capabilities; 1.5 million managers and analysts with the skills to understand and
l Temetra: collates information on how people use gas and water in make decisions based on the analysis of big data (Manyika et al., 2011).
their homes and businesses, giving them data after every 15 minutes A recent report prepared by e-skills UK3 for SAS suggests that over the
rather than an annual reading; next five-year period the average annual growth rate of demand for big

l Modak Analytics: mined about 18 terabytes of data of a 810 million data professionals in the UK is expected to be about 18% per annum

electorate during the general elections in India held in April to May (compared to 2.5% for IT staff). This would equate to the generation of

2014 on various demographics such as gender, age, and economic approximately 28,000 job opportunities per annum (a total of 132,000)

status for their client, a political party (Kurmanath, 2014). by 2017 (e-skills, 2013).
Various universities in the UK are offering MSc courses in big data/
An interesting application of the use of big data in developing
government policy is the Behavioural Insights Team 3. The Sector Skills Council for Business and Information Technology based in the UK.

38 | R E S E A R C H m atters : i ssue 1 8 / summe r 2 014

analytics/data science/business intelligence/marketing analytics. The big data phenomenon applied to social media is fuelling a new,
These include University College London (UCL), Imperial College, Royal growing area of study known as ‘sentiment analysis’. Its aim is to be
Holloway, Sheffield Hallam University, University of Dundee, Warwick aware of what people say or share in their everyday life. Businesses
University, Aston University and the University of Westminster. mine this information to understand their customers and to improve
Bournemouth University is offering an MSc in Applied Data Analytics in their operations accordingly. Educational organisations could also ‘listen’
partnership with SAS. SAS has also launched the SAS student academy to students and gain further insights into their perceptions. Using
in collaboration with Birmingham City University to tackle the demand students’ activity on social networking websites, sentiment analysis
for big data specialists (Shah, 2012; Orater, 2013). provides a useful tool to gather information about their online behaviour
Internationally, universities offering similar courses are the and, most importantly, their feedback on different aspects of the
National University of Singapore (in collaboration with IBM), George educational system, such as the university admissions process, features of
Washington University, Columbia University, the Big Data Institute qualifications, examinations and their aspirations.
– University of Virginia, University of San Francisco, and New York Organisations could feed this information into developing their
University. Online courses in this field are also being provided by marketing strategies. This could be done in a number of ways, such as
various institutes and MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) providers targeting the countries/regions with lower than expected online activity
such as the Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley from their students, monitoring their examination experiences based on
School of Information, Big Data University, MIT, Coursera and discussions in online forums, understanding what their brand means to
Statistics.com (KDnuggets, 2014). Short term professional courses are students and getting feedback on new products.
being run by the University of Oxford and Harvard. Technology vendors
such as IBM, SAS, SAP and Google are also running various academic
programmes in this field (Nerney, 2013). Tools and metrics
The availability of more sources and forms of online data has also led

Big data and social media to the development of new tools to access information and produce
metrics about visibility of websites. It is possible to gather metrics such
Businesses thrive on understanding their customers to the greatest as countries/cities where website visitors were based, the web browsers
extent possible. The monitoring of people’s online behaviour is they were using, the keywords they had used to search for a website and
therefore becoming important for their success. Organisations the webpages they had visited before and after accessing a particular
are investing in gathering such analytics using big data as a key website. Some such metrics are presented below.
component for monitoring social media activity, particularly on social
networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Website rankings
Social media analytics are the synthesis of the behaviour of internet Websites can be ranked to get an estimate of a website’s popularity
users. The availability of data on consumers’ web browsing, online relative to all other websites over a specified period of time (for instance,
shopping behaviour, customers’ feedback and marketing research six months or one year). The ranks are provided by tools such as
on social networks allow organisations to gain timely and extensive www.ranking.com and www.alexa.com. The lower the rank, the higher
insights into consumers. Therefore, organisations can focus their the popularity of the website (for instance, the rank of Google.com is 1
market intelligence strategies based on different objectives such as followed by Facebook.com and YouTube.com). The ranks could be used by
advertising and product launches; publicity and brand management; organisations to estimate the popularity of their websites in general, as
promoting customer loyalty; providing personalised services to well as in comparison to their competitors. Figure 1 shows a comparison
customers; keeping a tab on market trends and competitors; of the ranks of two websites www.education.gov.uk and www.parliament.
minimising risk; saving cost and business expansion in general. uk from November 2013 to May 2014.

