Client: Goodman School of Business

Evolllution Editorial Content: Opinion Piece about the

Project: integration of data in educational institutions
Due Date: March 10
Promote the Goodman School of Business as a leader in data
Objective: analytics
Discuss how data affects the institution, while highlighting the
Strategy: launch of the Centre for Business Analytics
The EvoLLLution is an online newspaper out of Toronto
exclusively for and by those who understand higher education
Audience: best.
Word Count 800-1200 words
Assets Image of Professor Ayanso, Image of Goodman School of
required: Business

Big Data: Transcending disciplines in higher education

For higher education to be truly successful, institutions need to consider both what
students want, and what society is going to need from them once they leave a
place where students can align their goals and dreams with all of the opportunities
that are waiting for them after graduation. Guided by macro demographic, industry
and political trends, the only way institutions can truly prepare their students for the
world after graduation is through Big Data.
For any entity wishing to thrive in society or the marketplace today, the most
strategic organizational decisions must be founded in trillions of data points. This is
no different for the higher education institution. Because technology has
accelerated the speed of change, the only way we can predict what types of
programs and education will be relevant is through Big Data. The insights pulled
from Big Data can shape the most fundamental decisions that higher education
institutions must make, concerning enrolment management, faculties, programs
and professors, while also helping to understand student sentiment throughout their
education and beyond. In North America, it is especially important to understand
trends occurring internationally and domestically that will influence future
enrolment, whether political, cultural or other macro forces. Data analysis enables
us to understand where demand is now and where demand will be in the future
workforce, allowing institutions to cater their educational offerings to meet these
needs.
While Big Data serves as an insightful opportunity for institutions, it requires a
culture of change instilled and embraced by leadership that is exceptionally difficult
to foster. Big Data is not about investing in a particular piece of software, or offering
a particular program to students; it is a mentality and a comprehensive plan. It
requires the leaders of the institution to make decisions based on massive amounts
of information that might conflict with other powers or politics. It is a complete
departure from the traditional approach to higher education. There is very little
room to consider personal interest or individual biases when decisions are founded
in empirical evidence.
Higher education institutions are offering more data programs across the country.
But it is only some of the most successful businesses and a few leading institutions
that have the most important aspect of Big Data right, and that is integration.
Corporate leaders are using data analytics across all platforms for strategy and
predictive modelling, while at the same time investing in technology so they can
continuously improve their data integration capabilities and foundational systems.
Companies like Google, Amazon and eBay have integrated data analytics into all of
their business decisions from the highest points, transcending faculty, department
or management level. It is the true driving force behind their reason for existence,
and everything that they offer. Alternatively, most educational institutions today are
driven by values, instinct, experience and tradition, to shape all of the strategies
and decisions that dictate their future.
With all of this in mind, we can expect to see our higher educational institutions in a
constant state of change, evolving to stay aligned with what Big Data is telling us
about students, academics and the workforce. Some of these changes include:
1. Interdisciplinary programs
Interdisciplinary programs will become the norm, such as Business and
Health Care or Business and Computer Science. At the centre of these cross-
disciplinary programs is data analytics. At the Goodman School of Business,
we have launched our Centre for Data Analytics as a catalyst for this type of
learning. This is the hub of our data initiatives; an ecosystem that
incorporates many different areas of study, with the integrated use of data.
Numerous disciplines are active components of the data ecosystem, from
health and sports management to business and social studies. This is an
important departure from training students in silos where their exposure to
broader thinking is very limited.

Students coming out of the Goodman School of Business Centre for Data
Analytics will be marketable in nearly every sector because the exposure to
the multidiscipline ecosystem helps the students develop broader reasoning
skills facilitated through a data-driven lens.

2. A departure from theory

Academic research will favour Big Data over traditional, theory-based
research. What was once the foundation of so many higher education
programs and faculties will soon become irrelevant. What this means is that
instead of surveys, interviews and focus groups as research methods to prove
theories in hypothesis, data analytics will allow us to analyze trillions of data
points through algorithms that lead to completely new insights. The results of
this methodology will be far more comprehensive than those coming out of
 traditional forms of research because of the authenticity of the information as
well as the quantity.

3. Data-driven skill sets

Management skills such as entrepreneurialism, change management and
leadership will be taught less through behaviours such as charismatic
leadership and motivational theories, and more through the creation of a
data-driven decision-making culture. Management talent will become more
sophisticated, relying heavily on the ability to drive insights from numbers.

4. Transparency
What Big Data really means is that the students and the community have
more control, with stronger decision-making power than ever before. This
applies to program offerings, but also funding strategies. Higher education
institutions are no longer functioning within their own silo of academia, but
are real members of the societies in which they operate. As organizational
strategy becomes more embedded in student desires, as well as in insights
driven by their behaviours and sentiments, higher education institutions have
the ability to become the experience and opportunity of their dreams.