Using Big Data in Collaborative Learning

Big data emerged as a dominant trend for predictive analytics in many areas of industry and commerce. The study aimed to explore whether similar trends and benefits have been observed in the area of collaborative learning. The study looked at the domains in which the collaborative learning was undertaken. The results of the review found that the majority of the studies were undertaken in the Computing and Engineering or Social Science domains, primarily at undergraduate level. The results indicate that the data collection focus is on interaction data to describe the process of the collaboration itself, rather than on the end product of the collaboration. The student interaction data came from various sources, but with a notable concentration on data obtained from discussion forums and virtual learning environment logs. The review highlighted some challenges; the noisy nature of this data and the need for manual pre-processing of textual data currently renders much of it unsuitable for automated ‘big data' analytical approaches.