More
popular 40,000

45,000

Less 50,000
popular
55,000
Dec '13 Jan '14 Feb '14 Mar '14 Apr '14 May '14

education.gov.uk www.parliament.uk
th th
Figure 1: Historical traffic trends for the two
Figure 1: Historical traffic trends for the two websites from
websites from 12 November 2013 to 9 May 2014.
th 12th November 2013 to 9th May 2014. Source: www.alexa.com (retrieved 12th May, 2014).
Source: www.alexa.com (accessed 12 May, 2014).

Online traffic analytics

R ESEAR C H mat t ers : issue 18 / summer
Online tools such as Google Analytics and www.alexa.com provide traffic metrics of websites in the
2014 | 39

form of tables and interactive graphs which could be customised by the users. Some tools also
Online traffic analytics Table 2: Web analytics tools

Online tools such as Google Analytics and www.alexa.com provide

Service Description URL
traffic metrics of websites in the form of tables and interactive graphs
which could be customised by the users. Some tools also provide the Google Perhaps the most widely used http://www.google.com/analytics/
Analytics website metrics service. It
data collected in a spreadsheet, which can be used by organisations for
generates detailed metrics about
producing graphs of their own. Some of the metrics provided are: the a website's traffic. It’s easy to use
total number of visits to the website during a particular time period, and is specifically designed for
marketing research.
the number of unique visitors, the total number of webpages viewed,
the average number of webpages viewed in each visit, the average visit AWStats An open source web analytics http://awstats.sourceforge.net/
reporting tool where users are
duration, and the bounce rate which is the percentage of single-page encouraged to contribute to its
visits (i.e. visits in which a user left the website from the first page development.
without continuing to view other pages within the site). Generally the
Amung.us Provides widgets to be included http://whos.amung.us/
lower the bounce rate the better the ability of the website to hold the in the websites which show the
interest of the visitors. A bounce rate of 50% is considered as an average number of live readers viewing a
webpage and the location of
value (Wikipedia, 2014b). All such metrics help organisations to get a current and previous visitors,
more detailed understanding of the visitors to their websites which could in real time.

be used for targeting their products and services. The metrics also allow
WebSTAT Its distinctive trait is the measure http://www.webstat.com/
the identification of those website sections which are popular with the of visitors' behaviour once on the
visitors and those which are not, which in turn could help organisations website. This includes their drivers
and conversions; such as, the
improve their websites. degree to which different landing
pages are associated with online
Social media monitoring purchases.

Organisations are able to be in regular touch with their customers

through social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Table 3: Web traffic estimation tools

YouTube and blogs. Organisations could also interact with their

Service Description URL
employees and other stakeholders (e.g. students, customers, external
consultants) using tools such as Yammer, a private social network Alexa Provides an estimate of the http://www.alexa.com/
that aids collaboration across departments, locations and business percentage of internet users that
may have visited a website during
applications. the last six months and allows
Organisations can also monitor the news and find out who the key comparisons with other websites.

contributors are in online conversations about them. They can measure

Compete Helps to monitor online https://www.compete.com/
the results of their campaigns and monitor potential problems. Training competition and to benchmark
performance against the industry.
providers can use such website monitoring tools to help them to
understand and improve the reach of their training courses. Businesses Website Makes use of data from a number http://websitetrafficspy.com/
can benefit from understanding the interconnections between their trafficspy of external sources to estimate
traffic of a business’ website or of
online users. their competitors.
The use of some of the monitoring tools which offer basic metrics is
free. However, most of the services that can actually help a business can
be very costly ranging from a few hundred to several thousand pounds
per month. It is therefore important for businesses to strategically plan Though this kind of data might not be completely accurate, it can be
their requirements and expectations from online monitoring tools. This extremely useful to get an overall picture for marketing research.
might not be an easy task, because social media is a new and very fast
changing area. In addition, the number of service providers in this area
is growing rapidly and it might be difficult to find a reliable provider. Discussion
The trialling of some tools might be required before selecting the most
appropriate solution. Not all tools would fulfil the requirements of Data is changing our world – and fast. There is no denying this fact.
every organisation. The reports produced by the tools should be easy to What we buy, what we eat, how we communicate, how we are governed,
interpret and worth the cost. how we live are all affected by the use of data. However, it should
be noted that using data in day-to-day life is not a new concept.
Tools for social media monitoring Ancient civilisations designed their calendars by predicting planetary
Some popular tools for monitoring of social media are: Yomego, Ubervu, movements based on data from prior recordings. More recently the
Hootsuite and Vocus. Other tools which social media managers may advancement in digital and telecommunication technologies has led to
find useful are given in Table 2 and 3. Table 2 lists several web analytics an explosion of the amount of data available. The world has never been
reporting tools which can be used for producing insights from users’ own so interconnected. Each person who uses the internet, the telephone,
websites. Data is visually presented using graphs and tables that can be or credit cards leaves a trail of information which can be used by
customised through dashboards. Table 3 provides web-traffic estimation organisations to predict their behaviour and adapt accordingly. The same
services which help gather how much traffic websites are receiving. is true of anyone who pays a utility bill, files a tax return or is registered

