How Teaching Analytics Can Improve Student Success

Data analytics has transformed industries the world over. From healthcare to manufacturing, the potential of assessing metrics, recognizing patterns, and producing actionable insights is limitless in terms of what it can do for business success.

This power is being increasingly recognized by educators as a means not only to prepare the next generation of workers but to give students the skills they need to succeed in every avenue of life. As a result, businesses can prepare for a workforce with the tools and skillsets needed to streamline virtually every process.

Analytics is essential far beyond the framework of business. The up-and-coming analytical generations will prove this as they strive for success and take companies with them. Explore how educators are experiencing benefits from teaching analytics and how these results might change the business world. 

The Importance Of Analytics In More Than Just Business

First, it helps to define exactly what we mean by analytics. 

Analytics is the process of assessing a set of data points to draw out meaningful patterns. As a result, the analytical thinker can apply actionable insights to virtually any problem.

In business, we tend to think of these data points as hard data, metrics tracked over software platforms or through thorough research. However, data is not limited to sales numbers, page visits, or productivity metrics.

Instead, data can be anything ranging from individual behaviors to your own emotional responses to stimuli. By analyzing the data associated with any issue, an analytical thinker can form the same connections and meaningful patterns that allow them to develop insights and action plans. Educators are increasingly becoming aware of the value of this skill not just in their approach to teaching but in their ability to encourage success in students.  

Brent Drake, the chief data officer at Purdue University, has spoken about how the use of data analytics has been an instrumental tool in improving student performance. By tracking data like internet usage in class, class attendance, login times to learning management systems, and discussion board usage, Purdue can give its students the information they need to analyze their behaviors.

“We provide information about the historical relationship between those behaviors and their ultimate success on campus. Then, when they log in, they see their individual data points in relation to other students in their course or in their major or across the university,” said Drake.

By providing a use case for analytics in education, Purdue is enhancing its retention and graduation rates while developing adaptive, data-driven students. This demonstrates how teaching analytics can improve student success and provide the skills necessary to excel in the modern and future workforce.

How Teaching Analytics Prepares A New Generation Of Workers

From as early in their education as high school, offering analytical teaching can make a world of difference in the lives of students. In fact, an awareness of analytics can be instrumental in promoting work preparedness, an area in which only 52% of students feel confident.

A focus on analytics early on gives students the data and framework that can propel them to better decisions in college and beyond. Such an understanding can even lead up-and-coming generations into industries they might not have otherwise considered. 

For example, Gen Z now represents a quarter of the world’s population. As such, the values and skills they want from a career are vital to consider for any business looking to attract top talent. As much as 77% of the Gen Z workforce say that it’s important for an organization’s values to align with their own, meaning they hope they can make a societal difference for the better through their professional career. 

Through analytics, such an impact is possible. Teaching analytics from early on in education can demonstrate for students exactly how vital analytics really are for the impactful careers they seek out. Even a YouTube influencer requires an understanding of analytics to better promote and create content that reaches a broad audience.

With the ability to apply actionable insights to all the world’s problems through data analysis, business analytics careers in industries from agriculture to retail stand to be improved with efficient, sustainable practices. The more young workers and students come to understand the power of analytics, the better prepared they will be to transform business practices for the better. 

 A new workforce, trained in analytics and agile business processes, is coming. Promoting the success of this workforce, however, requires the inclusion of analytical training in educational curriculum in both schools and vocational training programs. No matter what industry you’re in, training workers in analytics and analytical thinking will increase your business’s ability to problem solve, thus giving you more power to survive economic troubles. 

The Potential Of An Analytical Workforce

The potential of entire generations trained in business analytics could revitalize the world’s economy. As more companies come to realize this, we’ll see a push for enhanced analytics education from every corner of the learning sector.

With the rise in popularity of eLearning platforms among businesses — 80% of US business people now use these services to train workers — getting started down an analytics path doesn’t have to be difficult. To begin, encourage the growth of your workforce by expanding analytics knowledge and supporting the teaching of analytics in schools.  

As a result, we can adapt solutions geared towards the future while meeting the needs of rising generations.