#41 Improving Learning on a Large Scale Through Data Science with David Niemi - VP Measurement and Evaluation

David Niemi is Vice President of Measurement and Evaluation at Kaplan, Inc., where he oversees efforts to improve the quality of measurement across all education units, evaluate the effectiveness of curricula and instruction, and study the impact of innovative products and strategies. Previously he was Vice President Evaluation and Research, at K12 Inc., where he directed assessment development and validation, evaluation of products and services, and research studies used to drive curriculum development. He has been a co-principal investigator for a number of large-scale assessment research projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation and has collaborated on Department of Defence training studies. As a researcher and professor at UCLA and the University of Missouri, respectively, he has also managed assessment research and development studies in school districts across the U.S. and has trained thousands of teachers and other professionals to design and use assessments more effectively. David's new book is: Learning Analytics in Education: Experts Explain How To Use Data To Understand and Increase Learner Success New technologies, better measures and more data, all related to learning, hold the promise of helping educators increase their students’ success. The relatively new field of learning analytics has developed to help educators understand and use the increasing amounts of evidence from learners’ experiences. How can educators harness access to greater data to improve learning on a large scale? Learning Analytics in Education is a new book written by a broad range of experts who explain their methods, describe examples, and point out new underpinnings for the field. The collected essays show how learning analytics can improve the chances of success for all learners through deeper understanding of the academic, social-emotional, motivational, identity and meta-cognitive context each learner uniquely brings. The collection was edited by four noted educational experts including David Niemi, vice president of measurement and evaluation at Kaplan, Inc., the global educational services company well-known for using advanced learning science and learning engineering methods in its programs and products.   "At Kaplan, we've been invested in using learning science and data analytics for several years to help us design courses and refine instructional methods to help students achieve better outcomes," explains Niemi. "Educators today face accelerating change as education undergoes a fundamental transformation driven by the replacement of traditional analog tools by digital systems and expansive data inputs." He adds, "Understanding how to use these new streams of available data to best guide student learning is the essential point of the book." Now you can support Data Futurology on Patreon!  https://www.patreon.com/datafuturology Thank you to our sponsors: UNSW Master of Data Science Online: studyonline.unsw.edu.au Datasource Services: http://www.datasourceservices.com.au/ or email Will Howard on [email protected] And as always, we appreciate your Reviews, Follows, Likes, Shares and Ratings. Thank you so much for listening. Enjoy the show!