40 | R E S E A R C H m atters : i ssue 1 8 / summe r 2 014

with government in some way (electoral registration office, health Diaz, J. (2010). The one hundred trillion dollars hard drive. Retrieved from http://
services, etc.). Big data is also being used in government initiatives as well gizmodo.com/5557676/how-much-money-would-a-yottabyte-hard-drive-
cost
as in all areas of research including health, economics, manufacturing,
defence and security and education. Hoit, D. M. (2013). Big data, big expectations (Centre for Digital Education Report
Q2 2013). Retrieved from http://www.centerdigitaled.com/paper/2013-Q2-
Organisations should plan their big data and social media policies
Special-Report-Big-Data-Big-Expectations.html
carefully and with a long term view in mind. Due to the hype created in
IBM (2013). Social media analytics: Making customer insights actionable. Retrived
this area companies appear be in a rush to collect huge amounts of data,
from http://www-01.ibm.com/software/analytics/solutions/customer-
both text and non-text. However, not all of the data which they collect is
analytics/social-media-analytics
necessarily meaningful or required. In essence, big data means combining
Kalil, T. (2012). Big data is a big deal. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/
data from various sources. There is a risk that accumulating very noisy
blog/2012/03/29/big-data-big-deal
data and making sense of it may require more resources than the returns
KDnuggets (2014). Online education in analytics, big data, data mining, and data
it creates. Organisations also need to be aware of the increasingly high
science. Retrieved from http://www.kdnuggets.com/education/online.html
costs of hiring ‘big data’ scientists. It would therefore be advisable to
Kurmanath, K. V. (2014). Every 11th voter in Uttar Pradesh is a ‘Ram’. The
carry out a cost-benefit analysis at the outset. The risk of data policies
Hindu Business Line. Retrieved from http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/
being unsuccessful can prove to be very costly for an organisation – both news/politics/big-data-throws-up-interesting-trivia-in-general-elections/
to its balance sheet as well as to its brand. article6011219.ece
Schools and educational organisations hold huge amounts of data Lohr, S. (2012, February 11). The age of big data. The New York Times. Retrieved
about students. This may include biographical information (such socio- from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/sunday-review/big-datas-impact-
economic status and ethnicity) and performance history (marks/ in-the-world.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
grades/teacher observations) in summative or diagnostic assessments. Mayer-Schönberger, V. & Cukier, K. (2013). Big data: A revolution that will
Applications such as computer-based assessments allow more sources transform how we live, work, and think. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
of data to be collected and analysed, such as the time spent by test Manyika, J., Chui, M., Brown, B., Bughin, J., Dobbs, R., Roxburgh, C., & Byers, A. H.
takers on each question. This can help in the understanding of student (2011). Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity
performance more comprehensively which could be used at the (McKinsey Global Institute report). Retrieved from http://www.mckinsey.com/
insights/business_technology/big_data_the_next_frontier_for_innovation
classroom level to enable more targeted and timely interventions.
Similarly, online marking of question papers makes available more Nerney, C. (2013). Universities Expanding Big Data Analytics Courses with IBM Aid.
Retrieved from http://data-informed.com/universities-expanding-big-data-
(and certainly more accessible) data to awarding bodies for monitoring
analytics-courses-with-ibm-aid
markers and evaluating their tests. Researchers and businesses may look
Orater (2013). List of masters courses in analytics (UK & Ireland). Retrieved from
forward to some new and innovative applications of data, as well as more
http://www.whatisanalytics.co.uk/jm/index.php/articles/analytics-degrees/24-
refined statistical approaches to analysing complex data. uk-masters-courses

Shah, S. (2012). SAS launches academy to tackle demand for "£52,000 a year"
Acknowledgements
big data specialists. Retrieved from http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/
We would like to thank our colleagues Tom Benton, Nick Raikes, Sylvia Green and news/2230956/sas-launches-academy-to-tackle-demand-for-gbp52-000-a-
Frances Wilson for their advice. year-big-data-specialists

Swoyer, S. (2012). Big data – why the 3Vs just don't make sense. Retrieved from
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